What is BSON and how does it differ from JSON?

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BSON (Binary JSON) is MongoDB's on-disk and on-the-wire format. A binary representation of JSON-like documents with extra types and length prefixes for efficient parsing. Extra types — ObjectId , Date , Decimal128 , Binary , Int32 / Int64 — not in plain JSON. Length-prefixed — documents and fields carry their size, so the parser skips fields fast. Slightly larger than JSON — trades size for parse speed and richer types. 16 MB max — per document; use GridFS for larger blobs. Drivers handle conversion — clients send/receive language-native objects; driver maps to BSON. BSON = Binary JSON with extra types. Key extras: Date, ObjectId, Decimal128, Binary. BSON is for storage (binary, fast), JSON is for interaction (human-readable). The additional numeric types (int32, int64, decimal128) solve JSON's number precision problem.