What changes when switching between development and production modes?

Switching between the development and production modes automatically changes Webpack's build behavior.

#In development mode:

• The code stays readable, without minification
• Source maps are enabled by default (simplifies debugging)
• Fast build, optimizations are disabled or minimal
• Focus on development comfort, not bundle size

#In production mode:

• The code is minified (whitespace is removed, variable names are shortened, etc.)
• Tree shaking is enabled (removes unused code)
• CSS and JS are optimized
• Files become smaller
• Caching is improved (filename with hashes is often used)
• Source maps are either disabled or hidden

#Brief summary:

By default Webpack enables a set of optimizations depending on the mode, so mode is a switch for the build logic.