What is Result<T, E> in Rust?

Result<T, E> is Rust's primary error handling mechanism, an enum with two variants: Ok(T) (operation succeeded and contains the value) and Err(E) (operation failed and contains the error). Functions that can fail return Result instead of throwing exceptions. The caller must handle both variants — ignoring a Result produces a compiler warning. Rust has no exceptions, so errors are values that flow through the call stack explicitly. This makes error handling visible in function signatures and prevents unexpected control flow. The ? operator provides ergonomic error propagation: it unwraps Ok and returns early with Err if the operation failed, eliminating repetitive match boilerplate.