Variance is a concept that describes how the subtyping relationship between types affects the subtyping relationship between their generic versions. For example, if a type A is a subtype of a type B, then a generic type G<A> may or may not be a subtype of a generic type G<B>, depending on the variance of G. There are three kinds of variance: covariance, contravariance, and invariance. Covariance means that G<A> is a subtype of G<B> if A is a subtype of B. Contravariance means that G<A> is a subtype of G<B> if B is a subtype of A. Invariance means that G<A> and G<B> are not subtypes of each other, regardless of A and B. Variance can help you write more flexible and reusable code, as well as enable polymorphism and compatibility. To use variance, you need to specify it using keywords or annotations in the declaration of the generic type or the generic type parameter. For example, in C#, you can write: public interface IEnumerable<out T> This means that the generic interface IEnumerable is covariant in its type parameter T, which allows you to assign an instance of IEnumerable<Animal> to a variable of type IEnumerable<Cat>, if Cat is a subclass of Animal.