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 overridestatic 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 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.

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 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 Threads

11. 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.
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:

 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.

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. 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.

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 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.
20. 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. 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 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.
22. 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.
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 ? A HashMap in Java uses
the hashCode and equals methods to determine the index of the key-value pair. These methods are
also used when we request the value of a specific key. If these methods are not implemented
correctly, two different keys might produce the same hash value and thus, will be considered as
equal by the collection. Furthermore, these methods are also used to detect duplicates. Thus, the
implementation of both methods is crucial to the accuracy and correctness 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 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.
26. 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.
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 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.
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 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.

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 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.

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 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.
33. 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, Iterators allow 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 object’s 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 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.

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 user’s program should catch. The Error 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 applet’s 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 don’t 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 that’s 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 client’s 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 applet’s classes are placed in a private namespace
associated with the applet’s 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. A List 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 a Container . 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 thread-safe 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 Java’s 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 aren’t 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 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 Drive
r.

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 server’s 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 client’s 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 stub’s 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 JVM’s, 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 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.

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 client’s 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 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.
96. 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.

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 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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 browser’s request. Once the execution of the request is over,
the servlet sends a response back to the client. Seehow 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 application’s 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 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.

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 – 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.

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