📌 JPMorgan Interview Experience
– 6+ Years (Java Developer)
❓ Interview Questions & Answers
1. Write a program to remove empty and null strings from a String array
List<String> filteredList = Arrays.stream(arr)
.filter(str -> str != null && !str.isEmpty())
.collect(Collectors.toList());
✅ Uses Java 8 Streams to remove both null and empty strings.
2. Explain CyclicBarrier vs CountDownLatch
● CyclicBarrier: Waits for a fixed number of threads, reusable.
● CountDownLatch: Waits until count reaches 0, one-time use.
Use Cases:
● 🔁 CyclicBarrier – when threads must start together.
● ✅ CountDownLatch – when main thread must wait for others to finish.
3. What is CompletableFuture?
● Asynchronous, non-blocking, introduced in Java 8.
● Supports chaining (thenApply, thenAccept), combining (thenCombine), and error
handling (exceptionally).
Use Cases:
● Parallel execution, combining results, async APIs.
4. Write a program to reverse an integer array without using inbuilt
functions
while (left < right) {
int temp = arr[left];
arr[left] = arr[right];
arr[right] = temp;
left++; right--;
}
Time Complexity: O(n)
Space Complexity: O(1)
5. What happens if we insert the same key in a HashMap?
● Existing value gets overwritten
● put() returns previous value
map.put(1, "Apple");
map.put(1, "Cherry"); // Overwrites "Apple"
6. What is WeakHashMap?
● Keys stored as WeakReference
● GC can remove entries if key is no longer strongly referenced
Use Cases:
● Caching
● Preventing memory leaks
7. What is IdentityHashMap?
● Compares keys using == instead of equals()
● Different references with same value = treated as different keys
Use Cases:
● Object graph serialization
● Reference-sensitive caching
8. Find middle element of a LinkedList
● Use slow and fast pointer technique
while (fast != null && fast.next != null) {
slow = slow.next;
fast = fast.next.next;
}
return slow.data;
Time Complexity: O(N)
Space Complexity: O(1)
9. Rules for Instance Variables
● Declared inside class, outside methods
● Can have access modifiers
● Default values: 0, false, null
● Not accessible from static methods directly
10. Declare local variable in main() without initialization – what
happens?
❌ Compilation error
Reason: Local variables don’t get default values in Java.
11. Predict Output
List<Short> A = new ArrayList<>();
for (short i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
A.add(i);
if (A.size() > 1) A.remove(A.size() - 1);
}
System.out.println(A); // Output: [0]
Explanation: Always adds then removes last element – list always contains just [0].
12. SQL Query: Employees per Department
SELECT d.dept_name, COUNT(e.emp_id) AS employee_count
FROM Department d
LEFT JOIN Employees e ON d.dept_id = e.dept_id
GROUP BY d.dept_name;
💡 Final Thoughts
● This was Round 1 – focused on core Java, concurrency, collections, and SQL.
● If your fundamentals are strong, you can clear it smoothly.
