What performance benefit does the will-change CSS property provide?
The will-change CSS property provides a performance benefit by allowing browsers to set up optimizations before an element changes. It enables preemptive optimization by: 1) Creating a new compositor layer for the element, 2) Allocating GPU resources in advance, 3) Optimizing rendering paths before animations start, 4) Improving the smoothness of transitions and animations. However, it should be used sparingly as overuse can actually harm performance by consuming too many system resources. Best practices include: removing will-change after animations complete and only applying it to elements that will actually change.