Can 'private' methods be accessed?

No, private methods cannot be accessed from outside the class in which they are defined. They are only accessible within the same class. This encapsulation helps to protect the internal implementation of a class and restricts access to its methods and data.

Here’s an example:

public class Example {
    private void displayMessage() {
        System.out.println("Hello, World!");
    }

    public void callDisplay() {
        displayMessage(); // This is allowed
    }
}

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Example example = new Example();
        example.callDisplay(); // This works
        // example.displayMessage(); // This will cause a compile-time error
    }
}

In this example, displayMessage is a private method and can only be called within the Example class. Attempting to call it from the Test class will result in a compile-time error.