Can you explain how Gradle processes and executes dependency implementation stages in a project?

Gradle handles dependencies and build phases through a declarative script in Groovy or Kotlin DSL, where configurations and tasks are described. When running Gradle, it performs the following steps:

1. Initialization — loading scripts and defining configurations.
2. Configuration — processing all dependencies specified in the dependencies block, including version resolution and repository downloads.
3. Execution of tasks — running build, test, packaging, etc., tasks that use the resolved dependencies.

Example of defining dependencies in build.gradle:

plugins {
    id 'java'
}

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
    implementation 'org.apache.commons:commons-lang3:3.12.0'
    testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.13.2'
}

Gradle caches dependencies to speed up repeated builds and supports flexible configuration setups, such as implementation, api, compileOnly, and others.