Why can we not override static method?

Static methods belong to the class, not instances of the class. They are not part of the state of any objects of the class and hence do not have access to anything that belongs to specific objects of the class.

When we declare a method as static, it becomes part of the class itself and behaves the same way for all instances. So, if we try to override a static method, we would actually be creating a new method for the subclass, not overriding the one from the superclass.

In Java, for example, if you try to override a static method, you will not get a compilation error, but the method will not behave as you might expect. This is because static method calls are resolved at compile time, not runtime, so the method that gets called is the one in the class that the compiler sees at compile time, not the one in the class of the actual object at runtime.

In other words, static methods are not part of the polymorphism mechanism which is inherent in the way Java handles method calls. They belong to the class, not the hierarchy of the classes. Therefore, we cannot override static methods.