Bit Manipulation
In plain terms
Working directly with the individual bits of data.
Going deeper
Bit manipulation uses operators (AND, OR, XOR, shifts) to perform fast, low-level operations and pack data compactly. It enables clever optimizations and flag handling.
Under the hood
Enables O(1) tricks (checking power-of-two, toggling flags, swapping without temp) and compact bitmask state.
Examples
Bitmasks, permissions flags, low-level optimization, cryptography, embedded code.
Think of it like...
Like flipping individual switches on a control panel rather than replacing the whole panel.