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Top Spring Boot Interview Questions for Your Interview Prep

by Interview Kickstart Team in Interview Questions
September 25, 2024

Top Spring Boot Interview Questions for Your Interview Prep

Last updated by Utkarsh Sahu on Sep 25, 2024 at 10:47 PM | Reading time: 9 minutes

You can download a PDF version of  
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For Java Application Development, Spring Boot questions are a big part of the coding interviews. Spring Boot is used to build standalone microservices and is based on Spring Framework. It can create a reliable Java application from scratch due to its low configuration and monitoring features such as tomcat, jetty, and more.

Spring Boot interview questions are tricky to answer as it’s a vast topic to cover. It is essential to follow a thorough preparation strategy and practice some mock Java Spring Boot interview questions. Some of the important concepts you should focus on are Spring Boot auto-configuration, Spring Boot CLI, Spring Boot Actuators, and Spring Boot starter POMs.

Interview Kickstart helps you understand the required skills to grab jobs at top tech companies in your learning journey. When you start your prep, be sure to check out our technical interview checklist, interview questions page, and salary negotiation ebook to get interview-ready!

Having trained over 9,000 software engineers, we know what it takes to crack the most challenging tech interviews. Since 2014, Interview Kickstart alums have landed lucrative offers from FAANG and Tier-1 tech companies, with an average salary hike of 49%. The highest ever offer received by an IK alum is a whopping $933,000!

At IK, you get the unique opportunity to learn from expert instructors who are hiring managers and tech leads at Google, Facebook, Apple, and other top Silicon Valley tech companies.

Want to nail your next tech interview? Sign up for our FREE Webinar.

Are you a software engineer and want to know the kind of Spring Boot questions asked in coding interviews? Read further to learn which ones you should prepare.

Here’s what we’ll discuss in this article:

  • Spring vs. Spring Boot
  • Advantages of Using Spring Boot
  • Topics to Prepare for Spring Boot Interview
  • Spring Boot Interview Questions for Freshers
  • Topic-wise Spring Boot Interview Questions for Experienced Developers
  • FAQs on Spring Boot Interview Questions

Spring vs. Spring Boot

Let’s look at some of the differences between Spring and Spring Boot.

Advantages of Using Spring Boot

Let’s look at some of the advantages of using Spring Boot:

  • Spring Boot is easy to use and is used to develop spring applications.
  • Spring Boot is an existing framework with an addition of an embedded HTTP Server and annotation configuration, making it easier to understand and fasten the development process.
  • Spring Boot increases productivity and reduces development time.
  • We don’t need to write any XML configuration. Only a few annotations would be enough to do the required configurations.

Check out How to Reverse a String in Java here.

Topics to Prepare for Spring Boot Interview

Here’s a list of topics you can prepare for your Spring Boot interview:

  • Container, Dependency, and IOC
  • Spring Bean Lifecycle
  • Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP)
  • Spring MVC
  • Spring Boot Basics
  • Spring Boot Auto Configuration
  • Spring Boot Starter Dependency
  • Spring Boot Actuator
  • Spring Boot CLI
  • Spring Boot Testing
  • Spring Cloud
  • Spring Data JPA
  • Spring Security

Spring Boot Interview Questions and Answers for Freshers

1. What are the key components of Spring Boot?

Below are the four key components of Spring Boot:

  • Spring Boot auto-configuration
  • Spring Boot CLI
  • Spring Boot starter POMs
  • Spring Boot Actuators

2. How does Spring Boot work?

Spring Boot automatically configures your application based on the dependencies you add to the project using annotation. It scans all the components in the project using @ComponentScan annotation.

3. What are starter dependencies?

Spring Boot starter is a maven template which contains a collection of all relevant transitive dependencies which are needed to start a particular functionality. To create a web application, we must import the spring-boot-starter-web dependency.

<dependency>

<groupId> org.springframework.boot</groupId>

<artifactId> spring-boot-starter-web </artifactId>

</dependency>

4. What are the basic annotations that Spring Boot offers?

Spring Boot's primary annotations are found in org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure and its sub-packages. A few of them are:

  • @EnableAutoConfiguration - This looks for auto-configuration beans on its classpath and automatically applies them.
  • @SpringBootApplication - This denotes the main class of a Boot application.

5. What is the difference between RequestMapping and GetMapping?

RequestMapping can be used with GET, POST, PUT, and other request methods using the method attribute on the annotation. GetMapping, on the other hand, is an extension of RequestMapping that helps you improve request clarity.

