Hibernate Interview Questions:

1.What is ORM ?

ORM stands for object/relational mapping. ORM is the automated

persistence of objects in a Java application to the tables in a relational
database.

2.What does ORM consists of ?

An ORM solution consists of the followig four pieces:

• API for performing basic CRUD operations

• API to express queries refering to classes
• Facilities to specify metadata
• Optimization facilities : dirty checking,lazy associations fetching

3.What are the ORM levels ?

The ORM levels are:

• Pure relational (stored procedure.)

• Light objects mapping (JDBC)
• Medium object mapping
• Full object Mapping (composition,inheritance, polymorphism,
persistence by reachability)

4.What is Hibernate?
Hibernate is a pure Java object-relational mapping (ORM) and
persistence framework that allows you to map plain old Java objects to
relational database tables using (XML) configuration files.Its purpose is
to relieve the developer from a significant amount of relational data
persistence-related programming tasks.

5.Why do you need ORM tools like hibernate?

The main advantage of ORM like hibernate is that it shields developers
from messy SQL. Apart from this, ORM provides following benefits:

• Improved productivity
o High-level object-oriented API
o Less Java code to write
o No SQL to write
• Improved performance
 o Sophisticated caching
o Lazy loading
o Eager loading
• Improved maintainability
o A lot less code to write
• Improved portability
o ORM framework generates database-specific SQL for you

6.What Does Hibernate Simplify?

Hibernate simplifies:

• Saving and retrieving your domain objects

• Making database column and table name changes
• Centralizing pre save and post retrieve logic
• Complex joins for retrieving related items
• Schema creation from object model

7.What is the need for Hibernate xml mapping file?

Hibernate mapping file tells Hibernate which tables and columns to use
to load and store objects. Typical mapping file look as follows:

8.What are the most common methods of Hibernate configuration?

The most common methods of Hibernate configuration are:

• Programmatic configuration
• XML configuration (hibernate.cfg.xml)

9.What are the important tags of hibernate.cfg.xml?

Following are the important tags of hibernate.cfg.xml:
10.What are the Core interfaces are of Hibernate framework?
The five core interfaces are used in just about every Hibernate
application. Using these interfaces, you can store and retrieve
persistent objects and control transactions.

• Session interface
• SessionFactory interface
• Configuration interface
• Transaction interface
• Query and Criteria interfaces

11.What role does the Session interface play in Hibernate?

The Session interface is the primary interface used by Hibernate
applications. It is a single-threaded, short-lived object representing a
conversation between the application and the persistent store. It
allows you to create query objects to retrieve persistent objects.

Session session = sessionFactory.openSession();

Session interface role:

• Wraps a JDBC connection

• Factory for Transaction
 • Holds a mandatory (first-level) cache of persistent objects, used
when navigating the object graph or looking up objects by
identifier

12.What role does the SessionFactory interface play in Hibernate?

The application obtains Session instances from a SessionFactory.
There is typically a single SessionFactory for the whole application—
created during application initialization. The SessionFactory caches
generate SQL statements and other mapping metadata that Hibernate
uses at runtime. It also holds cached data that has been read in one
unit of work and may be reused in a future unit of work

SessionFactory sessionFactory = configuration.buildSessionFactory();

13.What is the general flow of Hibernate communication with RDBMS?

The general flow of Hibernate communication with RDBMS is :

• Load the Hibernate configuration file and create configuration

object. It will automatically load all hbm mapping files
• Create session factory from configuration object
• Get one session from this session factory
• Create HQL Query
• Execute query to get list containing Java objects

14.What is Hibernate Query Language (HQL)?

Hibernate offers a query language that embodies a very powerful and
flexible mechanism to query, store, update, and retrieve objects from
a database. This language, the Hibernate query Language (HQL), is an
object-oriented extension to SQL.

15.How do you map Java Objects with Database tables?

• First we need to write Java domain objects (beans with setter

and getter).
• Write hbm.xml, where we map java class to table and database
columns to Java class variables.

