What is the purpose of using **kwargs in Python functions?

**kwargs in Python is used to pass an arbitrary number of named arguments to a function. This allows the function to accept additional parameters that are not explicitly defined in its signature.

Example of usage:

def greet(**kwargs):
    if 'name' in kwargs:
        print(f"Hello, {kwargs['name']}!")
    else:
        print("Hello, guest!")

greet(name='Alexey')  # Outputs: Hello, Alexey!
greet()               # Outputs: Hello, guest!

Thus, **kwargs provides flexibility and extensibility to functions.