What Is the “Retarget Period” in the Bitcoin Difficulty Adjustment Mechanism?

The retarget period is the interval, measured in blocks, after which the Bitcoin network evaluates the time taken to mine the preceding blocks and adjusts the mining difficulty. This period is set at 2016 blocks.

At the target rate of 10 minutes per block, the retarget period is designed to occur approximately every two weeks (2016 blocks 10 minutes/block = 14 days).