Table of Contents

Object Oriented Programming (OOP)

General Questions about Java
Java Threads
Java Collections
Garbage Collectors
Exception Handling
Java Applets
Swing
JDBC
Remote Method Invocation (RMI)
Servlets
JSP

Object Oriented Programming (OOP)

Java is a computer programming language that is concurrent, class-based and
object-oriented. The advantages of object oriented software development are
shown below:

Modular development of code, which leads to easy maintenance and

modification.

Reusability of code.

Improved reliability and flexibility of code.

Increased understanding of code.

Object-oriented programming contains many significant features, such

as encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphismand abstraction. We analyze
each feature separately in the following sections.

Encapsulation
Encapsulation provides objects with the ability to hide their internal
characteristics and behavior. Each object provides a number of methods, which
can be accessed by other objects and change its internal data. In Java, there are
three access modifiers: public, private and protected. Each modifier imposes

different access rights to other classes, either in the same or in external

packages. Some of the advantages of using encapsulation are listed below:

The internal state of every objected is protected by hiding its attributes.

It increases usability and maintenance of code, because the behavior of

an object can be independently changed or extended.

It improves modularity by preventing objects to interact with each other,

in an undesired way.

You can refer to our tutorial here for more details and examples on
encapsulation.

Polymorphism
Polymorphism is the ability of programming languages to present the same
interface for differing underlying data types. A polymorphic type is a type whose
operations can also be applied to values of some other type.

Inheritance
Inheritance provides an object with the ability to acquire the fields and methods
of another class, called base class. Inheritance provides re-usability of code and
can be used to add additional features to an existing class, without modifying it.

Abstraction
Abstraction is the process of separating ideas from specific instances and thus,
develop classes in terms of their own functionality, instead of their
implementation details. Java supports the creation and existence of abstract
classes that expose interfaces, without including the actual implementation of
all methods. The abstraction technique aims to separate the implementation
details of a class from its behavior.

Differences between Abstraction and Encapsulation

Abstraction and encapsulation are complementary concepts. On the one hand,
abstraction focuses on the behavior of an object. On the other hand,
encapsulation focuses on the implementation of an objects behavior.
Encapsulation is usually achieved by hiding information about the internal state

of an object and thus, can be seen as a strategy used in order to provide

abstraction.

General Questions about Java

1. What is JVM ? Why is Java called the Platform Independent
Programming Language ? A Java virtual machine (JVM) is a process virtual
machine that can execute Java bytecode. Each Java source file is compiled into a
bytecode file, which is executed by the JVM. Java was designed to allow
application programs to be built that could be run on any platform, without
having to be rewritten or recompiled by the programmer for each separate
platform. A Java virtual machine makes this possible, because it is aware of the
specific instruction lengths and other particularities of the underlying hardware
platform.
2. What is the Difference between JDK and JRE ? The Java Runtime
Environment (JRE) is basically the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) where your Java
programs are being executed. It also includes browser plugins for applet
execution. The Java Development Kit (JDK) is the full featured Software
Development Kit for Java, including the JRE, the compilers and tools (like JavaDoc,
and Java Debugger), in order for a user to develop, compile and execute Java
applications.
3. What does the static keyword mean ? Can you override private or
static method in Java ? The static keyword denotes that a member variable or
method can be accessed, without requiring an instantiation of the class to which
it belongs. A user cannot override static methods in Java, because method
overriding is based upon dynamic binding at runtime and static methods are
statically binded at compile time. A static method is not associated with any
instance of a class so the concept is not applicable.
4. Can you access non static variable in static context ? A static variable
in Java belongs to its class and its value remains the same for all its instances. A
static variable is initialized when the class is loaded by the JVM. If your code
tries to access a non-static variable, without any instance, the compiler will
complain, because those variables are not created yet and they are not
associated with any instance.
5. What are the Data Types supported by Java ? What is Autoboxing
and Unboxing ? The eight primitive data types supported by the Java
programming language are:

byte

short

int

long

float

double

boolean

char
Autoboxing

is the automatic conversion made by the Java compiler between the

primitive types and their corresponding object wrapper classes. For example,
the compiler converts an int to an Integer, a double to a Double, and so on. If the
conversion goes the other way, this operation is called unboxing .
6. What is Function Overriding and Overloading in Java ? Method
overloading in Java occurs when two or more methods in the same class have
the exact same name, but different parameters. On the other hand, method
overriding is defined as the case when a child class redefines the same method
as a parent class. Overridden methods must have the same name, argument
list, and return type. The overriding method may not limit the access of the
method it overrides.
7. What is a Constructor, Constructor Overloading in Java and CopyConstructor ? A constructor gets invoked when a new object is created. Every
class has a constructor. In case the programmer does not provide a constructor
for a class, the Java compiler (Javac) creates a default constructor for that class.
The constructor overloading is similar to method overloading in Java. Different
constructors can be created for a single class. Each constructor must have its
own unique parameter list. Finally, Java does support copy constructors like C+
+, but the difference lies in the fact that Java doesnt create a default copy
constructor if you dont write your own.
8. Does Java support multiple inheritance ? No, Java does not support
multiple inheritance. Each class is able to extend only on one class, but is able
to implement more than one interfaces.
9. What is the difference between an Interface and an Abstract
class ? Java provides and supports the creation both of abstract classes and
interfaces. Both implementations share some common characteristics, but they
differ in the following features:

All methods in an interface are implicitly abstract. On the other hand, an

abstract class may contain both abstract and non-abstract methods.

