13 Topics You Should Prepare for Your Next Spring Boot Interview in 2024

A list of 13 essential topics and 100+ interview questions you should prepare for your next Java and Spring Boot Interviews and resources to learn them.

Hello Java programmers, If you are preparing for Java and Spring Interview but wondering which topics and concepts to prepare then you have come to the right place.

In the past, I have shared top Spring MVC interview questions as well best courses to learn Spring and Spring Boot for both beginners and experienced Java developers and in this article, I am going to share 13 essential Spring topics you should prepare for your next Spring Boot interview and resources.

Spring Framework is the most popular and almost standard framework for developing Java applications, both core java as well as Java web application which runs on servers like Tomcat.

Let’s be honest, cracking a spring Boot interview is not easy because Spring is very vast and hard to master but you can turn the clock in your favor by adopting a strategy to prepare for essential topics and concepts

Like Java, Spring Framework is also very vast and there are several sub-projects like Containers, Core Spring Concepts like IoC and Dependency Injection, Spring MVC, Spring Boot, Spring Data JPA, Spring Cloud, Spring Boot Testing, Spring Security, Spring Boot Actuator, Spring Boot Auto Configuration, Spring AOP, and miscellaneous Spring APIs.

Here is a list of essential Spring Framework topics you should prepare for your next interview:

1. Container, Dependency, and IOC

2. Spring Bean Lifecycle

3. Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP)

4. Spring MVC

5. Spring Boot Basics

6. Spring Boot Auto Configuration

7. Spring Boot Starter Dependency

8. Spring Boot Actuator

9. Spring Boot CLI

10. Spring Boot Testing

11. Spring Cloud Questions

12. Spring Data JPA

13. Spring Security

100+ Spring Framework, Spring Boot, and Spring Security Interview Questions

Now, let’s see a couple of frequently asked questions from each topic to review essential concepts:

1. Container, Dependency, and IOC Questions

This topic is focused on spring container basics and the key benefits of IOC and Dependency injection and how Spring Framework implements them, here are some sample questions from this topic

1. What are dependency injection and IOC? How does Spring MVC implement them? (answer)
2. What is applicationContext in Spring? (answer)
3. What is the difference between BeanFactory and Application Context? (answer)
4. What is component-scanning? How does Spring do component scanning?
5. How are you going to create an ApplicationContext in an integration test?
6. What is the preferred way to close an application context? Does Spring Boot do this for you?
7. What is the difference between Setter and Constructor Injection in Spring? (answer)

By the way, you can find answers to all these questions in my book. If you want to prepare for Java and Spring Interview in a structured and guided way then you can also check my book Grokking the Spring Boot Interview, it covers all essential Spring topics and concepts so that you can prepare well in a limited time, and you can buy it for just $10.99 on GumRoad.

Here is the link to grab your copy for a special price of $10.99 — Grokking the spring Boot Interview

If you like to shop on Amazon then the book is now also available on Amazon Kindle for Pre-order, if you like to order from Amazon then you can use this link — Grokking the Spring Boot Interview on Amazon

Grokking The Spring Boot Interview

This book touches base on all of them and has questions to test your knowledge about those topics. You can use these questions to revise those essential Spring concepts in quick time and you can also use these questions to explore Spring Framework and Spring Boot further.

2. Spring Bean Lifecycle Interview Questions

this is another important topic for the Spring interview because it tests your knowledge about Spring beans and how they are created, managed, and destroyed in a Spring container. Good knowledge of this topic is essential to creating a production-grade spring application.

1. What is Spring bean? Who creates an instance of Spring bean?
2. What is the default bean scope in Spring? (answer)
   hint — singleton
3. What does the @Bean annotation do? (answer)
   hint — returns an instance of spring bean
4. What is the default bean id if you only use @Bean? How can you override this?
5. How do @Configuration annotated classes support singleton beans?
6. Can you make the @Bean method final in Spring? Why not?
   hint — no
7. Can you use @Bean together with @Profile?
8. Can you use @Component together with @Profile?
9. What are bean scopes which are only available in Spring MVC?
   (hint — request, session, and global-session)

These are some common questions on the Spring bean lifecycle, as a Spring developer you should know answers to most of these questions, if not, I suggest you go back to Spring fundamental courses like Spring & Hibernate for Beginners (includes Spring Boot) on Udemy. It’s a great course to learn both Spring and Hibernate together.

3. Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) Interview Questions

Aspect-Oriented Programming or AOP is another fundamental concept that powers the spring framework. It's all about reducing boiler plat and handing cross-cutting concerns in one place so that you can focus on business logic. While this is a boring and tough topic to master, you must be familiar with essential AOP concepts like Advice, PointCut, and how AOP works in general.

Here are some frequently asked AOP interview questions for Spring developers:

1. What is AOP? Why do you need AOP? What Problem does it solve?
   hint — cross-cutting concern
2. What is a cross-cutting concern? Can you Name three typical cross-cutting concerns?
3. How does Spring solve (implement) a cross-cutting concern?
4. What is a pointcut, a join point, advice, an aspect, weaving?
5. What are the two types of proxies used in Spring? Which are the limitations of the two proxy types?
6. Which two pieces of advice can you use if you would like to try and catch exceptions?
7. What visibility must Spring bean methods have to be proxied using Spring AOP?

These were some common AOP interview questions. As a Spring developer, you should know the answer to these basic AOP questions. If you struggle to answer these questions then I highly recommend you join the Spring Core Advanced — Beyond the Basics course by John Thompson, one of my favorite Udemy instructors when it comes to learning Spring and Java.

You can also find answers to all of these questions on my blogpost 17 Spring AOP Interview questions for Java and Spring developers.

4. Spring MVC Interview Questions

This is probably the most important topic you should prepare for any Java developer interview where Spring skills are required. It’s because of Spring MVC, the framework shot to fame and sprinted ahead of Struts, the old kind of Framework for developing the Java application. Spring MVC provides an implementation of the MVC framework for developing Java web applications.

Here are some common Spring MVC interview questions for Java developers:

1. Can you explain the workflow of HTTP requests in the Spring MVC application? (answer)
2. What is the @Controller annotation used for?
3. What is the difference between @Controller, @Service, and @Repository in Spring? (answer)
4. What is DispatacherServlet? What is its role of it in Spring MVC? (answer)
5. What is the role of InternalResourceViewResolveer? (answer)
6. How is an incoming request mapped to a controller and mapped to a method?
7. What is the difference between @RequestMapping and @GetMapping? (answer)
8. What is @RequestParam used for?
9. What are the differences between @RequestParam and @PathVariable? (answer)
10. What are the ready-to-use argument types you can use in a controller method?
11. What are some of the valid return types of a controller method?

These are some basic Spring MVC questions that cover concepts like spring MVC workflow, controllers, view resolvers, dispatcher servlet, and common spring MVC annotations.

As a Spring MVC developer, you should know answers to all these questions, if you struggle to answer them, then I suggest joining a spring MVC refresher course like Spring MVC For Beginners — Build Java Web App in 25 Steps by Ranga Karnam, another best-selling Udemy instructor for Java and Spring courses.

You can also find answers to all of these questions on my blog post about 20+ Spring MVC interview questions with answers.

5. Spring Boot Basics Interview Questions

Well, we are talking about spring Boot interviews then how can we miss the Spring boot questions, this topic focuses on basic Spring Boot interview questions like how does Spring Boot works, what problem it solves, how you can take advantage of Spring boot features like auto-configuration, starter dependency, spring boot CLI, and actuator.

Here are some sample Spring Boot questions from this topic:

1. What does @SpringBootApplication annotation do? (answer)
2. Difference between @EnableAutoConfiguration and @SpringBootApplication? (answer)
3. What are the advantages of using Spring Boot?
4. Can you name 5 Spring Boot annotations and what they do? (answer)
5. What things affect what Spring Boot sets up?
6. What is a Spring Boot starter? Why is it useful?
7. Can you control logging with Spring Boot? How?
8. How to enable SQL logging in Spring boot? (answer)
9. Where does Spring Boot look for application.properties file by default?
10. What embedded containers does Spring Boot support?
    hint — Tomcat (default), Jetty, and Undertow
11. What properties do you have to define in order to configure external MySQL?

