How does collision handling occur in the HashMap data structure?

In the HashMap data structure, collisions occur when two different keys have the same hash code and fall into the same bucket. To handle collisions in Java HashMap, chaining is used:

• Each bucket contains a linked list (or a balanced tree in Java 8 if the list becomes too long).
• When adding an element, if the bucket is already occupied, the new element is added to the linked list of that bucket.
• When searching for a key, the linked list in the corresponding bucket is traversed, comparing keys using the equals() method.

This approach allows efficient handling of collisions and maintains the performance of insert and search operations.