The illusion of simplicity: how OOP can overcomplicate simple problems

Object-oriented programming (OOP) has been hailed as the savior of the software world, promising more manageable codebases and scalable applications. From encapsulation to inheritance, the paradigm offers a toolkit that is designed to make developers’ lives easier. Yet, over the years, OOP has gained its fair share of critics who argue that the principles it upholds can often lead to overcomplication—especially when applied to simple problems. So, is OOP truly the answer to every software challenge, or is it an illusion of simplicity, cloaking unnecessary complexity beneath a facade of best practices?

In this deep dive, we’ll explore why the abstraction and encapsulation principles of OOP might be overkill for simple problems and when sticking to basic solutions or alternative paradigms can lead to more effective and maintainable code.

The core philosophy of OOP is to model software as a collection of objects that interact with each other. It’s akin to representing the real world in code. Principles like inheritance, polymorphism, and encapsulation provide a way to make code modular, reusable, and maintainable. In theory, this sounds like an absolute win.

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