Java Interview Questions 1

 What is JVM ? Why is Java called the Platform Independent Programming Lan-guage?

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.

 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.

 What does the “static” keyword mean ?Can you override private or staticmethod
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.

 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.

 What are the Data Types supported by Java ? What is Autoboxing and Unbox-ing ?

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.
Java Interview Questions 2

 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.

 What is a Constructor, Constructor Overloading in Java and Copy-Constructor

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
doesn’t create a default copy constructor if you don’t write your own.

 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.

 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.

 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 doesn’t 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 Interview Questions 3

 What is the difference between processes and threads ?

A process is an execution of a program, while a Thread is a single execution sequence within a process. A process can contain
multiple threads. A Thread is sometimes called a lightweight process.

 Explain different ways of creating a thread. Which one would you prefer andwhy ?

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.

 Explain the available thread states in a high-level.

During its execution, a thread can reside in one of the following states:

• Runnable: A thread becomes ready to run, but does not necessarily start running immediately.

• Running: The processor is actively executing the thread code.

• Waiting: A thread is in a blocked state waiting for some external processing to finish.

• Sleeping: The thread is forced to sleep.

• Blocked on I/O: Waiting for an I/O operation to complete.

• Blocked on Synchronization: Waiting to acquire a lock.

• Dead: The thread has finished its execution.

 What is the difference between a synchronized method and a synchronizedblock ?

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).

 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.
 Java Interview Questions 4

 What’s 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.

 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.

 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.

 Why Collection doesn’t 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 don’t.
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.

 What is an Iterator ?

The Iterator interface provides a number of methods that are able to iterate over any Collection. Each Java Collection contains
the iterator method that returns an Iterator instance. Iterators are capable of removing elements from the underlying collection
during the iteration.

 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 ListIterator can be used to iterate only over Lists.
• The Iterator can traverse a collection only in forward direction, while the ListIterator can traverse a List in both directions.
The ListIterator implements the Iterator interface and contains extra functionality, such as adding an element, replacing an
element, getting the index position for previous and next elements, etc
Java Interview Questions 5

 What is difference between fail-fast and fail-safe ?

The Iterator’s fail-safe 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.

 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.

 What is the importance of hashCode() and equals() methods ?

In Java, a HashMap uses the hashCode and equals methods to determine the index of the key-value pair and to detect duplicates.
More specifically, the hashCode method 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.

 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 Hashtable doesn’t allow neither null keys, nor null values.

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

 What is difference between Array and ArrayList ? When will you use Array over
ArrayList ?

The Array and ArrayList classes differ on the following features:

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

• Arrays have fixed size, while an ArrayList is dynamic.

• An ArrayList provides more methods and features, such 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.
Java Interview Questions 6

 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.

 What is Comparable and Comparator interface ? List their differences.

Java provides the Comparable interface, 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.

 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
doesn’t allow null values, those objects that doesn’t provide natural ordering, or those objects that don’t 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.

 What do you know about the big-O notation and can you give some exampleswith
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 ele-
ments in a data structure increases. The Big-O 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.

 What is the tradeoff between using an unordered array versus an orderedarray ?

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).
Java Interview Questions 7

 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 application’s 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 the ClassCastException
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 hashCode and equals methods for our custom class.

• Program in terms of interface not implementation.

• Return zero-length collections or arrays as opposed to returning a null in case the underlying collection is actually empty.

 What’s 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.

 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).

 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.

 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.

 When is the finalize() called ? What is the purpose of finalization ?

The finalize method is called by the garbage collector, just before releasing the object’s memory. It is normally advised to release
resources held by the object inside the finalize method.

 If an object reference is set to null, will the Garbage Collector immediately freethe
memory held by that object ?
Java Interview Questions 8

No, the object will be available for garbage collection in the next cycle of the garbage collector.

 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.

 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 applica-
tions 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).

 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.

 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.

 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 constructor’s 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 constructor’s throws clause. See here for tips on Java exception handling.

 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 user’s program should catch. The Error class defines exceptions that are not excepted to be caught by the user program.

 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.
Java Interview Questions 9

 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.

 What will happen to the Exception object after exception handling ?

The Exception object will be garbage collected in the next garbage collection.

 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.

 What is JDBC ?

JDBC is an abstraction layer that allows users to choose between databases. JDBC enables developers to write database applica-
tions in Java, without having to concern themselves with the underlying details of a particular database.

 Explain the role of Driver in JDBC.