A class may implement a number of Interfaces, but can extend only one
abstract class.

In order for a class to implement an interface, it must implement all its

declared methods. However, a class may not implement all declared methods
of an abstract class. Though, in this case, the sub-class must also be declared
as abstract.

Abstract classes can implement interfaces without even providing the

implementation of interface methods.

Variables declared in a Java interface is by default final. An abstract class

may contain non-final variables.

Members of a Java interface are public by default. A member of an

abstract class can either be private, protected or public.

An interface is absolutely abstract and cannot be instantiated. An abstract

class also cannot be instantiated, but can be invoked if it contains a main
method.

Also check out the Abstract class and Interface differences for JDK 8.
10. What are pass by reference and pass by value ? When an object is
passed by value, this means that a copy of the object is passed. Thus, even if
changes are made to that object, it doesnt affect the original value. When an
object is passed by reference, this means that the actual object is not passed,
rather a reference of the object is passed. Thus, any changes made by the
external method, are also reflected in all places.

Java Threads
11. What is the difference between processes and threads ? A process is
an execution of a program, while a Threadis a single execution sequence within a
process. A process can contain multiple threads. A Thread is sometimes called a
lightweight process.
12. Explain different ways of creating a thread. Which one would you
prefer and why ? There are three ways that can be used in order for a Thread to
be created:

A class may extend the Thread class.

A class may implement the Runnable interface.

An application can use the

Executor

framework, in order to create a thread

pool.
The Runnable interface is preferred, as it does not require an object to inherit
the Thread class. In case your application design requires multiple inheritance,
only interfaces can help you. Also, the thread pool is very efficient and can be
implemented and used very easily.
13. Explain the available thread states in a high-level. During its
execution, a thread can reside in one of the following states:

NEW: The thread becomes ready to run, but does not necessarily start

running immediately.
RUNNABLE: The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is actively executing the threads
code.

BLOCKED:

The thread is in a blocked state while waiting for a monitor lock.

WAITING: The thread waits for another thread to perform a particular
action.

TIMED_WAITING:

The thread waits for another thread to perform a particular

action up to a specified waiting time.

TERMINATED: The thread has finished its execution.

14. What is the difference between a synchronized method and a

synchronized block ? In Java programming, each object has a lock. A thread
can acquire the lock for an object by using the synchronized keyword. The
synchronized keyword can be applied in a method level (coarse grained lock) or
block level of code (fine grained lock).
15. How does thread synchronization occurs inside a monitor ? What
levels of synchronization can you apply ?The JVM uses locks in conjunction
with monitors. A monitor is basically a guardian that watches over a sequence of
synchronized code and ensuring that only one thread at a time executes a
synchronized piece of code. Each monitor is associated with an object reference.
The thread is not allowed to execute the code until it obtains the lock.
16. Whats a deadlock ? A condition that occurs when two processes are
waiting for each other to complete, before proceeding. The result is that both
processes wait endlessly.
17. How do you ensure that N threads can access N resources without
deadlock ? A very simple way to avoid deadlock while using N threads is to
impose an ordering on the locks and force each thread to follow that ordering.
Thus, if all threads lock and unlock the mutexes in the same order, no deadlocks
can arise.

Java Collections
18. What are the basic interfaces of Java Collections Framework ? Java
Collections Framework provides a well designed set of interfaces and classes that
support operations on a collections of objects. The most basic interfaces that
reside in the Java Collections Framework are:

Collection, which represents a group of objects known as its elements.

Set, which is a collection that cannot contain duplicate elements.

List, which is an ordered collection and can contain duplicate elements.

Map, which is an object that maps keys to values and cannot contain
duplicate keys.
19. Why Collection doesnt extend Cloneable and Serializable
interfaces ? The Collection interface specifies groups of objects known as
elements. Each concrete implementation of a Collection can choose its own way of
how to maintain and order its elements. Some collections allow duplicate keys,
while some other collections dont. The semantics and the implications of either
cloning or serialization come into play when dealing with actual
implementations. Thus, the concrete implementations of collections should
decide how they can be cloned or serialized.
20. What is an Iterator ? The Iterator interface provides a number of methods
that are able to iterate over anyCollection. Each Java Collection contains
the iterator method that returns an Iterator instance. Iterators arecapable of
removing elements from the underlying collection during the iteration. 21.
What differences exist between Iterator and ListIterator ? The
differences of these elements are listed below:

An Iterator can be used to traverse the Set and List collections, while
the

can be used to iterate only over Lists.

The Iterator can traverse a collection only in forward direction, while

the

can traverse a List in both directions.