Example :
<hibernate-mapping>
<class name="com.test.User" table="user">
<property column="USER_NAME" length="255"
name="userName" not-null="true" type="java.lang.String"/>
 <property column="USER_PASSWORD" length="255"
name="userPassword" not-null="true" type="java.lang.String"/>
</class>
</hibernate-mapping>

16.What’s the difference between load() and get()?

load() vs. get() :-

load() get()
If you are not sure that the
Only use the load() method if you
object exists, then use one of the
are sure that the object exists.
get() methods.
load() method will throw an get() method will return null if
exception if the unique id is not the unique id is not found in the
found in the database. database.
load() just returns a proxy by
get() will hit the database
default and database won’t be hit
immediately.
until the proxy is first invoked.

17.What is the difference between and merge and update ?

Use update() if you are sure that the session does not contain an
already persistent instance with the same identifier, and merge() if
you want to merge your modifications at any time without
consideration of the state of the session.

18.How do you define sequence generated primary key in hibernate?

Using <generator> tag.

Example:-

<id column="USER_ID" name="id" type="java.lang.Long">

<generator class="sequence">
<param name="table">SEQUENCE_NAME</param>
<generator>
</id>

19.Define cascade and inverse option in one-many mapping?

cascade - enable operations to cascade to child entities.
cascade="all|none|save-update|delete|all-delete-orphan"
inverse - mark this collection as the "inverse" end of a bidirectional
association.
inverse="true|false"
Essentially "inverse" indicates which end of a relationship should be
ignored, so when persisting a parent who has a collection of children,
should you ask the parent for its list of children, or ask the children
who the parents are?

20.What do you mean by Named – SQL query?

Named SQL queries are defined in the mapping xml document and
called wherever required.
Example:
<sql-query name = "empdetails">
<return alias="emp" class="com.test.Employee"/>
SELECT emp.EMP_ID AS {emp.empid},
emp.EMP_ADDRESS AS {emp.address},
emp.EMP_NAME AS {emp.name}
FROM Employee EMP WHERE emp.NAME LIKE :name
</sql-query>

Invoke Named Query :

List people = session.getNamedQuery("empdetails")
.setString("TomBrady", name)
.setMaxResults(50)
.list();

21.How do you invoke Stored Procedures?

<sql-query name="selectAllEmployees_SP" callable="true">

<return alias="emp" class="employee">
<return-property name="empid" column="EMP_ID"/>

<return-property name="name" column="EMP_NAME"/>

<return-property name="address" column="EMP_ADDRESS"/>
{ ? = call selectAllEmployees() }
</return>
</sql-query>

22.Explain Criteria API

Criteria is a simplified API for retrieving entities by composing Criterion
objects. This is a very convenient approach for functionality like
"search" screens where there is a variable number of conditions to be
placed upon the result set.
Example :
List employees = session.createCriteria(Employee.class)
.add(Restrictions.like("name", "a%") )
.add(Restrictions.like("address", "Boston"))
.addOrder(Order.asc("name") )
.list();

23.Define HibernateTemplate?
org.springframework.orm.hibernate.HibernateTemplate is a helper
class which provides different methods for querying/retrieving data
from the database. It also converts checked HibernateExceptions into
unchecked DataAccessExceptions.

24.What are the benefits does HibernateTemplate provide?

The benefits of HibernateTemplate are :

• HibernateTemplate, a Spring Template class simplifies

interactions with Hibernate Session.
• Common functions are simplified to single method calls.
• Sessions are automatically closed.
• Exceptions are automatically caught and converted to runtime
exceptions.

25.How do you switch between relational databases without code

changes?
Using Hibernate SQL Dialects , we can switch databases. Hibernate will
generate appropriate hql queries based on the dialect defined.

26.If you want to see the Hibernate generated SQL statements on

console, what should we do?
In Hibernate configuration file set as follows:
<property name="show_sql">true</property>

27.What are derived properties?

