Kotlin is a statically-typed programming language that runs on the JVM and works across different platforms. The fact that it is statically typed means the types are resolved during compilation. JVM is a specification that provides a runtime environment for running applications that are developed in Java and other JVM-based languages. The most well known reference implementation of JVM is OpenJDK, which was originally developed by Sun Microsystems and is now supervised by Oracle. Kotlin is another JVM-based language that is simple to write and concise in nature.

Kotlin combines object-oriented and functional programming features. Kotlin is designed to be interoperable with Java and relies on the Java code from the existing Java Class Library (JCL).

Kotlin provides a more expressive syntax than Java. It is concise and has strong type inference, which reduces code verbosity. It also has a wide variety of useful features, such as operator overloading, string templates, extended functions, and coroutines.