Visualising sharing settings, roles and rights

1. What is sharing settings and sharing rules in Salesforce?
2. How many types of sharing settings are there?
3. How do I see sharing rules in Salesforce?
4. What is the difference between sharing rules and role hierarchies?

What is sharing settings and sharing rules in Salesforce?

Sharing Rules

They allow you to extend record access to users regardless of their place in the role hierarchy. If you have organization-wide sharing defaults of Public Read Only or Private, you can define rules that give additional users access to records they don't own.

How many types of sharing settings are there?

There are basically two types of sharing rules in Salesforce based on which records should be shared: Owner-based Sharing Rules. Criteria-based Sharing Rules.

How do I see sharing rules in Salesforce?

From Setup, in the Quick Find box, enter Sharing Settings, and then select Sharing Settings. This is the same page used to define org-wide defaults. In the Manage sharing settings for drop-down list, choose the object for which to create the sharing rule.

What is the difference between sharing rules and role hierarchies?

Sharing rules act as a bypass of org-wide defaults and the role hierarchy. They offer ways to share records when certain users, roles, territories, or public groups still need access to records despite the org-wide defaults and role hierarchy configuration.