The ListIterator implements the Iterator interface and contains extra

ListIterator

ListIterator

functionality, such as adding an element, replacing an element, getting the

index position for previous and next elements, etc.
22. What is difference between fail-fast and fail-safe ? The Iterator's failsafe property works with the clone of the underlying collection and thus, it is not
affected by any modification in the collection. All the collection classes in
java.util package are fail-fast, while the collection classes in java.util.concurrent

are fail-safe. Fail-fast iterators throw a ConcurrentModificationException , while fail-safe

iterator never throws such an exception.
23. How HashMap works in Java ? A HashMap in Java stores key-value pairs.
The HashMap requires a hash function and uses hashCode and equals methods, in
order to put and retrieve elements to and from the collection respectively. When
the put method is invoked, the HashMap calculates the hash value of the key and
stores the pair in the appropriate index inside the collection. If the key exists, its
value is updated with the new value. Some important characteristics of
a HashMap are its capacity, its load factor and the threshold resizing.
24. What is the importance of hashCode() and equals() methods ? In
Java, a HashMap uses the hashCode andequals methods to determine the index of the
key-value pair and to detect duplicates. More specifically, the hashCodemethod is
used in order to determine where the specified key will be stored. Since different
keys may produce the same hash value, the equals method is used, in order to
determine whether the specified key actually exists in the collection or not.
Therefore, the implementation of both methods is crucial to the accuracy and
efficiency of the HashMap.
25. What differences exist between HashMap and Hashtable ? Both
the HashMap and Hashtable classes implement the Map interface and thus, have
very similar characteristics. However, they differ in the following features:

A HashMap allows the existence of null keys and values, while

a

doesnt allow neither null keys, nor null values.

A Hashtable is synchronized, while a HashMap is not. Thus,

Hashtable

HashMap

is preferred

in single-threaded environments, while a Hashtable is suitable for multi-threaded

environments.
A HashMap provides its set of keys and a Java application can iterate over

them. Thus, a HashMap is fail-fast. On the other hand, a Hashtable provides

an Enumeration of its keys.
The Hashtable class is considered to be a legacy class.

26. What is difference between Array and ArrayList ? When will you use
Array over ArrayList ? The Array andArrayList classes differ on the following
features:

Arrays can contain primitive or objects, while an ArrayList can contain only
objects.

have fixed size, while an ArrayList is dynamic.

An ArrayListprovides more methods and features, such
Arrays

as

addAll, removeAll, iterator,

etc.

For a list of primitive data types, the collections use autoboxing to reduce
the coding effort. However, this approach makes them slower when working
on fixed size primitive data types.

27. What is difference between ArrayList and LinkedList ? Both

the ArrayList and LinkedList classes implement the List interface, but they differ on
the following features:

An ArrayList is an index based data structure backed by an Array. It provides

random access to its elements with a performance equal to O(1). On the other
hand, a LinkedList stores its data as list of elements and every element is linked
to its previous and next element. In this case, the search operation for an
element has execution time equal to O(n).
The Insertion, addition and removal operations of an element are faster in

a LinkedList compared to an ArrayList, because there is no need of resizing an

array or updating the index when an element is added in some arbitrary
position inside the collection.
A LinkedList consumes more memory than an ArrayList, because every node in

a LinkedList stores two references, one for its previous element and one for its
next element.
Check also our article ArrayList vs. LinkedList.
28. What is Comparable and Comparator interface ? List their
differences. Java provides the Comparableinterface, which contains only one
method, called compareTo. This method compares two objects, in order to impose
an order between them. Specifically, it returns a negative integer, zero, or a
positive integer to indicate that the input object is less than, equal or greater
than the existing object. Java provides the Comparator interface, which contains
two methods, called compare and equals. The first method compares its two input
arguments and imposes an order between them. It returns a negative integer,
zero, or a positive integer to indicate that the first argument is less than, equal
to, or greater than the second. The second method requires an object as a
parameter and aims to decide whether the input object is equal to the
comparator. The method returns true, only if the specified object is also a
comparator and it imposes the same ordering as the comparator.
29. What is Java Priority Queue ? The PriorityQueue is an unbounded queue,
based on a priority heap and its elements are ordered in their natural order. At
the time of its creation, we can provide a Comparator that is responsible for
ordering the elements of the PriorityQueue. A PriorityQueue doesnt allow null values,
those objects that doesnt provide natural ordering, or those objects that dont
have any comparator associated with them. Finally, the Java PriorityQueue is not

thread-safe and it requires O(log(n)) time for its enqueing and dequeing
operations.
30. What do you know about the big-O notation and can you give some
examples with respect to different data structures ? The Big-O
notation simply describes how well an algorithm scales or performs in the worst
case scenario as the number of elements in a data structure increases. The BigO notation can also be used to describe other behavior such as memory
consumption. Since the collection classes are actually data structures, we
usually use the Big-O notation to chose the best implementation to use, based
on time, memory and performance. Big-O notation can give a good indication
about performance for large amounts of data.
31. What is the tradeoff between using an unordered array versus an
ordered array ? The major advantage of an ordered array is that the search
times have time complexity of O(log n), compared to that of an unordered array,
which is O (n). The disadvantage of an ordered array is that the insertion
operation has a time complexity of O(n), because the elements with higher
values must be moved to make room for the new element. Instead, the insertion
operation for an unordered array takes constant time of O(1).
32. What are some of the best practices relating to the Java Collection
framework ?

