What is a difference between encrypted passwords and hardcoded passwords?

Encrypted/hashed passwords are designed to be *difficult* to obtain or reverse, whereas hardcoded passwords, once discovered in code, become universally known to anyone with access to that code.

Encrypted passwords are derived from user-generated input and then processed by the application, while hardcoded passwords are predetermined by developers and fixed within the code, making the statement inaccurate about generation.

The usage of encrypted or hardcoded passwords is not inherently differentiated by frontend versus backend applications; hardcoding passwords is a security anti-pattern regardless of where it occurs in an application's architecture.

Encrypted passwords (more accurately, hashed passwords) are securely stored in a database or designated storage and are computationally difficult to reverse, whereas hardcoded passwords are directly embedded within the application's source code, configuration files, or binaries, making them static and easily discoverable upon code review.