How is variable type determined in Kotlin?

In Kotlin, the variable type can be explicitly or implicitly defined. When explicitly defining the type, it is specified after the variable name with a colon :. When implicit, the compiler infers the type from the assigned value.

Example of explicit type definition:

val number: Int = 10
var name: String = "Kotlin"

Example of implicit type inference:

val number = 10       // the compiler understands this as Int
var name = "Kotlin"  // the compiler understands this as String

If a variable is declared without initialization, the type must be explicitly specified.