All 71 questions

  1. What is the difference between Maven and Gradle?

    Asked in 2 of 158 interviews · last asked Oct 23 · Concept · Junior

    Other ways it was asked
    • “What are the differences between Maven and Gradle?”

  2. What is JPA, and what are its types?

    Asked in 2 of 158 interviews · last asked Jul 21 · Concept · Junior

    Other ways it was asked
    • “What is JPA?”

  3. What is JDBC?

    Asked in 2 of 158 interviews · last asked Jul 21 · Concept · Junior

  4. Tell me about Maven.

    Asked in 2 of 158 interviews · last asked Jun 17 · Concept · Junior

    Other ways it was asked
    • “Can you explain Maven?”

  5. What does Spring use under the hood to create proxies for transactions?

    Asked once · last asked Jul 16 · Concept · Senior

    Other ways it was asked
    • “How does Spring's proxy-based transaction management work under the hood?”

  6. How would you mock a static class, a controller or URL, and a regular class in Java?

    Asked once · last asked Feb 14 · Scenario · Senior

  7. How do you manage dependencies and their versions in a Java application?

    Asked once · last asked Feb 14 · Tooling · Mid-level

  8. How does the JPA entity lifecycle work, and what states can an entity have?

    Asked once · last asked Mar 2 · Concept · Mid-level

  9. What is the difference between JPA and JDBC, and when would you use each?

    Asked once · last asked Mar 6 · Concept · Mid-level

  10. How can a Java server interact with Python machine-learning libraries?

    Asked once · last asked Mar 16 · Concept · Mid-level

  11. How do embedded adapters and REST APIs differ when integrating Python libraries with a Java server?

    Asked once · last asked Mar 16 · Concept · Mid-level

  12. How would you use Java and MongoDB to build a high-performance application that accepts optional filters, such as product name and price, and returns matching products? Describe the approach in pseudocode.

    Asked once · last asked Mar 20 · Write code · Senior

  13. How would you launch an application using parameters from a config.properties file?

    Asked once · last asked Mar 24 · Tooling · Mid-level

  14. How can you pass multiple parameters through a TestNG XML file?

    Asked once · last asked Mar 24 · Tooling · Mid-level

  15. How would you manage properties in TestNG XML when their values differ?

    Asked once · last asked Mar 24 · Tooling · Mid-level

  16. How do you run an entire test automation project with Maven?

    Asked once · last asked Mar 24 · Tooling · Mid-level

  17. Can DTOs be used instead of JPA entities?

    Asked once · last asked Mar 25 · Concept · Junior

    Other ways it was asked
    • “What are the different roles of JPA entities and DTOs, and when should each be used?”

  18. What is the Log4Shell vulnerability, and how can applications be protected against it?

    Asked once · last asked Apr 9 · Concept · Mid-level

  19. Which backend design concepts or patterns transfer from Java to Python, and what differences matter?

    Asked once · last asked Apr 9 · Concept · Mid-level

  20. How do you connect a Java application to a database using JDBC?

    Asked once · last asked Apr 17 · Tooling · Junior

  21. How would you structure a Selenium WebDriver automation framework in Java?

    Asked once · last asked May 5 · Design · Senior

  22. How would you deploy a WAR file to one or more Kubernetes pods?

    Asked once · last asked May 12 · Scenario · Mid-level

  23. Once you have detected a Java deserialization vulnerability, what causes the deserialization to occur, and how would you test it first?

    Asked once · last asked May 14 · Scenario · Senior

  24. If a Java web application lets you write or overwrite a non-executable file anywhere except the web root, how could you exploit that capability?

    Asked once · last asked May 14 · Scenario · Senior

  25. Can you explain the role of JDBC in connecting a Java application to a MySQL database?

    Asked once · last asked May 23 · Concept · Junior

  26. How would you implement security in a Java application, and which technologies would you use?

    Asked once · last asked May 29 · Scenario · Mid-level

  27. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Kafka Streams instead of Java Streams?

    Asked once · last asked Jun 15 · Concept · Senior

  28. How do Spring Boot and Java EE differ, and when would you choose each?

    Asked once · last asked Jul 16 · Concept · Mid-level

  29. Could Java be used to manage a test bench and develop drivers for interface cards?

    Asked once · last asked Jul 16 · Scenario · Mid-level

  30. How would you write a complete REST Assured request in Java, including its request components?

    Asked once · last asked Jul 16 · Tooling · Mid-level

    Other ways it was asked
    • “How do you specify the components of a REST API request, such as a POST request, in Java with REST Assured?”
    • “How do you specify the components of a REST API request in Java?”
    • “Write a complete Java example of a REST request using REST Assured, from start to finish.”

