What is the difference between public assembly and private assembly in .NET?

Public assembly can be used by multiple applications. Private assembly can be used by only one application.

Public assembly is stored in GAC (Global Assembly Cache). Private assembly will be stored in the specific application's directory or sub-directory.

Public assembly is also termed as shared assembly. There is no other name for private assembly.

Strong name has to be created for public assembly. Strong name is not required for private assembly.

Public assembly should strictly enforce version constraint. Private assembly doesn't have any version constraint.

An example to public assembly is the actuate report classes which can be imported in the library and used by any application that prefers to implement actuate reports. By default, all assemblies you create are examples of private assembly. Only when you associate a strong name to it and store it in GAC, it becomes a public assembly.