Explain the purpose of the try-catch construct and how it works when handling exceptions in a program.

The try-catch construct in Java is used for exception handling — errors that may occur during program execution.

• The code that might throw an exception is placed inside the try block.
• If an exception occurs, execution is interrupted, and control is transferred to the corresponding catch block, where the error can be handled (e.g., display a message, log it, perform alternative actions).

This allows the program not to terminate abruptly on errors but to react to them properly.

Example:

try {
    int result = 10 / 0; // will throw ArithmeticException
} catch (ArithmeticException e) {
    System.out.println("Division by zero is not possible: " + e.getMessage());
}

In this example, the division by zero exception is caught and handled, preventing the program from crashing.