What are the three basic characteristics of object-oriented programming in C++?

Three fundamental features of object-oriented programming in C++ are encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism.

1. Encapsulation refers to bundling data and operations within a class, using access control to hide internal implementation details and only exposing necessary interfaces to external users. This helps improve the maintainability and security of the code.
2. Inheritance: Inheritance refers to the ability of a class to create subclasses that inherit the properties and methods of the parent class. Through inheritance, subclasses can reuse the code of the parent class and extend or modify it. Inheritance can achieve code reuse and hierarchical design.
3. Polymorphism: Polymorphism refers to the ability of different objects to respond to the same operation in different ways. This means that a pointer or reference of a parent class type can point to objects of its derived class, allowing for different actions to be achieved by calling functions with the same name. Polymorphism enhances the flexibility and extensibility of code.