Explain how the prefix increment operation works and what it returns when executed.

The prefix increment (++i) first increases the value of the variable by 1, then returns the new incremented value.

Example:

int i = 5;
int a = ++i; // i becomes 6, a gets the value 6

Unlike the postfix increment (i++), which returns the old value and then increases the variable, the prefix increment immediately changes the value and returns it.