Reverse engineering is the process of analyzing a product or system to understand how it was designed and how it functions. This typically involves taking apart the product, studying its components and structure, and using this information to create a detailed model or blueprint of the original design. Reverse engineering is often used to understand how a competitor's product works, to improve upon an existing design, or to create compatible products or software. It can also be used to identify vulnerabilities in a system or to recover lost or corrupted data.