Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) Certification Practice Test

What does reflection enable an application to do?

1. Collection and manipulation of data

2. Overview of all running processes

3. Collection information about itself and act on it

4. Generates code dynamically

The correct answer is: Collection information about itself and act on it

Reflection allows an application to inspect and interact with its own metadata and structure at runtime. This capability enables the application to collect detailed information about itself, such as its types, methods, properties, and events. Consequently, it can dynamically alter its behavior based on this information, making reflection a powerful feature for scenarios such as dependency injection, serialization, and creating object instances at runtime. The other options, while relevant in their contexts, do not strictly define the core purpose of reflection. For example, collecting and manipulating data primarily refers to data management functions rather than introspective capabilities. An overview of all running processes leans towards system-level operations rather than application introspection. As for generating code dynamically, that can relate to reflection, but it may imply runtime code compilation, which isn't the primary focus of reflection itself. Thus, the essence of reflection lies in self-awareness and adapting behavior based on the collected information.