How does @EqualsAndHashCode handle inheritance by default?

By default, @EqualsAndHashCode does not call the superclass's equals/ hashCode — it only considers the fields declared in the annotated class itself, which can silently produce incorrect equality if a subclass has meaningful fields inherited from a parent class that should also factor into equality.

@EqualsAndHashCode(callSuper = true)
public class Employee extends Person {
    private String department;
    //  now includes Person's fields (via Person's equals/hashCode) AND department
}

Setting callSuper = true makes the generated method also invoke the superclass's equals/hashCode and factor that result in, which is usually what you want once there's a real inheritance hierarchy with meaningful parent-class state. Lombok will actually emit a compiler warning if you extend a class and don't specify callSuper explicitly, precisely because getting this wrong is a common, easy-to-miss bug.

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