6. What is the use of Profiles in Spring Boot?

Profiles keep the configuration of different environments (DEV, QA, PROD) separate.

7. How to enable debugging log in Spring Boot application?

There are three ways to enable debugging logs:

  • Start the application with –debug switch.
  • Set the logging.level.root = debug property in application.property file.
  • In the supplied logging configuration file, set the root logger's logging level to debug.

8. What is Dependency Injection?

Dependency Injection is the process of injecting dependent bean objects into target bean objects. There are three types of dependency injection:

  • Setter Injection
  • Constructor Injection
  • Field Injection

9. Explain how to deploy to another server using Spring Boot?

Follow the steps below to deploy a different server with Spring Boot:

  • Generate a WAR file from the project.
  • Deploy the WAR file to any server

10. What are the steps to connect an external database like MySQL or Oracle?

To connect an external database:

  • Add the dependency for MySQL connector to pom.xml
  • Remove H2 Dependency from pom.xml
  • Set up your MySQL database and configure your connection to the MySQL database.

Topic-wise Spring Boot Interview Questions for Experienced Developers

Container, Dependency, and IOC

  1. Describe Dependency Injection and IOC, and explain how Spring MVC implements them.
  2. Explain component-scanning and how it’s performed by Spring.
  3. Differentiate between Setter and Constructor Injection in Spring.

Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP)

  1. How would you try and catch exceptions using AOP?
  2. What is a Cross-cutting concern, and explain how Spring implements it?
  3. Explain the advantages of using AOP.

Spring Data JPA

  1. Describe Spring Data Repository Interface.
  2. Explain the configurations required to use JPA with Spring.
  3. How do you implement Spring Data Repositories by Spring at runtime?

Spring Boot Testing

  1. Explain the process of creating a shared application context in a JUnit integration test.
  2. Differentiate between @MockBean and @Mock.
  3. Explain how Spring Boot simplifies writing tests.

Spring Cloud

  1. Describe service registration and discovery.
  2. Explain how to implement load balancing using Spring Cloud.
  3. Explain Netflix Feign.

Spring Boot Actuator

  1. What are the Health Indicator statuses which are provided out of the box?
  2. Describe actuator endpoints.
  3. Explain Spring Boot Actuator.

Spring Security

  1. Explain how to enable Spring Security in a Java Web Application.
  2. Explain how to limit the number of active user sessions using Spring Security.
  3. What are security context holders in Spring?

Spring MVC

  1. What is the role of DispatcherServlet in Spring MVC?
  2. Differentiate between @RequestMapping and @GetMapping.
  3. What are the valid return types of a controller method?

FAQs on Spring Boot Interview Questions

Q1. What is the difference between Spring and Spring Boot?

Spring Boot is a framework built on top of Spring and is widely used to develop REST APIs. IT has embedded servers such as Tomcat and Jetty.

Q2. Is Spring Boot hard to learn?

Spring Boot has features like starter dependency, auto-configuration, Spring Boot CLI, Spring Initializr, and Spring Boot Actuator, making Java development easy and fun.

Q3. How to prepare for a Spring Boot interview?

Understand the basic concepts of Spring Boot first. It helps you in understanding the advanced questions later. When a topic is asked, be ready to explain the concepts with the help of an example. It shows the interviewer how good you are with the concepts.

Q4. Which are some Spring Boot interview questions?

Some basic Spring Boot Interview Questions are: What does @SpringbootApplication annotation do? What is a Spring Boot starter? Describe some embedded containers that Spring Boot supports and Explain some Spring Boot annotations.

Q5. What is the starting point of spring boot application?

The entry point of a Spring Boot application is a class that contains @SpringBootApplication annotation. This class needs to have the primary method to run the Spring Boot application.

Are You Ready to Nail Your Next Tech Interview?

Since its inception in 2014, Interview Kickstart has helped thousands of experienced engineers realize their true calling. We aim to help engineers get better acquainted with the intricacies of their chosen field and provide them with all the guidance they need to clear interviews with tech giants.

Knowing very well that clearing an interview requires much more than sound technical knowledge, we train you in a manner that helps you develop a winner's stride. IK is your golden ticket to land the job you deserve.

Want to learn more? Sign up for our FREE webinar on How to Nail Your Next Tech Interview.


