Could you explain what is meant by continuous integration in the software development process?

Continuous Integration (CI) is a development practice where code changes are regularly (often several times a day) automatically built, tested, and integrated into a shared branch.

The goal is to quickly identify errors, improve code quality, and accelerate the release of new versions. CI helps avoid integration problems that can occur during long-term development in separate branches.

Example: a developer pushes changes to the repository, the CI system automatically runs the build and tests, and if everything is successful, the changes are considered ready for further use.