What is pandas in Python?

Pandas is a library for data analysis and manipulation that provides flexible data structures such as DataFrame (two-dimensional table) and Series (one-dimensional array). Built on NumPy, it offers tools to read/write data in various formats (CSV, Excel, SQL), clean missing data, filter, group, join tables, perform statistical analysis and visualizations. It is essential in data science, financial analysis, and any task that involves manipulating tabular data.