Choosing the right type of the collection to use, based on the applications

needs, is very crucial for its performance. For example if the size of the
elements is fixed and know a priori, we shall use an Array, instead of an ArrayList.
Some collection classes allow us to specify their initial capacity. Thus, if
we have an estimation on the number of elements that will be stored, we can
use it to avoid rehashing or resizing.

Always use Generics for type-safety, readability, and robustness. Also, by

using Generics you avoid theClassCastException during runtime.

Use immutable classes provided by the Java Development Kit (JDK) as a

key in a Map, in order to avoid the implementation of the

methods for our custom class.
Program in terms of interface not implementation.

hashCode

and equals

Return zero-length collections or arrays as opposed to returning a null in

case the underlying collection is actually empty.

33. Whats the difference between Enumeration and Iterator

interfaces ? Enumeration is twice as fast as compared to an Iterator and uses very
less memory. However, the Iterator is much safer compared to Enumeration, because

other threads are not able to modify the collection object that is currently
traversed by the iterator. Also,Iteratorsallow the caller to remove elements from
the underlying collection, something which is not possible with Enumerations.
34. What is the difference between HashSet and TreeSet ? The HashSet is
Implemented using a hash table and thus, its elements are not ordered. The
add, remove, and contains methods of a HashSet have constant time complexity
O(1). On the other hand, a TreeSet is implemented using a tree structure. The
elements in a TreeSet are sorted, and thus, the add, remove, and contains
methods have time complexity of O(logn).

Garbage Collectors
35. What is the purpose of garbage collection in Java, and when is it
used ? The purpose of garbage collection is to identify and discard those
objects that are no longer needed by the application, in order for the resources
to be reclaimed and reused.
36. What does System.gc() and Runtime.gc() methods do ? These
methods can be used as a hint to the JVM, in order to start a garbage collection.
However, this it is up to the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to start the garbage
collection immediately or later in time.
37. When is the finalize() called ? What is the purpose of
finalization ? The finalize method is called by the garbage collector, just before
releasing the objects memory. It is normally advised to release resources held
by the object inside the finalize method.
38. If an object reference is set to null, will the Garbage Collector
immediately free the memory held by that object ? No, the object will be
available for garbage collection in the next cycle of the garbage collector.
39. What is structure of Java Heap ? What is Perm Gen space in
Heap ? The JVM has a heap that is the runtime data area from which memory
for all class instances and arrays is allocated. It is created at the JVM start-up.
Heap memory for objects is reclaimed by an automatic memory management
system which is known as a garbage collector. Heap memory consists of live and
dead objects. Live objects are accessible by the application and will not be a
subject of garbage collection. Dead objects are those which will never be
accessible by the application, but have not been collected by the garbage
collector yet. Such objects occupy the heap memory space until they are
eventually collected by the garbage collector.

40. What is the difference between Serial and Throughput Garbage

collector ? The throughput garbage collector uses a parallel version of the
young generation collector and is meant to be used with applications that have
medium to large data sets. On the other hand, the serial collector is usually
adequate for most small applications (those requiring heaps of up to
approximately 100MB on modern processors).
41. When does an Object becomes eligible for Garbage collection in
Java ? A Java object is subject to garbage collection when it becomes
unreachable to the program in which it is currently used.
42. Does Garbage collection occur in permanent generation space in
JVM ? Garbage Collection does occur in PermGen space and if PermGen space is
full or cross a threshold, it can trigger a full garbage collection. If you look
carefully at the output of the garbage collector, you will find that PermGen space
is also garbage collected. This is the reason why correct sizing of PermGen
space is important to avoid frequent full garbage collections. Also check our
article Java 8: PermGen to Metaspace.

Exception Handling
43. What are the two types of Exceptions in Java ? Which are the
differences between them ? Java has two types of exceptions: checked
exceptions and unchecked exceptions. Unchecked exceptions do not need to be
declared in a method or a constructors throws clause, if they can be thrown by
the execution of the method or the constructor, and propagate outside the
method or constructor boundary. On the other hand, checked exceptions must
be declared in a method or a constructors throws clause. See here for tips
on Java exception handling.
44. What is the difference between Exception and Error in
java ? Exception and Error classes are both subclasses of the Throwable class.
The Exception class is used for exceptional conditions that a users program should
catch. TheError class defines exceptions that are not excepted to be caught by
the user program.
45. What is the difference between throw and throws ? The throw
keyword is used to explicitly raise a exception within the program. On the
contrary, the throws clause is used to indicate those exceptions that are not
handled by a method. Each method must explicitly specify which exceptions

does not handle, so the callers of that method can guard against possible
exceptions. Finally, multiple exceptions are separated by a comma.
45. What is the importance of finally block in exception handling ? A
finally block will always be executed, whether or not an exception is actually
thrown. Even in the case where the catch statement is missing and an exception
is thrown, the finally block will still be executed. Last thing to mention is that the
finally block is used to release resources like I/O buffers, database connections,
etc.
46. What will happen to the Exception object after exception
handling ? The Exception object will be garbage collected in the next garbage
collection.
47. How does finally block differ from finalize() method ? A finally block
will be executed whether or not an exception is thrown and is used to release
those resources held by the application. Finalize is a protected method of the
Object class, which is called by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) just before an
object is garbage collected.

