In traditional C#, you often ended up with "Null Reference Exceptions" because someone forgot to set a property. Required Members and Init-Only Props solve this at the compiler level.
By adding the `required` keyword, you FORCE the developer to set that property when creating the object.
public class User {
public required string Email { get; set; }
}
var u = new User(); // COMPILER ERROR: You must set Email!The `init` keyword allows you to set a property during creation, but NEVER change it again (making it immutable).
public record Product {
public string Name { get; init; }
}
product.Name = "New Name"; // COMPILER ERROR: It's readonly!Q: "How do 'Required' members help with Domain Driven Design (DDD)?"
Architect Answer: "In DDD, an object should never exist in an 'Invalid State.' Before `required`, we had to use complex constructors to ensure data validity. Now, we can use clean object initializers while still guaranteeing that critical fields (like IDs or Keys) are present. It combines the flexibility of properties with the safety of constructors."