To reduce the general equation of a circle to its standard form, follow these steps. Let's start with the general form of the equation of a circle:

$Ax^2 + Ay^2 + Dx + Ey + F = 0$

Since $A$ is typically set to 1 for a standard circle equation, we rewrite it as:

$x^2 + y^2 + Dx + Ey + F = 0$

Now, let's reduce this to the standard form ((x - h)^2 + (y - k)^2 = r