Final answer:
In Java, exceptions are categorized into two types: checked exceptions and unchecked exceptions. Checked exceptions must be explicitly handled or declared, while unchecked exceptions do not need to be explicitly handled or declared.
Step-by-step explanation:
In Java, exceptions are categorized into two types: checked exceptions and unchecked exceptions. Checked exceptions are those that must be explicitly handled or declared in the method signature using the throws keyword. Examples of checked exceptions include IOException and SQLException.
On the other hand, unchecked exceptions are exceptions that do not need to be explicitly handled or declared. These exceptions are subclasses of RuntimeException. Examples of unchecked exceptions include NullPointerException and ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException.
To identify whether an exception is checked or unchecked, you can refer to the Java API documentation which specifies the type of each exception. Checked exceptions are denoted as extending Exception, but not extending RuntimeException, while unchecked exceptions extend RuntimeException.