These are some sample Spring Boot questions. If you worked in the Spring Boot application then you can answer them easily but if you struggle to answer them then I suggest you join a comprehensive Spring Boot course to refresh your knowledge. If you need a recommendation, I suggest you join Learn Spring Boot in 100 Steps — Beginner to Expert course by Ranga Karnam on Udemy.

You can also find answers to all of these Spring boot questions on my article 15+ Spring Boot questions for Java developers.

6. Spring Data JPA Interview Questions

This is another topic that many Spring developers forget to prepare, while Spring Data is not a JPA implementation it does simplify working with databases by providing high-level abstraction. Good knowledge of Spring Data JPA is important to develop an enterprise Spring bot application with databases.

here are some sample questions from Spring Data JPA:

1. What is Spring Data JPA? Which Problem does it solve?
2. What is a Spring Data Repository interface? (answer)
3. How do you define a Spring Data Repository interface?
4. What is the naming convention for finder methods in a Spring Data Repository interface?
5. How are Spring Data repositories implemented by Spring at runtime?
6. What is @Query annotation used for? (answer)
7. Can you participate in a given transaction in Spring while working with JPA?
8. Which PlatformTransactionManager(s) can you use it with JPA?
9. What do you have to configure to use JPA with Spring? How does Spring Boot make this easier?

If you have used Spring Data JPA in the real world then you can easily answer all of these questions. They cover key concepts like the Repository interface and Query annotation but if you struggle to answer these questions then I suggest you go through a Spring Data JPA course like Spring Data JPA Using Hibernate by Bharat Thippireddy on Udemy. It’s a great course to learn both Spring Data JPA and Hibernate.

You can further see my article 15+ Spring data and JPA questions with answers to find answers for many of these questions and a few more for practice.

7. Spring Security Interview Questions

This is another very important topic for both Java and Spring Boot developers. No matter whether you are using plain Spring or Spring boot but you need to use Spring Security to secure your application, implement authentication and Authorization, etc. It also supports JWT and OAuth2 and a good knowledge of Spring Boot concepts and API is needed to Crack any Java and Spring Developer interview.

Here are some sample questions from Spring Security :

1. How to enable Spring Security in Java web applications? (answer)
2. How can you limit the number of active user sessions using Spring security? (answer)
3. What is the delegating filter proxy?
4. What is the security filter chain? (answer)
5. What are the security context and security context holders in Spring? (answer)
6. Does Spring Security support password encoding?
7. Why do you need method security?
8. What type of object is typically secured at the method level?
9. What do @PreAuthorized and @RolesAllowed do? What is the difference between them?

If you have used Spring Security in any real-world Java and Spring Boot application then you can easily answer these questions but if you struggle to answer these questions and need a refresher course then I suggest you join Spring Security Zero to Master course on Udemy.

It’s the most up-to-date Spring security course to master Spring Security, Authentication, Authorization, Users, Roles, Authorities, CORs, CSRF, JWT, OAuth2, and more. You can also see my article 25+ Spring security interview questions for answers to these ones and a few more questions for practice.

8. Spring Boot Testing Interview Questions

Testing is another area in which many Java and Spring developer doesn’t pay enough attention but it's extremely important from an interview point of view. Employers are now looking for developers who can write unit tests, create automated tests and follow DevOps and SDLC best practices.

That’s why it's very important to know about how to test your spring and java application using unit tests and integration tests. I highly recommend you spend some time preparing this topic.

Here is a few sample question to test your knowledge on Spring Framework in general and Spring Boot testing in particular:

1. How do you write unit tests for Spring? which Framework or library do you use?
2. How can you create a shared application context in a JUnit integration test?
3. When and where do you use @Transactional in testing?
4. How does Spring Boot simplify writing tests?
5. What does @SpringBootTest do? How does it interact with @SpringBootApplication and @SpringBootConfiguration?
6. What is the purpose of @ContextConfiguration?
7. What is the difference between @ContextConfiguration and @SpringApplicaitonConfiguration annotations? (answer)
8. When do you want to use @SpringBootTest annotation? What does @SpringBootTest auto-configure?
9. What dependencies does the spring-boot-starter-test bring to the classpath?
10. When do you want to use @WebMvcTest and @DataJpaTest? (Answer)
11. What are the differences between @MockBean and @Mock?

