What does inheritance allow in object-oriented programming?

Inheritance in object-oriented programming is a fundamental concept that enables a new class (often referred to as a child or derived class) to inherit properties and methods from an existing class (known as a parent or base class). This mechanism promotes code reusability and establishes a natural hierarchy among classes.

When a class inherits from another, it can access the parent class's attributes and methods as if they were its own. This allows developers to build upon existing code, minimizing redundancy and improving maintainability. For instance, if you have a general class called "Vehicle" that has properties like "speed" and methods like "drive," a derived class such as "Car" can inherit these properties and methods, enabling "Car" to use them directly without having to redefine them.

The other options do not accurately describe the benefits of inheritance. While methods can sometimes be shared or overridden in derived classes, the idea of cloning methods or creating objects without a parent class does not align with the core principles of inheritance. Instances typically utilize constructors for initialization in class hierarchies, making them essential rather than optional in the context of object-oriented programming.