What is an Angular component and what are its core pieces?

Short Interview Answer

A component is a class with a template and styles that owns a piece of UI, declared with @Component.

Detailed Explanation

Angular components encapsulate view + logic. The decorator sets selector, template/templateUrl, styleUrls, and changeDetection. The class holds state and methods; the template binds to them. Standalone components import their own dependencies instead of needing NgModules.

Example

@Component({
  selector: 'app-hello',
  standalone: true,
  template: `<h1>{{ title() }}</h1>`,
})
export class HelloComponent {
  title = signal('Hello');
}