Python for Intermediate Learners

Python has no private keyword. Instead, a leading underscore — self._balance — signals that an attribute is internal. Double underscores trigger name mangling, which discourages accidental access from subclasses.

The @property decorator offers encapsulation without ceremony. Callers write account.balance as if it were a plain attribute, while the class quietly validates or computes the value behind the scenes.

Encapsulation in Python is therefore a matter of convention and design rather than enforcement, but the goal is the same as in Java: protect invariants and present a clear public surface.