  31. What can go wrong with constructor injection in Spring when a class has more than one constructor?

    Asked once · last asked Jul 16 · Scenario · Mid-level

  32. Tell me about a specific challenge you faced in Java microservices development and how you solved it.

    Asked once · last asked Jul 31 · Behavioral · Mid-level

  33. How would you containerize and deploy a Java application to Kubernetes?

    Asked once · last asked Aug 4 · Scenario · Mid-level

  34. What is the difference between Tomcat, WebSphere, and WebLogic?

    Asked once · last asked Sep 2 · Concept · Mid-level

  35. What AWS services would you use, and how would you design the modernization of a Java application?

    Asked once · last asked Sep 17 · Design · Senior

  36. How do you use JPA or Hibernate for database access in Java applications?

    Asked once · last asked Sep 23 · Tooling · Mid-level

  37. How do you map a database table to a JPA entity class, and which annotations do you use?

    Asked once · last asked Sep 30 · Tooling · Junior

  38. Can you provide an example of a recent project where you utilized core Java to develop a complex feature or functionality?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 12 · Behavioral · Mid-level

  39. What challenges can arise when migrating JSP pages to AngularJS?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 16 · Scenario · Mid-level

  40. Which validation annotation would you use to require an integer field to have a minimum value of 1 rather than 0?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 18 · Concept · Junior

  41. What is the basic structure of a Maven project, and what are its main components?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 21 · Concept · Junior

  42. What is the difference between `mvn package` and `mvn clean install`?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 21 · Concept · Junior

  43. What is the difference between @QueryParam and @PathParam?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 22 · Concept · Junior

  44. You have a Java service handling millions of requests a day. How would you design it for high availability?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 23 · Design · Senior

  45. How would you deploy a high-availability Java service across instances and regions, and what would happen to in-flight requests if an instance failed?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 23 · Design · Senior

  46. How do you handle a custom proxy and certificate authority in a Java application when using Maven?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 23 · Tooling · Mid-level

  47. What are three key elements of a Maven project?

    Asked once · last asked Feb 14 · Concept · Junior

  48. Which JPA annotation maps a class to a database table?

    Asked once · last asked Mar 10 · Concept · Junior

  49. How does Maven download project dependencies?

    Asked once · last asked Mar 24 · Tooling · Junior

  50. How do you build a Java test automation project?

    Asked once · last asked Mar 24 · Tooling · Mid-level

  51. How would you approach learning Java to contribute to a project where you do not yet have expertise?

    Asked once · last asked May 18 · Scenario

  52. What is Quarkus?

    Asked once · last asked Jun 15 · Concept · Junior

  53. How would you implement database access in a Java backend?

    Asked once · last asked Jul 16 · Scenario · Mid-level

  54. What are JUnit and Mockito used for?

    Asked once · last asked Jul 21 · Concept · Junior

  55. What is a Feign client?

    Asked once · last asked Jul 21 · Concept · Junior

  56. Write a simple web middleware component in Java, including example code.

    Asked once · last asked Aug 1 · Write code · Junior

    Other ways it was asked
    • “Write a simple web middleware in Java and include an example implementation.”

  57. What is Thymeleaf?

    Asked once · last asked Aug 7 · Concept · Junior

  58. Why should you avoid using Thread.sleep in Selenium tests?

    Asked once · last asked Sep 1 · Concept · Junior

  59. Name the different types of Java beans.

    Asked once · last asked Sep 2 · Concept · Junior

  60. Name the different scopes of EJBs.

    Asked once · last asked Sep 2 · Concept · Mid-level

  61. What is a Spring Boot JAR?

    Asked once · last asked Sep 4 · Concept · Junior

  62. What are Google Web Toolkit (GWT) and OAuth, and how would you use OAuth in an application?

    Asked once · last asked Sep 4 · Concept · Junior

  63. What Java frameworks or libraries can you use to query a database?

    Asked once · last asked Sep 10 · Concept · Mid-level

  64. What ORM or data-access tools can you use to connect Java applications to databases?

    Asked once · last asked Sep 23 · Concept · Mid-level

  65. How would you transition from Java to Node.js?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 19 · Scenario · Mid-level

  66. Can Apache Spark code be written in Java?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 20 · Concept · Junior

  67. Why do we need pom.xml in a Maven project?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 21 · Concept · Junior

  68. What build commands do you usually use in Maven?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 21 · Tooling · Junior

    Other ways it was asked
    • “What outputs do common Maven build commands produce?”

  69. What are the different types of artifacts Maven can build a project into?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 21 · Concept · Junior

  70. What local prerequisites and configuration do you need before building a Maven project?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 21 · Scenario · Junior

  71. How do you use JUnit in Java projects, and how do you handle test ownership and production support?

    Asked once · last asked Oct 22 · Tooling · Mid-level

More Java interview questions

How this list is made

Every question here was asked by a real interviewer in a real job interview that a candidate ran MeetAssist in. After the call, the interviewer's questions are pulled from the transcript. Practice sessions, tests, exams and anything that was not a job interview are dropped.

Questions are rewritten so they make sense on their own: names of people, employers and clients are removed, and speech-to-text mistakes are fixed. Small talk, logistics and questions about one candidate's own résumé are left out. Rephrasings of the same question are merged, and the count is the number of different interviews it came up in.

The interviews come from candidates who use MeetAssist, so they lean towards software, data and AI roles: the shares describe these interviews, not every Java interview. Answers to the most asked questions are written and checked by an editor; a "common mistake" is shown only when reviews of real answers in these interviews show it, with the count.

158 interviews, 100 candidates, Sep 2025 to Oct 2026. Updated every month with new interviews.