What is the difference between @Configuration and @Component in Spring?

Question

@ComponentScan creates beans using both @Configuration and @Component. Both these annotations work fine when swapped. What is the diff

Answer 1

Apart from the differences highlighted by reos.

The reason why @Configuration cannot be replaced by @Component is as below:

The difference is in how the inter bean dependency is handled. Refer the link for a detailed explanation with example: Difference between Configuration and Component