Tell me about the Maven lifecycle.

The Maven lifecycle is a sequence of phases that are executed for building and managing a project. The main phases of the lifecycle include:

• validate — checks the correctness of the project and its structure.
• compile — compiles the source code.
• test — runs unit tests.
• package — packages the compiled code into a distributable format (e.g., JAR or WAR).
• verify — performs additional checks, such as integration tests.
• install — installs the package into the local Maven repository.
• deploy — copies the package to a remote repository for sharing.

Each phase can contain multiple plugins and goals, which are executed sequentially. When a specific phase is invoked, Maven automatically executes all previous phases in the chain. For example, running mvn package will execute validate, compile, test, and package.

This standardizes the build process and dependency management, ensuring repeatability and automation.