Polymorphism is a key concept in Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) that allows objects of different classes to be treated as objects of a common superclass. It enables methods to do different things based on the object that they are acting upon. Polymorphism allows for flexibility and extensibility in the design of software systems, as it allows for code reuse and enables writing code that can work with objects of various types without needing to know their specific classes.
In Python, polymorphism is achieved through method overriding and method overloading. Method overriding occurs when a subclass provides a specific implementation of a method that is already defined in its superclass. Method overloading, however, is not directly supported in Python as it is in languages like Java or C++, but Python offers a flexible way to achieve similar functionality through default arguments or variable-length arguments.