What is the purpose of the CSS overflow property?

The CSS overflow property is primarily designed to manage how content that exceeds the bounds of an element's container is handled. When an element's content is larger than the area designated for it—often the result of setting specific dimensions—this property plays a vital role in determining the visibility and accessibility of that overflowing content.

For example, if you set an element to have a fixed height and its content exceeds that height, the overflow property can be configured to either show the excess content, hide it, or add scrollbars to allow users to navigate through the hidden sections. The possible values for the overflow property—such as visible, hidden, scroll, and auto—provide different methods to deal with the overflow as per design requirements.

This understanding of the overflow property is essential for creating responsive and user-friendly web designs, ensuring that content is displayed neatly without disrupting the layout. Other options do not relate to the direct functionality of handling content overflow; instead, they focus on different aspects of CSS properties.