Can you explain the difference between exceptions that require mandatory handling during compilation and exceptions that occur at runtime?

In Java, there are two types of exceptions: checked and unchecked.

• Checked exceptions require mandatory handling during compilation. This means that if a method can throw such an exception, it must be either caught in a try-catch block or declared in the method signature with throws. Example: IOException.

• Unchecked exceptions occur at runtime and do not require mandatory handling by the compiler. These are usually programming errors, such as NullPointerException or ArithmeticException.

Example:

public void readFile() throws IOException {
    // code that may throw IOException
}

public void process() {
    try {
        readFile();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}