Guide to using sealed classes in Kotlin

Kotlin is a versatile, open-source language designed for developing multiplatform mobile applications, combining object-oriented and functional programming features to ensure code simplicity and safety. The language supports various class types, including sealed classes, which provide a restricted class hierarchy allowing developers to define subclasses within the parent function to represent limited sets of possibilities. Sealed classes differ from enum classes by allowing multiple instances of subclasses and supporting more complex state representations, making them suitable for scenarios where flexibility and exhaustive handling of cases are required. Furthermore, Kotlin's sealed interfaces, introduced in version 1.5, extend the sealed class concept to interfaces, enabling multiple inheritance and allowing enum classes to implement them. The guide explores the use of sealed classes for state management in Kotlin, demonstrating their advantages over enums and abstract classes by ensuring exhaustive execution of all branches during compile time.