The properties that are not mapped to a column, but calculated at
runtime by evaluation of an expression are called derived properties.
The expression can be defined using the formula attribute of the
element.
28.What is component mapping in Hibernate?

• A component is an object saved as a value, not as a reference

• A component can be saved directly without needing to declare
interfaces or identifier properties
• Required to define an empty constructor
• Shared references not supported

Example:

29.What is the difference between sorted and ordered collection in

hibernate?
sorted collection vs. order collection :-
sorted collection order collection
A sorted collection is sorting a Order collection is sorting a
collection by utilizing the sorting collection by specifying the order-
features provided by the Java by clause for sorting this collection
collections framework. The sorting when retrieval.
occurs in the memory of JVM
which running Hibernate, after the
data being read from database
using java comparator.
If your collection is not large, it If your collection is very large, it
will be more efficient way to sort will be more efficient way to sort it
it. .

31.What is the advantage of Hibernate over jdbc?

Hibernate Vs. JDBC :-

JDBC Hibernate
Hibernate is flexible and powerful
With JDBC, developer has to write
ORM solution to map Java classes
code to map an object model's
to database tables. Hibernate itself
data representation to a relational
takes care of this mapping using
data model and its corresponding
XML files so developer does not
database schema.
need to write code for this.
With JDBC, the automatic mapping Hibernate provides transparent
of Java objects with database persistence and developer does
tables and vice versa conversion is not need to write code explicitly to
to be taken care of by the map database tables tuples to
developer manually with lines of application objects during
code. interaction with RDBMS.
Hibernate provides a powerful
query language Hibernate Query
Language (independent from type
JDBC supports only native
of database) that is expressed in a
Structured Query Language (SQL).
familiar SQL like syntax and
Developer has to find out the
includes full support for
efficient way to access database,
polymorphic queries. Hibernate
i.e. to select effective query from
also supports native SQL
a number of queries to perform
statements. It also selects an
same task.
effective way to perform a
database manipulation task for an
application.
Application using JDBC to handle Hibernate provides this mapping
persistent data (database tables) itself. The actual mapping between
having database specific code in tables and application objects is
large amount. The code written to done in XML files. If there is
map table data to application change in Database or in any table
objects and vice versa is actually
to map table fields to object
properties. As table changed or
database changed then it’s then the only need to change XML
essential to change object file properties.
structure as well as to change
code written to map table-to-
object/object-to-table.
Hibernate reduces lines of code by
With JDBC, it is developer’s
maintaining object-table mapping
responsibility to handle JDBC
itself and returns result to
result set and convert it to Java
application in form of Java objects.
objects through code to use this
It relieves programmer from
persistent data in application. So
manual handling of persistent
with JDBC, mapping between Java
data, hence reducing the
objects and database tables is
development time and
done manually.
maintenance cost.
Hibernate, with Transparent
Persistence, cache is set to
application work space. Relational
tuples are moved to this cache as
a result of query. It improves
With JDBC, caching is maintained performance if client application
by hand-coding. reads same data many times for
same write. Automatic
Transparent Persistence allows the
developer to concentrate more on
business logic rather than this
application code.
In JDBC there is no check that Hibernate enables developer to
always every user has updated define version type field to
data. This check has to be added application, due to this defined
by the developer. field Hibernate updates version
field of database table every time
relational tuple is updated in form
of Java class object to that table.
So if two users retrieve same tuple
and then modify it and one user
save this modified tuple to
database, version is automatically
updated for this tuple by
 Hibernate. When other user tries
to save updated tuple to database
then it does not allow saving it
because this user does not have
updated data.

32.What are the Collection types in Hibernate ?

• Bag
• Set
• List
• Array
• Map

33.What are the ways to express joins in HQL?

HQL provides four ways of expressing (inner and outer) joins:-

• An implicit association join

• An ordinary join in the FROM clause
• A fetch join in the FROM clause.
• A theta-style join in the WHERE clause.

