C++ is a powerful, high-performance programming language widely used for system software, game development, real-time simulations, and large-scale applications. C++ is a multi-paradigm language that supports: - Procedural programming (like C) - Object-oriented programming (classes, inheritance, polymorphism) - Generic programming (templates) - Functional features (lambdas, ranges in C++20+) It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of C to include object-oriented capabilities. C++ is known for its speed, fine-grained memory control, and rich standard library.