The JDBC Driver provides vendor-specific 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.

 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.

 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.

 What is the use of CallableStatement ? Name the method, which is used toprepare a
CallableStatement.

A CallableStatement 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: CallableStament.
prepareCall();
Java Interview Questions 10

 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

 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 object’s data, as well as information about the object’s 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

 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.

 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.

 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 client’s HTTP requests and generates a response in every request.

 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.

 Explain the life cycle of a Servlet.

On every client’s 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 server’s destroy method.
Java Interview Questions 11

 What is the difference between doGet() and doPost() ?

doGET: The GET method appends the name-value pairs on the request’s URL. Thus, there is a limit on the number of characters
and subsequently on the number of values that can be used in a client’s 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.

 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 presentation-oriented 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 server’s URL namespace.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 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. See how 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.
Java Interview Questions 12

 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.

 Which protocol will be used by browser and servlet to communicate ?

The browser communicates with a servlet by using the HTTP protocol.

 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.

 What’s 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.

 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.

 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.

 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 browser’s
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.
Java Interview Questions 13

 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 application’s logic.

 What are Directives ? What are the different types of Directives available inJSP ?

Directives are instructions that are processed by the JSP engine, when the page is compiled to a servlet. Directives are used to
set page-level 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.

 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- finds or instantiates a JavaBean.
• jsp:setProperty- sets the property of a JavaBean.
• jsp:getProperty- gets the property of a JavaBean.
• jsp:forward- forwards the requester to a new page.
• jsp:plugin- generates browser-specific code.

 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.

 What are Decalarations ?

Declarations are similar to variable declarations in Java. Declarations are used to declare variables for subsequent use in expres-
sions or scriptlets. To add a declaration, you must use the sequences to enclose your declarations.

 What are Expressions ?

Java Interview Questions 14

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.

 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

 What is Spring?
The Spring Framework is an application framework and inversion of control container for the Java platform.

 What are the common implementations of the ApplicationContext?

ClassPathXmlApplicationContext
FileSystemXmlApplicationContext
AnnotationConfigApplicationContext
GenericWebApplicationContext
XmlWebApplicationContext
AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext

 What is the difference between Bean Factory and ApplicationContext?

BeanFactory ApplicationContext

Annotation support No Yes

BeanPostProcessor Registration Manual Automatic

Implementation XMLBeanFactory ClassPath/FileSystem/WebXmlApplicationContext

Internationalization No Yes

Enterprise services No Yes

ApplicationEvent publication No Yes

 Java Interview Questions 15

 What are Spring beans?

Spring Bean is an object, which is created, managed and destroyed in Spring Container. We can inject an object into the
Spring Container through the metadata(either xml or annotation), which is called inversion of control.

 What does a Spring Bean definition contain?

The objects that form the backbone of your application and that are managed by the Spring IoC container are called
beans.
A bean is an object that is instantiated, assembled, and managed by a Spring IoC container.
Otherwise, a bean is simply one of many objects in your application.

 How do you provide configuration metadata to the Spring Container?

In order to generate this configuration metadata, we'll use the configuration processor from the spring-boot-
configuration-processor dependency.
This dependency will provide us with a Java annotation processor invoked when we build our project.

 How do you define the scope of a bean?

A bean's scope refers to the lifecycle of the bean; things like how long the bean will live, how many instances will be
created, and how the bean is shared in the Spring environment.
The default scope for the bean is a singleton, like the example below, in which we haven't explicitly given a scope.

 Explain the bean scopes supported by Spring

Spring Bean Scopes allows us to have more granular control of the bean instances creation.
Sometimes we want to create bean instance as singleton but in some other cases we might want it to be created on every
request or once in a session

 Which are the Spring framework modules?

The Spring framework comprises of many modules such as core, beans, context, expression language, AOP, Aspects,
Instrumentation, JDBC, ORM, OXM, JMS, Transaction, Web, Servlet, Struts etc. These modules are grouped into Test,
Core Container, AOP, Aspects, Instrumentation, Data Access / Integration, Web (MVC / Remoting)

 Explain the AOP module

Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) compliments OOPs in the sense that it also provides modularity. But the key unit
of modularity is aspect than class.
AOP breaks the program logic into distinct parts (called concerns). It is used to increase modularity by cross-cutting
concerns.
A cross-cutting concern is a concern that can affect the whole application and should be centralized in one location in
code as possible, such as transaction management, authentication, logging, security etc.