Java Applets
48. What is an Applet ? A java applet is program that can be included in a
HTML page and be executed in a java enabled client browser. Applets are used
for creating dynamic and interactive web applications.
49. Explain the life cycle of an Applet. An applet may undergo the following
states:

Init: An applet is initialized each time is loaded.

Start: Begin the execution of an applet.

Stop: Stop the execution of an applet.

Destroy: Perform a final cleanup, before unloading the applet.

50. What happens when an applet is loaded ? First of all, an instance of the
applets controlling class is created. Then, the applet initializes itself and finally,
it starts running.
51. What is the difference between an Applet and a Java
Application ? Applets are executed within a java enabled browser, but a Java
application is a standalone Java program that can be executed outside of a
browser. However, they both require the existence of a Java Virtual Machine
(JVM). Furthermore, a Java application requires a main method with a specific
signature, in order to start its execution. Java applets dont need such a method

to start their execution. Finally, Java applets typically use a restrictive security
policy, while Java applications usually use more relaxed security policies.
52. What are the restrictions imposed on Java applets ? Mostly due to
security reasons, the following restrictions are imposed on Java applets:

An applet cannot load libraries or define native methods.

An applet cannot ordinarily read or write files on the execution host.

An applet cannot read certain system properties.

An applet cannot make network connections except to the host that it

came from.

An applet cannot start any program on the host thats executing it.

53. What are untrusted applets ? Untrusted applets are those Java applets
that cannot access or execute local system files. By default, all downloaded
applets are considered as untrusted.
54. What is the difference between applets loaded over the internet
and applets loaded via the file system ?Regarding the case where an applet
is loaded over the internet, the applet is loaded by the applet classloader and is
subject to the restrictions enforced by the applet security manager. Regarding
the case where an applet is loaded from the clients local disk, the applet is
loaded by the file system loader. Applets loaded via the file system are allowed
to read files, write files and to load libraries on the client. Also, applets loaded
via the file system are allowed to execute processes and finally, applets loaded
via the file system are not passed through the byte code verifier.
55. What is the applet class loader, and what does it provide ? When an
applet is loaded over the internet, the applet is loaded by the applet classloader.
The class loader enforces the Java name space hierarchy. Also, the class loader
guarantees that a unique namespace exists for classes that come from the local
file system, and that a unique namespace exists for each network source. When
a browser loads an applet over the net, that applets classes are placed in a
private namespace associated with the applets origin. Then, those classes
loaded by the class loader are passed through the verifier.The verifier checks
that the class file conforms to the Java language specification . Among other
things, the verifier ensures that there are no stack overflows or underflows and
that the parameters to all bytecode instructions are correct.
56. What is the applet security manager, and what does it provide ? The
applet security manager is a mechanism to impose restrictions on Java applets.
A browser may only have one security manager. The security manager is

established at startup, and it cannot thereafter be replaced, overloaded,

overridden, or extended.

Swing
57. What is the difference between a Choice and a List ? A Choice is
displayed in a compact form that must be pulled down, in order for a user to be
able to see the list of all available choices. Only one item may be selected from
a Choice. AList may be displayed in such a way that several List items are
visible. A List supports the selection of one or more List items.
58. What is a layout manager ? A layout manager is the used to organize the
components in a container.
59. What is the difference between a Scrollbar and a
JScrollPane ? A Scrollbar is a Component, but not aContainer. A ScrollPane is a Container.
A ScrollPane handles its own events and performs its own scrolling.
60. Which Swing methods are thread-safe ? There are only three threadsafe methods: repaint, revalidate, and invalidate.
61. Name three Component subclasses that support
painting. The Canvas, Frame, Panel, and Applet classes support painting.
62. What is clipping ? Clipping is defined as the process of confining paint
operations to a limited area or shape.
63. What is the difference between a MenuItem and a
CheckboxMenuItem ? The CheckboxMenuItem class extends the MenuItem class and
supports a menu item that may be either checked or unchecked.
64. How are the elements of a BorderLayout organized ? The elements of
a BorderLayout are organized at the borders (North, South, East, and West) and the
center of a container.
65. How are the elements of a GridBagLayout organized ? The elements
of a GridBagLayout are organized according to a grid. The elements are of different
sizes and may occupy more than one row or column of the grid. Thus, the rows
and columns may have different sizes.
66. What is the difference between a Window and a
Frame ? The Frame class extends the Window class and defines a main
application window that can have a menu bar.
67. What is the relationship between clipping and repainting ? When a
window is repainted by the AWT painting thread, it sets the clipping regions to
the area of the window that requires repainting.
68. What is the relationship between an event-listener interface and an
event-adapter class ? An event-listener interface defines the methods that

must be implemented by an event handler for a particular event. An event

adapter provides a default implementation of an event-listener interface.
69. How can a GUI component handle its own events ? A GUI component
can handle its own events, by implementing the corresponding event-listener
interface and adding itself as its own event listener.
70. What advantage do Javas layout managers provide over traditional
windowing systems ? Java uses layout managers to lay out components in a
consistent manner, across all windowing platforms. Since layout managers
arent tied to absolute sizing and positioning, they are able to accomodate
platform-specific differences among windowing systems.
71. What is the design pattern that Java uses for all Swing
components ? The design pattern used by Java for all Swing components is the
Model View Controller (MVC) pattern.

