SharePoint Online roles are defined at site level. There are always roles defined for the root site of a site collection. Child sites can inherit these role definitions. In the same way, roles on the root site of a site collection are also assigned to groups or user accounts. These assignments can inherit child sites.
The Unique role assignment option specifies whether user accounts and groups are explicitly authorized for a site or whether the role assignments are inherited by the parent website.
Child sites can inherit permissions from the sites that the user accounts have on those sites. Every root site of a site collection or every site that has a child site.
This permits the following scenarios:
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The child site inherits the role assignments.
The permission levels and role definitions of the (bequeathing) parent site apply. User and groups cannot be explicitly authorized for the site. Only user accounts that have permissions for the (bequeathing) parent site have access to the site.
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The child site does not inherit role assignments.
In this case unique permission levels can be created in the same way as the root site of a site collection. The SharePoint Online roles based on the definitions are assigned to user accounts and groups.