What is the difference between a shallow copy and a deep copy in Python?

A shallow copy creates a new object but references the same elements as the original object. Changes to mutable elements in the copy will affect the original object. Shallow copies are created using the copy() method or slicing.

A deep copy creates a new object and recursively copies all elements, ensuring that changes to the copy do not affect the original object. Deep copies are created using the deepcopy() function from the copy module.

In full-stack development, shallow copies are used for simple data structures, while deep copies are used for complex data structures that require complete independence from the original object.