JDBC
72. What is JDBC ? JDBC is an abstraction layer that allows users to choose
between databases. JDBC enables developers to write database applications in
Java, without having to concern themselves with the underlying details of a
particular database.
73. Explain the role of Driver in JDBC. The JDBC Driver provides vendorspecific implementations of the abstract classes provided by the JDBC API. Each
driver must provide implementations for the following classes of the java.sql
package:Connection, Statement, PreparedStatement, CallableStatement, ResultSet and Driver.
74. What is the purpose Class.forName method ? This method is used to
method is used to load the driver that will establish a connection to the
database.
75. What is the advantage of PreparedStatement over
Statement ? PreparedStatements are precompiled and thus,their performance
is much better. Also, PreparedStatement objects can be reused with different
input values to their queries.
76. What is the use of CallableStatement ? Name the method, which is
used to prepare a CallableStatement. ACallableStatement is used to execute
stored procedures. Stored procedures are stored and offered by a database.
Stored procedures may take input values from the user and may return a result.
The usage of stored procedures is highly encouraged, because it offers security
and modularity.The method that prepares a CallableStatement is the following:
1 CallableStament.prepareCall();

77. What does Connection pooling mean ? The interaction with a database
can be costly, regarding the opening and closing of database connections.
Especially, when the number of database clients increases, this cost is very high
and a large number of resources is consumed.A pool of database connections is
obtained at start up by the application server and is maintained in a pool. A
request for a connection is served by a connection residing in the pool. In the
end of the connection, the request is returned to the pool and can be used to
satisfy future requests.

Remote Method Invocation (RMI)

78. What is RMI ? The Java Remote Method Invocation (Java RMI) is a Java API
that performs the object-oriented equivalent of remote procedure calls (RPC),
with support for direct transfer of serialized Java classes and distributed garbage
collection. Remote Method Invocation (RMI) can also be seen as the process of
activating a method on a remotely running object. RMI offers location
transparency because a user feels that a method is executed on a locally
running object. Check some RMI Tips here.
79. What is the basic principle of RMI architecture ? The RMI architecture
is based on a very important principle which states that the definition of the
behavior and the implementation of that behavior, are separate concepts. RMI
allows the code that defines the behavior and the code that implements the
behavior to remain separate and to run on separate JVMs.
80. What are the layers of RMI Architecture ? The RMI architecture consists
of the following layers:

Stub and Skeleton layer: This layer lies just beneath the view of the developer.

This layer is responsible for intercepting method calls made by the client to
the interface and redirect these calls to a remote RMI Service.
Remote Reference Layer: The second layer of the RMI architecture deals with

the interpretation of references made from the client to the servers remote
objects. This layer interprets and manages references made from clients to
the remote service objects. The connection is a one-to-one (unicast) link.
Transport layer: This layer is responsible for connecting the two JVM
participating in the service. This layer is based on TCP/IP connections between
machines in a network. It provides basic connectivity, as well as some firewall
penetration strategies.

81. What is the role of Remote Interface in RMI ? The Remote interface
serves to identify interfaces whose methods may be invoked from a non-local
virtual machine. Any object that is a remote object must directly or indirectly
implement this interface. A class that implements a remote interface should
declare the remote interfaces being implemented, define the constructor for
each remote object and provide an implementation for each remote method in
all remote interfaces.
82. What is the role of the java.rmi.Naming Class ? The java.rmi.Naming
class provides methods for storing and obtaining references to remote objects in
the remote object registry. Each method of the Naming class takes as one of its
arguments a name that is a String in URL format.
83. What is meant by binding in RMI ? Binding is the process of associating
or registering a name for a remote object, which can be used at a later time, in
order to look up that remote object. A remote object can be associated with a
name using the bind or rebind methods of the Naming class.
84. What is the difference between using bind() and rebind() methods
of Naming Class ? The bind method bind is responsible for binding the
specified name to a remote object, while the rebind method is responsible for
rebinding the specified name to a new remote object. In case a binding exists for
that name, the binding is replaced.
85. What are the steps involved to make work a RMI program ? The
following steps must be involved in order for a RMI program to work properly:

Compilation of all source files.

Generatation of the stubs using rmic.

Start the rmiregistry.

Start the RMIServer.

Run the client program.

86. What is the role of stub in RMI ? A stub for a remote object acts as a
clients local representative or proxy for the remote object. The caller invokes a
method on the local stub, which is responsible for executing the method on the
remote object. When a stubs method is invoked, it undergoes the following
steps:

It initiates a connection to the remote JVM containing the remote object.

It marshals the parameters to the remote JVM.

It waits for the result of the method invocation and execution.

