Question: How could Java classes direct program messages to the system console, but error

messages, say to a file?

Answer: The class System has a variable out that represents the standard output, and the variable
err that represents the standard error device. By default, they both point at the system console.
This how the standard output could be re-directed:

Stream st = new Stream(new FileOutputStream("output.txt")); System.setErr(st);

System.setOut(st);  

Question: What's the difference between an interface and an abstract class?

Answer: An abstract class may contain code in method bodies, which is not allowed in an
interface. With abstract classes, you have to inherit your class from it and Java does not allow
multiple inheritance. On the other hand, you can implement multiple interfaces in your class.

Question: Why would you use a synchronized block vs. synchronized method?

Answer: Synchronized blocks place locks for shorter periods than synchronized methods.

Question: Explain the usage of the keyword transient?

Answer: This keyword indicates that the value of this member variable does not have to be
serialized with the object. When the class will be de-serialized, this variable will be initialized
with a default value of its data type (i.e. zero for integers).

Question: How can you force garbage collection?

Answer: You can't force GC, but could request it by calling System.gc(). JVM does not
guarantee that GC will be started immediately.

Question: How do you know if an explicit object casting is needed?

Answer: If you assign a superclass object to a variable of a subclass's data type, you need to do
explicit casting. For example:

Object a; Customer b; b = (Customer) a;

When you assign a subclass to a variable having a supeclass type, the casting is performed
automatically. 

Question: What's the difference between the methods sleep() and wait()

Answer: The code sleep(1000); puts thread aside for exactly one second. The code wait(1000),
causes a wait of up to one second. A thread could stop waiting earlier if it receives the notify() or
notifyAll() call. The method wait() is defined in the class Object and the method sleep() is
defined in the class Thread.

Question: Can you write a Java class that could be used both as an applet as well as an
application?

Answer: Yes. Add a main() method to the applet.

Question: What's the difference between constructors and other methods?

Answer: Constructors must have the same name as the class and can not return a value. They are
only called once while regular methods could be called many times.

Question: Can you call one constructor from another if a class has multiple constructors

Answer: Yes. Use this() syntax.

Question: Explain the usage of Java packages.

Answer: This is a way to organize files when a project consists of multiple modules. It also helps
resolve naming conflicts when different packages have classes with the same names. Packages
access level also allows you to protect data from being used by the non-authorized classes.

Question: If a class is located in a package, what do you need to change in the OS

environment to be able to use it?

Answer: You need to add a directory or a jar file that contains the package directories to the
CLASSPATH environment variable. Let's say a class Employee belongs to a package
com.xyz.hr; and is located in the file c:\dev\com\xyz\hr\Employee.java. In this case, you'd need
to add c:\dev to the variable CLASSPATH. If this class contains the method main(), you could
test it from a command prompt window as follows:

c:\>java com.xyz.hr.Employee

Question: What's the difference between J2SDK 1.5 and J2SDK 5.0?

Answer:  There's no difference, Sun Microsystems just re-branded this version.

Question: What would you use to compare two String variables - the operator == or the method
equals()?

Answer:  I'd use the method equals() to compare the values of the Strings and the == to check if
two variables point at the same instance of a String object.
Question: Does it matter in what order catch statements for FileNotFoundException and
IOExceptipon are written?

Answer: Yes, it does. The FileNoFoundException is inherited from the IOException.

Exception's subclasses have to be caught first.

Question: Can an inner class declared inside of a method access local variables of this
method?

Answer: It's possible if these variables are final.

Question: What can go wrong if you replace && with & in the following code: String
a=null; if (a!=null && a.length()>10) {...}

Answer: A single ampersand here would lead to a NullPointerException.

Question: What's the main difference between a Vector and an ArrayList

Answer: Java Vector class is internally synchronized and ArrayList is not.

Question: When should the method invokeLater()be used?

Answer: This method is used to ensure that Swing components are updated through the event-
dispatching thread.

Question: How can a subclass call a method or a constructor defined in a superclass?

Answer: Use the following syntax: super.myMethod(); To call a constructor of the superclass,
just write super(); in the first line of the subclass's constructor.

For senior-level developers:

Question: What's the difference between a queue and a stack?

Answer: Stacks works by last-in-first-out rule (LIFO), while queues use the FIFO rule

Question: You can create an abstract class that contains only abstract methods. On the
other hand, you can create an interface that declares the same methods. So can you use
abstract classes instead of interfaces?

Answer: Sometimes. But your class may be a descendent of another class and in this case the
interface is your only option.

Question: What comes to mind when you hear about a young generation in Java?
Answer: Garbage collection.

Question: What comes to mind when someone mentions a shallow copy in Java?

Answer: Object cloning.

Question: If you're overriding the method equals() of an object, which other method you
might also consider?

Answer: hashCode()

Question: You are planning to do an indexed search in a list of objects. Which of the two
Java collections should you use: ArrayList or LinkedList?

Answer: ArrayList

Question: How would you make a copy of an entire Java object with its state?

Answer: Have this class implement Cloneable interface and call its method clone().

Question: How can you minimize the need of garbage collection and make the memory use
more effective?

Answer: Use object pooling and weak object references.

Question: There are two classes: A and B. The class B need to inform a class A when some
important event has happened. What Java technique would you use to implement it?

Answer: If these classes are threads I'd consider notify() or notifyAll(). For regular classes you
can use the Observer interface.

Question: What access level do you need to specify in the class declaration to ensure that
only classes from the same directory can access it?

Answer: You do not need to specify any access level, and Java will use a default package access
level .

When you declare a method as abstract method ?

Answer: When i want child class to implement the behavior of the method.

Question: Can I call a abstract method from a non abstract method ? 