Author
Utkarsh Sahu
Director, Category Management @ Interview Kickstart || IIM Bangalore || NITW.
The fast well prepared banner

For Java Application Development, Spring Boot questions are a big part of the coding interviews. Spring Boot is used to build standalone microservices and is based on Spring Framework. It can create a reliable Java application from scratch due to its low configuration and monitoring features such as tomcat, jetty, and more.

Spring Boot interview questions are tricky to answer as it’s a vast topic to cover. It is essential to follow a thorough preparation strategy and practice some mock Java Spring Boot interview questions. Some of the important concepts you should focus on are Spring Boot auto-configuration, Spring Boot CLI, Spring Boot Actuators, and Spring Boot starter POMs.

Interview Kickstart helps you understand the required skills to grab jobs at top tech companies in your learning journey. When you start your prep, be sure to check out our technical interview checklist, interview questions page, and salary negotiation ebook to get interview-ready!

Having trained over 9,000 software engineers, we know what it takes to crack the most challenging tech interviews. Since 2014, Interview Kickstart alums have landed lucrative offers from FAANG and Tier-1 tech companies, with an average salary hike of 49%. The highest ever offer received by an IK alum is a whopping $933,000!

At IK, you get the unique opportunity to learn from expert instructors who are hiring managers and tech leads at Google, Facebook, Apple, and other top Silicon Valley tech companies.

Want to nail your next tech interview? Sign up for our FREE Webinar.

Are you a software engineer and want to know the kind of Spring Boot questions asked in coding interviews? Read further to learn which ones you should prepare.

Here’s what we’ll discuss in this article:

  • Spring vs. Spring Boot
  • Advantages of Using Spring Boot
  • Topics to Prepare for Spring Boot Interview
  • Spring Boot Interview Questions for Freshers
  • Topic-wise Spring Boot Interview Questions for Experienced Developers
  • FAQs on Spring Boot Interview Questions

Spring vs. Spring Boot

Let’s look at some of the differences between Spring and Spring Boot.

Advantages of Using Spring Boot

Let’s look at some of the advantages of using Spring Boot:

  • Spring Boot is easy to use and is used to develop spring applications.
  • Spring Boot is an existing framework with an addition of an embedded HTTP Server and annotation configuration, making it easier to understand and fasten the development process.
  • Spring Boot increases productivity and reduces development time.
  • We don’t need to write any XML configuration. Only a few annotations would be enough to do the required configurations.

Check out How to Reverse a String in Java here.

Topics to Prepare for Spring Boot Interview

Here’s a list of topics you can prepare for your Spring Boot interview:

  • Container, Dependency, and IOC
  • Spring Bean Lifecycle
  • Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP)
  • Spring MVC
  • Spring Boot Basics
  • Spring Boot Auto Configuration
  • Spring Boot Starter Dependency
  • Spring Boot Actuator
  • Spring Boot CLI
  • Spring Boot Testing
  • Spring Cloud
  • Spring Data JPA
  • Spring Security

Spring Boot Interview Questions and Answers for Freshers

1. What are the key components of Spring Boot?

Below are the four key components of Spring Boot:

  • Spring Boot auto-configuration
  • Spring Boot CLI
  • Spring Boot starter POMs
  • Spring Boot Actuators

2. How does Spring Boot work?

Spring Boot automatically configures your application based on the dependencies you add to the project using annotation. It scans all the components in the project using @ComponentScan annotation.

3. What are starter dependencies?

Spring Boot starter is a maven template which contains a collection of all relevant transitive dependencies which are needed to start a particular functionality. To create a web application, we must import the spring-boot-starter-web dependency.

<dependency>

<groupId> org.springframework.boot</groupId>

<artifactId> spring-boot-starter-web </artifactId>

</dependency>

4. What are the basic annotations that Spring Boot offers?

Spring Boot's primary annotations are found in org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure and its sub-packages. A few of them are:

  • @EnableAutoConfiguration - This looks for auto-configuration beans on its classpath and automatically applies them.
  • @SpringBootApplication - This denotes the main class of a Boot application.

5. What is the difference between RequestMapping and GetMapping?

RequestMapping can be used with GET, POST, PUT, and other request methods using the method attribute on the annotation. GetMapping, on the other hand, is an extension of RequestMapping that helps you improve request clarity.

6. What is the use of Profiles in Spring Boot?

Profiles keep the configuration of different environments (DEV, QA, PROD) separate.

7. How to enable debugging log in Spring Boot application?

There are three ways to enable debugging logs:

  • Start the application with –debug switch.
  • Set the logging.level.root = debug property in application.property file.
  • In the supplied logging configuration file, set the root logger's logging level to debug.

