Could you explain what the class loading mechanism in Java is and how it works?

The class loading mechanism in Java is responsible for dynamically loading classes into memory during program execution. When the JVM encounters a reference to a class that has not yet been loaded, the class loader (ClassLoader) searches for the bytecode file (.class), loads it, and converts it into a Class object.

Main stages:

• Searching and loading the class bytecode.
• Verifying the correctness of the loaded class.
• Linking (resolving references to other classes).
• Initialization (executing static blocks).

Using a custom class loader allows loading classes from non-standard sources.