The _____ interface in Spring Security is used to load user-specific data and plays a crucial role in authentication mechanisms.

The UserDetailsService interface in Spring Security is used to load user-specific data and plays a crucial role in authentication mechanisms. It's responsible for fetching user details from a data source, such as a database, and returning them as a UserDetails object. This interface is a key component in the authentication process, allowing Spring Security to validate user credentials and create an Authentication object.