It unmarshals the return value or an exception if the method has not been
successfully executed.

It returns the value to the caller.

87. What is DGC ? And how does it work ? DGC stands for Distributed
Garbage Collection. Remote Method Invocation (RMI) uses DGC for automatic
garbage collection. Since RMI involves remote object references across JVMs,
garbage collection can be quite difficult. DGC uses a reference counting
algorithm to provide automatic memory management for remote objects.
88. What is the purpose of using RMISecurityManager in
RMI ? RMISecurityManager provides a security manager that can be used by
RMI applications, which use downloaded code. The class loader of RMI will not
download any classes from remote locations, if the security manager has not
been set.
89. Explain Marshalling and demarshalling. When an application wants to
pass its memory objects across a network to another host or persist it to
storage, the in-memory representation must be converted to a suitable format.
This process is called marshalling and the revert operation is called
demarshalling.
90. Explain Serialization and Deserialization. Java provides a mechanism,
called object serialization where an object can be represented as a sequence of
bytes and includes the objects data, as well as information about the objects
type, and the types of data stored in the object. Thus, serialization can be seen
as a way of flattening objects, in order to be stored on disk, and later, read back
and reconstituted. Deserialisation is the reverse process of converting an object
from its flattened state to a live object.

Servlets
91. What is a Servlet ? The servlet is a Java programming language class
used to process client requests and generate dynamic web content. Servlets are
mostly used to process or store data submitted by an HTML form, provide
dynamic content and manage state information that does not exist in the
stateless HTTP protocol.
92. Explain the architechure of a Servlet. The core abstraction that must be
implemented by all servlets is the javax.servlet.Servlet interface. Each servlet
must implement it either directly or indirectly, either by extending

javax.servlet.GenericServlet or javax.servlet.http.HTTPServlet. Finally, each

servlet is able to serve multiple requests in parallel using multithreading.
93. What is the difference between an Applet and a Servlet ? An Applet
is a client side java program that runs within a Web browser on the client
machine. On the other hand, a servlet is a server side component that runs on
the web server.An applet can use the user interface classes, while a servlet does
not have a user interface. Instead, a servlet waits for clients HTTP requests and
generates a response in every request.
94. What is the difference between GenericServlet and
HttpServlet ? GenericServlet is a generalized and protocol-independent servlet
that implements the Servlet and ServletConfig interfaces. Those servlets
extending the GenericServlet class shall override the service method. Finally, in
order to develop an HTTP servlet for use on the Web that serves requests using
the HTTP protocol, your servlet must extend the HttpServlet instead.
Check Servlet examples here.
95. Explain the life cycle of a Servlet. On every clients request, the Servlet
Engine loads the servlets and invokes its init methods, in order for the servlet to
be initialized. Then, the Servlet object handles all subsequent requests coming
from that client, by invoking the service method for each request separately.
Finally, the servlet is removed by calling the servers destroy method.
96. What is the difference between doGet() and doPost() ? doGET: The GET
method appends the name-value pairs on the requests URL. Thus, there is a
limit on the number of characters and subsequently on the number of values
that can be used in a clients request. Furthermore, the values of the request are
made visible and thus, sensitive information must not be passed in that
way. doPOST: The POST method overcomes the limit imposed by the GET request,
by sending the values of the request inside its body. Also, there is no limitations
on the number of values to be sent across. Finally, the sensitive information
passed through a POST request is not visible to an external client.
97. What is meant by a Web Application ? A Web application is a dynamic
extension of a Web or application server. There are two types of web
applications: presentation-oriented and service-oriented. A presentationoriented Web application generates interactive web pages, which contain
various types of markup language and dynamic content in response to requests.
On the other hand, a service-oriented web application implements the endpoint
of a web service. In general, a Web application can be seen as a collection of
servlets installed under a specific subset of the servers URL namespace.

98. What is a Server Side Include (SSI) ? Server Side Includes (SSI) is a
simple interpreted server-side scripting language, used almost exclusively for
the Web, and is embedded with a servlet tag. The most frequent use of SSI is to
include the contents of one or more files into a Web page on a Web server. When
a Web page is accessed by a browser, the Web server replaces the servlet tag in
that Web page with the hyper text generated by the corresponding servlet.
99. What is Servlet Chaining ? Servlet Chaining is the method where the
output of one servlet is sent to a second servlet. The output of the second
servlet can be sent to a third servlet, and so on. The last servlet in the chain is
responsible for sending the response to the client.
100. How do you find out what client machine is making a request to
your servlet ? The ServletRequest class has functions for finding out the IP
address or host name of the client machine. getRemoteAddr() gets the IP
address of the client machine and getRemoteHost() gets the host name of the
client machine. See example here.
101. What is the structure of the HTTP response ? The HTTP response
consists of three parts:

Status Code: describes the status of the response. It can be used to

check if the request has been successfully completed. In case the request
failed, the status code can be used to find out the reason behind the failure. If
your servlet does not return a status code, the success status code,
HttpServletResponse.SC_OK, is returned by default.
HTTP Headers: they contain more information about the response. For

example, the headers may specify the date/time after which the response is
considered stale, or the form of encoding used to safely transfer the entity to
the user. Seehow to retrieve headers in Servlet here.
Body: it contains the content of the response. The body may contain

HTML code, an image, etc. The body consists of the data bytes transmitted in
an HTTP transaction message immediately following the headers.
102. What is a cookie ? What is the difference between session and
cookie ? A cookie is a bit of information that the Web server sends to the
browser. The browser stores the cookies for each Web server in a local file. In a
future request, the browser, along with the request, sends all stored cookies for
that specific Web server.The differences between session and a cookie are the
following:

The session should work, regardless of the settings on the client browser.
The client may have chosen to disable cookies. However, the sessions still
work, as the client has no ability to disable them in the server side.

