What are join tables / linking tables?

How to represent them in EF

Core?

A join table maps a many-to-many relationship. In EF Core:

✅ Auto-created (EF Core 5+):

If you define many-to-many with ICollection<T>, EF creates the join table.

🛠 Manual (custom join entity):

public class StudentCourse

public int StudentId { get; set; }

public Student Student { get; set; }

public int CourseId { get; set; }

public Course Course { get; set; }

And configure with Fluent API.