UTF-8 is a character encoding system that allows computers to represent and manipulate text from various languages. It uses a variable number of bytes for each character, which means it can efficiently encode everything from simple English letters to complex symbols from languages like Chinese or Arabic. This flexibility makes UTF-8 the most widely used encoding on the internet. One of the key advantages of UTF-8 is its compatibility with ASCII, the standard encoding for English characters. This means that any text written in ASCII is also valid in UTF-8, making it easy to transition between the two. As a result, UTF-8 has become the go-to choice for web pages, databases, and software applications worldwide.