Apex is an ___ programming language developed by Salesforce.

Apex is an object-oriented programming language developed by Salesforce, which means that it is designed around the concept of "objects." This programming paradigm allows developers to define data structures called "classes" that contain both data (attributes) and methods (functions) that operate on that data. The object-oriented nature of Apex enables code reusability, encapsulation, and inheritance, making it easier to manage and scale applications built on the Salesforce platform.

This paradigm is significant in the context of Salesforce because the platform provides a robust ecosystem where applications can be built to leverage complex business logic. By utilizing objects, developers can create more sophisticated and manageable code, use objects to model real-world entities, and benefit from the ability to create reusable components.

In contrast, functional programming emphasizes the evaluation of functions and avoids changing state or mutable data, while procedural programming focuses on a sequence of tasks to execute. Scripted languages typically refer to those that are interpreted rather than compiled; they are often used for automation tasks rather than full application development as is the case with Apex, which fully supports object-oriented principles.