The difference between stateless and stateful widgets in Flutter

Flutter applications rely on widgets as their fundamental building blocks, which are classified into two main types: stateless and stateful widgets. Stateless widgets, such as text and icons, maintain a consistent state throughout the lifecycle of an application and do not change dynamically once initialized, making them ideal for static parts of the user interface. In contrast, stateful widgets are designed to change dynamically during runtime, allowing for interactive features like buttons that update their state based on user actions, achieved through methods like setState(). Understanding the differences between these widget types is crucial for developers in creating efficient and responsive user interfaces in Flutter, enabling them to choose the appropriate widget class based on the application's requirements.