34.Define cascade and inverse option in one-many mapping?

cascade - enable operations to cascade to child entities.
cascade="all|none|save-update|delete|all-delete-orphan"

inverse - mark this collection as the "inverse" end of a bidirectional

association.
inverse="true|false"
Essentially "inverse" indicates which end of a relationship should be
ignored, so when persisting a parent who has a collection of children,
should you ask the parent for its list of children, or ask the children
who the parents are?

35.What is Hibernate proxy?

The proxy attribute enables lazy initialization of persistent instances of
the class. Hibernate will initially return CGLIB proxies which implement
the named interface. The actual persistent object will be loaded when
a method of the proxy is invoked.
36.How can Hibernate be configured to access an instance variable
directly and not through a setter method ?
By mapping the property with access="field" in Hibernate metadata.
This forces hibernate to bypass the setter method and access the
instance variable directly while initializing a newly loaded object.

37.How can a whole class be mapped as immutable?

Mark the class as mutable="false" (Default is true),. This specifies that

instances of the class are (not) mutable. Immutable classes, may not
be updated or deleted by the application.

38.What is the use of dynamic-insert and dynamic-update attributes in

a class mapping?
Criteria is a simplified API for retrieving entities by composing Criterion
objects. This is a very convenient approach for functionality like
"search" screens where there is a variable number of conditions to be
placed upon the result set.

• dynamic-update (defaults to false): Specifies that UPDATE SQL

should be generated at runtime and contain only those columns
whose values have changed
• dynamic-insert (defaults to false): Specifies that INSERT SQL
should be generated at runtime and contain only the columns
whose values are not null.

39.What do you mean by fetching strategy ?

A fetching strategy is the strategy Hibernate will use for retrieving
associated objects if the application needs to navigate the association.
Fetch strategies may be declared in the O/R mapping metadata, or
over-ridden by a particular HQL or Criteria query.

40.What is automatic dirty checking?

Automatic dirty checking is a feature that saves us the effort of
explicitly asking Hibernate to update the database when we modify the
state of an object inside a transaction.

41.What is transactional write-behind?

Hibernate uses a sophisticated algorithm to determine an efficient
ordering that avoids database foreign key constraint violations but is
still sufficiently predictable to the user. This feature is called
transactional write-behind.
42.What are Callback interfaces?
Callback interfaces allow the application to receive a notification when
something interesting happens to an object—for example, when an
object is loaded, saved, or deleted. Hibernate applications don't need
to implement these callbacks, but they're useful for implementing
certain kinds of generic functionality.

43.What are the types of Hibernate instance states ?

Three types of instance states:

• Transient -The instance is not associated with any persistence

context
• Persistent -The instance is associated with a persistence context
• Detached -The instance was associated with a persistence
context which has been closed – currently not associated

44.What are the differences between EJB 3.0 & Hibernate

Hibernate Vs EJB 3.0 :-
Hibernate EJB 3.0
Persistence Context-Set of
Session–Cache or collection of
entities that can be managed by a
loaded objects relating to a single
given EntityManager is defined by
unit of work
a persistence unit
XDoclet Annotations used to Java 5.0 Annotations used to
support Attribute Oriented support Attribute Oriented
Programming Programming
Defines HQL for expressing Defines EJB QL for expressing
queries to the database queries
Supports Entity Relationships
Support Entity Relationships
through mapping files and
through Java 5.0 annotations
annotations in JavaDoc
Provides a Persistence Manager
Provides and Entity Manager
API exposed via the Session,
Interface for managing CRUD
Query, Criteria, and Transaction
operations for an Entity
API
Provides callback support Provides callback support
through lifecycle, interceptor, and through Entity Listener and
validatable interfaces Callback methods
Entity Relationships are
unidirectional. Bidirectional Entity Relationships are
relationships are implemented by bidirectional or unidirectional
two unidirectional relationships

45.What are the types of inheritance models in Hibernate?

There are three types of inheritance models in Hibernate:

• Table per class hierarchy

• Table per subclass
• Table per concrete class