Core Java
• Differences between HashMap, ConcurrentHashMap, LinkedHashMap, TreeMap
• Memory management and garbage collection in Java
• final vs finally vs finalize()
• Preventing memory leaks
• Difference between == and .equals()
• Shallow copy vs deep copy
• Creating immutable classes
• Functional interfaces and examples
Multithreading & Concurrency
• synchronized vs Lock interface
• volatile keyword usage
• Callable, Future, CompletableFuture
• Avoiding deadlocks
• wait() vs sleep()
• When to use ConcurrentHashMap
Spring Framework
• Spring Bean lifecycle
• Dependency injection in Spring
• Bean scopes
• @Component, @Service, @Repository, @Controller differences
• Global exception handling
• Spring Boot auto-configuration
• @Transactional and transaction management
• Securing Spring Boot apps
REST APIs & Microservices
• REST vs SOAP
• Idempotent HTTP methods
• API versioning strategies
• Inter-service communication techniques
• Spring Cloud Config usage
• Fault tolerance (Circuit Breaker, Retry)
• Service discovery (Eureka, Consul)
• Securing microservices (JWT, OAuth2)
Database (SQL & NoSQL)
• JOIN types: INNER, LEFT, RIGHT
• Optimizing slow SQL queries
• Normalization vs denormalization
• How indexes work and when to avoid them
• NoSQL experience (MongoDB, Redis)
• Handling distributed transactions (Saga pattern)
System Design & Architecture
• Design a URL shortener
• Scalable file upload service
• Messaging system design patterns
• CQRS and Event Sourcing concepts
• Large file processing in Java
• Eventual consistency
• Monolithic vs microservices architecture
Testing & DevOps
• Unit testing Spring Boot apps
• Mockito: @Mock, @Spy, @InjectMocks
• JUnit5 basics
• CI/CD setup (Jenkins, GitHub Actions)
• Environment-based config handling
Coding & Problem Solving
• Producer-consumer with threads
• Implementing LRU cache
• Processing CSV files
• Task scheduler design
Best Practices & Soft Skills
• Handling legacy code
• Applying SOLID principles
• Code review process
• Mentoring junior developers
• Handling production incidents
Behavioral Questions
• Optimization of critical systems
• Challenging bugs you've solved
• Prioritization under pressure
• Leading technical projects