 Explain the JDBC abstraction and DAO module

JDBC and DAO ,JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) is a Java software component used to connect to databases, send
queries, and receive results.
The DAO (Data Access Object) is an interface that serves as a bridge between the application and the data source.
It abstracts the underlying data access implementation, making it easier for the application to manage and access
databases.

 Explain the object/relational mapping integration module

Object-relational mapping (ORM) is a way to align programming code with database structures.
ORM uses metadata descriptors to create a layer between the programming language and a relational database.
It thus connects object-oriented program (OOP) code with the database and simplifies the interaction between relational
databases and OOP languages.

 Explain the Spring MVC module

The Spring Web model-view-controller (MVC) framework is designed around a DispatcherServlet that dispatches
requests to handlers, with configurable handler mappings, view resolution, locale and theme resolution as well as support
for uploading files.
Java Interview Questions 16

 Explain Spring configuration file

Spring bean configuration file contains spring bean configurations, dependent value configurations, and other
miscellaneous configurations.
Any name can be given to Spring Bean configuration file with .xml extension.
<beans> tag is the root element., this encloses all the spring definitions.
<bean> tag defines spring bean i.e. a java class to be initialized and managed by spring core container.

 What is Spring IoC container?

IoC container is a framework for implementing automated dependency injection.
It contains object creation for the longer ways to use and injects dependencies within the class.

 What are the benefits of IOC?

One of the key advantages is improved modularity. You may develop independent, reusable modules by separating
dependencies from objects.
This modularity enables easier maintenance and extensibility of your codebase

 What is Controller in Spring MVC framework?

A controller contains the business logic of an application.
Here, the @Controller annotation is used to mark the class as the controller.

 What is the use of @Controller annotation

The @Controller annotation is used to mark the class as the controller.

 What is the use of @RequestMapping annotation

The @RequestMapping annotation is used to map requests to controllers methods.
It has various attributes to match by URL, HTTP method, request parameters, headers, and media types.

 What is the difference between static method and instance method in Java?
Often, there is a need to define a behavior for a class that is not dependent on member variables of an object.
Such behavior is captured in a static method.
If there is a behavior dependent upon the member variables of an object, then we do not mark it static, it remains as
instance method.
To call as static method, we do not need to create an object. We just call it with class name.
But to call an instance method, we need to create/get an object first.

 How will you implement method overloading in Java?

In Java, a class can have multiple methods with same name but different arguments. It is called Method Overloading.
To implement method overloading we have to create two methods with same name in a class and do one/more of the
following:
1. Different number of parameters
2. Different data type of parameters
3. Different sequence of data type of parameters

 What kinds of argument variations are allowed in Method Overloading?

Method Overloading allows two methods with same name to differ in:
1. Number of parameters
2. Data type of parameters
3. Sequence of data type of parameters

 What is CAP theorem?

CAP(Consistency-Availability-Partition Tolerance) theorem says that a distributed system cannot guarantee C, A and P
simultaneously.
It can at max provide any 2 of the 3 guarantees. Let us understand this with the help of a distributed database system.
Consistency: This states that the data has to remain consistent after the execution of an operation in the database.
Availability: The databases cannot have downtime and should be available and responsive always.
Partition Tolerance: The database system should be functioning despite the communication becoming unstable.
Java Interview Questions 17

 How is Horizontal scaling different from Vertical scaling?

Horizontal scaling refers to the addition of more computing machines to the network that shares the processing and
memory workload across a distributed network of devices.
Vertical scaling refers to the concept of upgrading the resource capacity such as increasing RAM, adding efficient
processors etc of a single machine or switching to a new machine with more capacity.
The capability of the server can be enhanced without the need for code manipulation.

 What is Sharding?
Sharding is a process of splitting the large logical dataset into multiple databases. It also refers to horizontal partitioning
of data as it will be stored on multiple machines.

 What are some of the design issues in distributed systems?

Heterogeneity: The Internet allows applications to run over a heterogeneous collection of computers and networks.
There would be different types of networks and the differences are masked by the usage of standard Internet protocols for
communicating with each other. This becomes an issue while designing distributed applications
Openness: Openness represents the measure by which a system can be extended and re-implemented in different ways.
Security: The confidentiality, availability and integrity of the distributed systems have to be maintained and this
sometimes becomes a challenge.
Scalability: A system is scalable if it remains effective when there is a significant increase in the request traffic and
resources.
Failure Handling: It becomes challenging to handle these failures as it involves identifying the right components where
the failures occur.