NumPy is a Python library that provides multidimensional array and matrix objects to perform scientific computing. It contains efficient functions for operations on arrays like arithmetic, aggregation, copying, indexing, slicing, and reshaping. NumPy arrays have advantages over native Python sequences like fixed size and efficient mathematical operations. Common NumPy operations include elementwise arithmetic, aggregation functions, copying and transposing arrays, changing array shapes, and indexing/slicing arrays.