I am having trouble understanding the use of に in this following sentence, and
also if putting を instead of に would change the meaning of the sentence.

> 何に興味がありますか。
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question
meaning particle-に particle-を sentence help
Whats the diffrence with に and を in this sentence?
You cannot use を because there is no transitive verb in this sentence. The
only verb in this sentence is あります ("to exist"), which never takes an object.

Let's start with an easier example. What does the following sentence mean?

> 興味があります。

The literal translation of this is "An interest exists", not "I am
interested". 興味 is a noun meaning "interest", が is a subject marker, and あります
is a verb meaning "to exist".

Next, you can specify the type of your interest using に. The particle に has
many roles, but in this case, you can think に corresponds to "in":

> **日本語に** 興味があります。  
>  (lit.) An interest exists **in Japanese**.  
>  I am interested **in Japanese**.

You can turn this sentence into a question by replacing 日本語 to 何 and adding か
at the end:

> **何に** 興味があります **か** 。  
>  (lit.) **In what** does an interest exist?  
>  **What** are you interested **in**?

Note again that there is no transitive verb. That's why you cannot use を.
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