Exception handling is a programming concept used to manage errors and unexpected conditions that occur during the execution of a program. Instead of allowing a program to crash when it encounters an error, exception handling provides mechanisms to "catch" and resolve or report the issue, ensuring the program can continue running or terminate gracefully.

In many programming languages, exceptions are handled using try-catch-finally blocks. The try block contains the code that may throw an exception, the catch block handles the exception if one occurs, and the finally block contains code that is executed regardless of whether an exception was thrown, typically used for resource cleanup.

For example, if a program attempts to open a file that doesn't exist, an exception will be thrown. Instead of terminating the program, the exception can be caught and handled by displaying an error message or taking corrective action.

Effective exception handling improves program robustness and user experience by preventing crashes, ensuring proper resource management, and logging issues for further debugging. However, it is important to balance between overusing exceptions and ensuring they are used in situations where true errors need to be caught and addressed.