8. What is Dependency Injection?

Dependency Injection is the process of injecting dependent bean objects into target bean objects. There are three types of dependency injection:

  • Setter Injection
  • Constructor Injection
  • Field Injection

9. Explain how to deploy to another server using Spring Boot?

Follow the steps below to deploy a different server with Spring Boot:

  • Generate a WAR file from the project.
  • Deploy the WAR file to any server

10. What are the steps to connect an external database like MySQL or Oracle?

To connect an external database:

  • Add the dependency for MySQL connector to pom.xml
  • Remove H2 Dependency from pom.xml
  • Set up your MySQL database and configure your connection to the MySQL database.

Topic-wise Spring Boot Interview Questions for Experienced Developers

Container, Dependency, and IOC

  1. Describe Dependency Injection and IOC, and explain how Spring MVC implements them.
  2. Explain component-scanning and how it’s performed by Spring.
  3. Differentiate between Setter and Constructor Injection in Spring.

Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP)

  1. How would you try and catch exceptions using AOP?
  2. What is a Cross-cutting concern, and explain how Spring implements it?
  3. Explain the advantages of using AOP.

Spring Data JPA

  1. Describe Spring Data Repository Interface.
  2. Explain the configurations required to use JPA with Spring.
  3. How do you implement Spring Data Repositories by Spring at runtime?

Spring Boot Testing

  1. Explain the process of creating a shared application context in a JUnit integration test.
  2. Differentiate between @MockBean and @Mock.
  3. Explain how Spring Boot simplifies writing tests.

Spring Cloud

  1. Describe service registration and discovery.
  2. Explain how to implement load balancing using Spring Cloud.
  3. Explain Netflix Feign.

Spring Boot Actuator

  1. What are the Health Indicator statuses which are provided out of the box?
  2. Describe actuator endpoints.
  3. Explain Spring Boot Actuator.

Spring Security

  1. Explain how to enable Spring Security in a Java Web Application.
  2. Explain how to limit the number of active user sessions using Spring Security.
  3. What are security context holders in Spring?

Spring MVC

  1. What is the role of DispatcherServlet in Spring MVC?
  2. Differentiate between @RequestMapping and @GetMapping.
  3. What are the valid return types of a controller method?

FAQs on Spring Boot Interview Questions

Q1. What is the difference between Spring and Spring Boot?

Spring Boot is a framework built on top of Spring and is widely used to develop REST APIs. IT has embedded servers such as Tomcat and Jetty.

Q2. Is Spring Boot hard to learn?

Spring Boot has features like starter dependency, auto-configuration, Spring Boot CLI, Spring Initializr, and Spring Boot Actuator, making Java development easy and fun.

Q3. How to prepare for a Spring Boot interview?

Understand the basic concepts of Spring Boot first. It helps you in understanding the advanced questions later. When a topic is asked, be ready to explain the concepts with the help of an example. It shows the interviewer how good you are with the concepts.

Q4. Which are some Spring Boot interview questions?

Some basic Spring Boot Interview Questions are: What does @SpringbootApplication annotation do? What is a Spring Boot starter? Describe some embedded containers that Spring Boot supports and Explain some Spring Boot annotations.

Q5. What is the starting point of spring boot application?

The entry point of a Spring Boot application is a class that contains @SpringBootApplication annotation. This class needs to have the primary method to run the Spring Boot application.

Are You Ready to Nail Your Next Tech Interview?

Since its inception in 2014, Interview Kickstart has helped thousands of experienced engineers realize their true calling. We aim to help engineers get better acquainted with the intricacies of their chosen field and provide them with all the guidance they need to clear interviews with tech giants.

Knowing very well that clearing an interview requires much more than sound technical knowledge, we train you in a manner that helps you develop a winner's stride. IK is your golden ticket to land the job you deserve.

Want to learn more? Sign up for our FREE webinar on How to Nail Your Next Tech Interview.


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Recession-proof your Career

Recession-proof your Back-end Engineering Career

Attend our free webinar to amp up your career and get the salary you deserve.

Ryan-image
Hosted By
Ryan Valles
Founder, Interview Kickstart
blue tick
Accelerate your Interview prep with Tier-1 tech instructors
blue tick
360° courses that have helped 14,000+ tech professionals
blue tick
57% average salary hike received by alums in 2022
blue tick
100% money-back guarantee*
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