JSP stands for Java Server Pages and enables developers to embed Java code directly into HTML pages. JSP pages have a .jsp extension and allow for platform-independent development since Java code can run on any system. The JSP request is sent to the web server, which passes the .jsp file to the JSP servlet engine. If it is the first request, the JSP file is parsed into a servlet class file; otherwise, an instantiated servlet handles the request. The servlet output is then sent to the user's browser.