If you have been writing a unit test for your spring boot application then you can easily answer this question but if you don’t have much exposure and want a refresher course then I recommend Testing Spring Boot: Beginner to Guru course by John Thompson on Udemy. It’s a great course to learn basics as well advanced Spring boot testing concepts.

You can further see my article about 20+ Spring Boot Testing interview questions to find answers to the above questions as well as see a few more questions for practice.

9. Spring Cloud Interview Questions

This is a relatively newer topic but given the importance of Cloud Computing and Microservices, it's an extremely important one. Most of the new Java development is happening on Cloud Native world and Spring Cloud is a leading framework along with Quarkus and Micronauts. If you see the word Microservices in the Job description then you must prepare for Spring Cloud and Microservice questions.

Here are some sample questions for you:

1. What is Spring Cloud? What problem does it solve?
2. What are some features of Spring Cloud?
3. How would you implement load balancing using Spring Cloud?
4. What do you understand by service registration and discovery?
5. What is Hystrix?
6. What is Netflix Feign?
7. What is the use of Spring Cloud Bus?
8. What is the purpose of the Hysteric Circuit Breaker?
9. What is the benefit of Eureka and Zookeeper?

These are some basic questions and if you have read and worked in Spring Cloud then you can answer these questions. If you want to learn more, I recommend you to join a comprehensive course like Master Microservices with Spring Boot and Spring Cloud by Ranga Karnam on Udemy.

You can also see my post about 15 Spring Cloud Interview Questions to find out answers for these questions as well as a few more questions for practice.

10. Spring Boot Actuator Interview Questions

The actuator is another important feature of Spring Boot and a good knowledge of Spring Boot Actuator is very important for production support and monitoring. You can use Actuator to expose endpoints and interact with your Spring boot application at runtime. Spring Boot Actuator is all about supporting and monitoring your application's running production.

Here are some Spring Boot Actuator interview questions you can prepare:

1. What value does Spring Boot Actuator provide?
2. What are the two protocols you can use to access actuator endpoints?
   (hint — HTTP)
3. What are the actuator endpoints that are provided out of the box?
4. What is the info endpoint for? How do you supply data?
5. How do you change the logging level of a package using the logger's endpoint?
6. What is Health Indicator?
7. What are the Health Indicators that are provided out of the box?
8. What is the Health Indicator status?•
9. What are the Health Indicator statuses that are provided out of the box?
10. How do you change the Health Indicator status severity order?

These were some fundamental Spring Boot Actuator interview questions that you know. If you want to know more or want to learn Spring boot Actuator in-depth, then I suggest you join the Spring Framework: Spring Boot Actuator By Dustin Schultz course on Pluralsight.

By the way, you would need a Pluralsight membership to join this course which costs around $29 per month or $299 per year (14% discount). I highly recommend this subscription to all programmers as it provides instant access to more than 7000+ online courses to learn any tech skill. Alternatively, you can also use their 10-day-free-pass to watch this course for FREE.

For Individuals

That’s all about the essential topics to prepare for Java and Spring Developer interviews. In order to pass the Java Developer Interviews, you should also know essential Java frameworks like Spring, Spring Boot, and Hibernate.

In my previous book, Grokking the Java Interview, I touched upon essential core Java topics like Collections, Multithreading, and Java Fundamentals and in this book, I have shared common Spring Framework questions from Job interviews.

This book is also useful for Java developers who are preparing for the Spring Professional Certification Exam because I have tried to answer most of the questions from the Official Spring Certification Exam guide. This means you can use this as a review study guide for your spring certification preparation as well.

If you like my work, you may like my other books and courses as well.

1. Grokking the Java Interview
2. Spring Certification Practice Test on Udemy
3. AZ 300 Practice Test on Udemy
4. ACP-100 Practice Test on Udemy

Once again, thank you all for your love and support. I really appreciate the response you gave to my first book. If you have any feedback or doubt feel free to ask.

P. S. — If you are aiming for Spring certifications this year then you can also take my Spring certification practice course on Udemy. It contains 250+ high-quality practice questions on 5 full-length exams to test your knowledge for a real exam.

2024 Spring Professional Certification Test VMware EDU-1202