How is the state of ViewModel preserved when changing screen orientation?

The ViewModel in Android is designed to store and manage UI data in such a way that it survives configuration changes, such as screen rotations. When the screen orientation changes, the Activity or Fragment is destroyed and recreated, but the ViewModel persists and is provided again to the newly created component.

This is achieved because the ViewModel is tied to the lifecycle of the Activity or Fragment through the ViewModelProvider, which holds the ViewModel instance in memory until the associated lifecycle is completely finished (for example, when the Activity is closed).

Therefore, the state of the ViewModel does not need to be explicitly saved during a screen rotation — it is automatically saved and restored by the system, which helps avoid data loss and the need to use methods like onSaveInstanceState to store UI state.