Nowadays, Spring boot interview questions are becoming extremely common for Java developers. Spring Boot is an open-source Java-based spring module that offers powerful features for the rapid development of deployment-ready applications. It is the most used and best java framework for the development of scalable microservices and web applications.
If you want to become a domain expert, you have come to the right place. We have curated some the most repeatedly asked spring boot interview questions and answers to help you ace the interview.
Basic Spring Boot Interview Questions And Answers
1. What is Spring Boot, and how is it different from Spring?
It takes the Java development with Spring to the next level and simplifies the development by removing major pain points associated with dependency, configuration, and management. The differences are listed below.
Spring
Spring Boot
It is a Java-based web application framework.
It is a module of Spring used for creating microservices.
It is quite complicated, making it difficult to use.
It is less complicated and more robust as compared to the spring framework.
It offers libraries and tools to create customized web applications.
It creates stand-alone spring application projects that can run/ execute.
It takes an un-opinionated view.
It takes an opinionated view as it can decide which defaults to deploy the configuration.
It requires XML configurations.
It does not require XML configurations.
2. What is the need for Spring Boot?
It is one of the most commonly asked Spring Boot Interview questions, and you can answer it by pointing out significant advantages of Spring Boot.
While Spring offers developers an ideal environment to develop large applications, the amount of configuration and its complexity makes it challenging to do so.
Here is where Spring Boot comes to rescue. Its features like pre-built templates and auto-configuration allow developers to use existing spring functionalities with more ease, minimum effort, and maximum efficiency.
The main advantages of Spring Boot are:
- It reduces development and testing time.
- It uses JavaConfig instead of XML.
- It provides an opinionated development approach.
- It offers starter projects or defaults for agile development.
- No separate web server is required; hence there is no need to boot up Glassfish, Tomcat, or any other server.
Read: Spring Boot Project Ideas
3. Can you name and briefly explain all the spring boot components/features?
With this question, the interviewer intends to gauge the theoretical knowledge of your concepts. If you have previous experience in the domain or worked on any Spring Boot projects, provide the answer with examples.
The main features of Spring Boot are
1. Starter dependency
There are many dependencies in the Spring framework, and this feature aggregates them together. Spring Boot comes packed with several starter dependencies to enhance productivity.
Few of the Spring Boot Starters are Test Starter, Web Starter, Mail Starter, and more. For instance, if we want to use JPA and Spring for database access, we can add this starter dependency in the project-spring-boot-starter-data-jpa.
2. Auto-Configuration
This feature scans the classpath and searches the libraries/Jars in the classpath to provide the necessary configuration to design and run the application.
For example, while developing an application with Spring Boot, if there is a Thymeleaf.jar present in the classpath, it automatically can align the Thymeleaf template resolver and other settings.
3. Spring Initializer
It is a web application that simplifies the process of the project set up by creating the initial project structure and build scripts. It increases productivity by reducing development time.
4. Spring Actuator
Actuators are incredibly significant for microservices as they enable deployment-ready features like auditing, health check-up, log information, etc. for running Spring boot applications. Actuators have built-in management endpoints that are secured by default.
For example:
/beans– it exhibits the entire list of all Spring beans in your application.
/health — it displays application health information by monitoring the production system
5. Spring CLI
This feature allows the developers to use Groovy for writing the Spring boot application, hence resulting in a more concise code.
4. What is Thymeleaf in Spring Boot?
It is a Java-based server-side template engine that offers elegant and natural templates for a web application.
5. What embedded containers are supported by Spring Boot?
Spring Boot supports three embedded containers:
- Tomcat (used by default)
- Undertow
- Jetty
Check out: Full Stack Interview Questions & Answers
Technical Spring Boot Interview Questions And Answers
1. What do you understand by the shutdown in the actuator?
It is a management endpoint that allows for a smooth and proper shutdown of an application. It is not authorized by default, but it can be enabled by using management.endpoint.shutdown.enabled=true.
2. How and where can you define properties in Spring Boot?
We can use the application.properties file to define features. This file gets automatically downloaded by Spring Boot and is used for application configuration.
3. Describe spring-boot-starter-parent?
It is a unique starter which adds jars to the classpath for easy Maven or Gradle dependency management.
4. What is Spring Boot dependency management?
You can explain that Spring Boot automatically manages configuration and dependencies without even stating the version for any of those dependencies.
5. Can you disable particular auto-configuration in spring boot? Explain how?
Yes, we can do that by
- Using the exclude attribute of @EnableAutoConfiguration
@Configuration
@EnableAutoConfiguration(exclude={DataSourceAutoConfiguration.class})
public class CustomConfiguration {}
- using the exclude attribute for @SpringBootApplication annotation
@SpringBootApplication(exclude= DataSourceAutoConfiguration.class)
public class CustomApplication {}
6. Can Spring Boot also be used to create non-web applications?
Yes, Spring Boot supports the development of both web and non-web applications. We need to remove web dependencies from the classpath and the application context to create a non-web application.
Also Read: Javascript Interview Questions
Conclusion
Get interview ready and get your dream job with these Spring Boot interview questions and answers created by our industry experts’ team.
Join upGrad to start learning and upskilling yourself to build more robust and scalable web applications.
If you’re interested to learn more about Java, full-stack software development, check out upGrad & IIIT-B’s PG Diploma in Full-stack Software Development which is designed for working professionals and offers 500+ hours of rigorous training, 9+ projects, and assignments, IIIT-B Alumni status, practical hands-on capstone projects & job assistance with top firms.
This article originally published on upGrad blog.