The session and cookies also differ in the amount of information the can
store. The HTTP session is capable of storing any Java object, while a cookie
can only store String objects.

103. Which protocol will be used by browser and servlet to

communicate ? The browser communicates with a servlet by using the HTTP
protocol.
104. What is HTTP Tunneling ? HTTP Tunneling is a technique by which,
communications performed using various network protocols are encapsulated
using the HTTP or HTTPS protocols. The HTTP protocol therefore acts as a
wrapper for a channel that the network protocol being tunneled uses to
communicate. The masking of other protocol requests as HTTP requests is HTTP
Tunneling.
105. Whats the difference between sendRedirect and forward methods
? The sendRedirect method creates a new request, while the forward method
just forwards a request to a new target. The previous request scope objects are
not available after a redirect, because it results in a new request. On the other
hand, the previous request scope objects are available after forwarding. FInally,
in general, the sendRedirect method is considered to be slower compare to the
forward method.
106. What is URL Encoding and URL Decoding ? The URL encoding
procedure is responsible for replacing all the spaces and every other extra
special character of a URL, into their corresponding Hex representation. In
correspondence, URL decoding is the exact opposite procedure.

JSP
107. What is a JSP Page ? A Java Server Page (JSP) is a text document that
contains two types of text: static data and JSP elements. Static data can be
expressed in any text-based format, such as HTML or XML. JSP is a technology
that mixes static content with dynamically-generated content. See JSP example
here.
108. How are the JSP requests handled ? On the arrival of a JSP request, the
browser first requests a page with a .jsp extension. Then, the Web server reads
the request and using the JSP compiler, the Web server converts the JSP page
into a servlet class. Notice that the JSP file is compiled only on the first request
of the page, or if the JSP file has changed.The generated servlet class is invoked,
in order to handle the browsers request. Once the execution of the request is

over, the servlet sends a response back to the client. See how to get Request
parameters in a JSP.
109. What are the advantages of JSP ? The advantages of using the JSP
technology are shown below:

JSP pages are dynamically compiled into servlets and thus, the developers
can easily make updates to presentation code.

JSP pages can be pre-compiled.

JSP pages can be easily combined to static templates, including HTML or

XML fragments, with code that generates dynamic content.

Developers can offer customized JSP tag libraries that page authors
access using an XML-like syntax.

Developers can make logic changes at the component level, without

editing the individual pages that use the applications logic.

110. What are Directives ? What are the different types of Directives
available in JSP ? Directives are instructions that are processed by the JSP
engine, when the page is compiled to a servlet. Directives are used to set pagelevel instructions, insert data from external files, and specify custom tag
libraries. Directives are defined between < %@ and % > .The different types of
directives are shown below:

Include directive : it is used to include a file and merges the content of the file

with the current page.

Page directive : it is used to define specific attributes in the JSP page, like

error page and buffer.

Taglib : it is used to declare a custom tag library which is used in the page.

111. What are JSP actions ? JSP actions use constructs in XML syntax to
control the behavior of the servlet engine. JSP actions are executed when a JSP
page is requested. They can be dynamically inserted into a file, re-use
JavaBeans components, forward the user to another page, or generate HTML for
the Java plugin.Some of the available actions are listed below:

jsp:include includes a file, when the JSP page is requested.

jsp:useBean

jsp:setProperty

sets the property of a JavaBean.

jsp:getProperty

gets the property of a JavaBean.

jsp:forward

jsp:plugin

finds or instantiates a JavaBean.

forwards the requester to a new page.

generates browser-specific code.

112. What are Scriptlets ? In Java Server Pages (JSP) technology, a scriptlet is
a piece of Java-code embedded in a JSP page. The scriptlet is everything inside
the tags. Between these tags, a user can add any valid scriplet.
113. What are Decalarations ? Declarations are similar to variable
declarations in Java. Declarations are used to declare variables for subsequent
use in expressions or scriptlets. To add a declaration, you must use the
sequences to enclose your declarations.
114. What are Expressions ? A JSP expression is used to insert the value of a
scripting language expression, converted into a string, into the data stream
returned to the client, by the web server. Expressions are defined between <% =
and %> tags.
115. What is meant by implicit objects and what are they ? JSP implicit
objects are those Java objects that the JSP Container makes available to
developers in each page. A developer can call them directly, without being
explicitly declared. JSP Implicit Objects are also called pre-defined variables.The
following objects are considered implicit in a JSP page:

application

page

request

response

session

exception

out

config

pageContext