Answer: Yes, We can call a abstract method from a Non abstract method in a Java abstract class

Question: What is the difference between an Abstract class and Interface in Java ? or can you
explain when you use Abstract classes ? 

Answer: Abstract classes let you define some behaviors; they force your subclasses to provide
others. These abstract classes will provide the basic funcationality of your applicatoin, child class
which inherited this class will provide the funtionality of the abstract methods in abstract class.
When base class calls this method, Java calls the method defined by the child class.

 An Interface can only declare constants and instance methods, but cannot implement
default behavior.
 Interfaces provide a form of multiple inheritance. A class can extend only one other class.
 Interfaces are limited to public methods and constants with no implementation. Abstract
classes can have a partial implementation, protected parts, static methods, etc.
 A Class may implement several interfaces. But in case of abstract class, a class may
extend only one abstract class.
 Interfaces are slow as it requires extra indirection to find corresponding method in the
actual class. Abstract classes are fast.

Question: What is user-defined exception in java ? 

Answer: User-defined expections are the exceptions defined by the application developer
which are errors related to specific application. Application Developer can define the user
defined exception by inherite the Exception class as shown below. Using this class we can throw
new exceptions.

Java Example : public class noFundException extends Exception { } Throw an exception using
a throw statement: public class Fund { ... public Object getFunds() throws noFundException { if
(Empty()) throw new noFundException(); ... } } User-defined exceptions should usually be
checked.

Question: What are different types of inner classes ?

Answer: Inner classes nest within other classes. A normal class is a direct member of a package.
Inner classes, which became available with Java 1.1, are four types

 Static member classes

 Member classes
 Local classes
 Anonymous classes
Static member classes - a static member class is a static member of a class. Like any other static
method, a static member class has access to all static methods of the parent, or top-level, class.

Member Classes - a member class is also defined as a member of a class. Unlike the static
variety, the member class is instance specific and has access to any and all methods and
members, even the parent's this reference.

Local Classes - Local Classes declared within a block of code and these classes are visible only
within the block.

Anonymous Classes - These type of classes does not have any name and its like a local class

Java Anonymous Class Example public class SomeGUI extends JFrame { ... button member
declarations ... protected void buildGUI() { button1 = new JButton(); button2 = new JButton(); ...
button1.addActionListener( new java.awt.event.ActionListener() <------ Anonymous Class
{ public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent e) { // do something } } );

Question: What are the uses of Serialization?

Answer: In some types of applications you have to write the code to serialize objects, but in
many cases serialization is performed behind the scenes by various server-side containers.

These are some of the typical uses of serialization:

 To persist data for future use.

 To send data to a remote computer using such client/server Java technologies as RMI or
socket programming.
 To "flatten" an object into array of bytes in memory.
 To exchange data between applets and servlets.
 To store user session in Web applications.
 To activate/passivate enterprise java beans.
 To send objects between the servers in a cluster.

Question: what is a collection ?

Answer: Collection is a group of objects. java.util package provides important types of

collections. There are two fundamental types of collections they are Collection and Map.
Collection types hold a group of objects, Eg. Lists and Sets where as Map types hold group of
objects as key, value pairs Eg. HashMap and Hashtable.

Question: For concatenation of strings, which method is good, StringBuffer or String ?

Answer: StringBuffer is faster than String for concatenation.

Question: What is Runnable interface ? Are there any other ways to make a java program
as multithred java program? 

Answer: There are two ways to create new kinds of threads:

- Define a new class that extends the Thread class

- Define a new class that implements the Runnable interface, and pass an object of that class to a
Thread's constructor.
- An advantage of the second approach is that the new class can be a subclass of any class, not
just of the Thread class.

Here is a very simple example just to illustrate how to use the second approach to creating
threads: class myThread implements Runnable { public void run() { System.out.println("I'm
running!"); } } public class tstRunnable { public static void main(String[] args) { myThread my1
= new myThread(); myThread my2 = new myThread(); new Thread(my1).start(); new
Thread(my2).start(); }

Question: What is serialization ? 

Answer: Serialization is the process of writing complete state of java object into output stream,
that stream can be file or byte array or stream associated with TCP/IP socket.

Question: What does the Serializable interface do ? 

Answer: Serializable is a tagging interface; it prescribes no methods. It serves to assign the

Serializable data type to the tagged class and to identify the class as one which the developer has
designed for persistence. ObjectOutputStream serializes only those objects which implement this
interface.

Question: How do I serialize an object to a file ?

Answer: To serialize an object into a stream perform the following actions:

- Open one of the output streams, for exaample FileOutputStream

- Chain it with the ObjectOutputStream - Call the method writeObject() providingg the instance
of a Serializable object as an argument.
- Close the streams

Java Code --------- try{ fOut= new FileOutputStream("c:\\emp.ser"); out = new

ObjectOutputStream(fOut); out.writeObject(employee); //serializing System.out.println("An
employee is serialized into c:\\emp.ser"); } catch(IOException e){ e.printStackTrace(); }
Question: How do I deserilaize an Object? 

Answer: To deserialize an object, perform the following steps:

- Open an input stream

- Chain it with the ObjectInputStream - Call the method readObject() and cast tthe returned
object to the class that is being deserialized.
- Close the streams

Java Code try{ fIn= new FileInputStream("c:\\emp.ser"); in = new ObjectInputStream(fIn); //de-

serializing employee Employee emp = (Employee) in.readObject();
System.out.println("Deserialized " + emp.fName + " " + emp.lName + " from emp.ser "); }
catch(IOException e){ e.printStackTrace(); }catch(ClassNotFoundException e)
{ e.printStackTrace(); }

Question: What is Externalizable Interface ? 

Answer : Externalizable interface is a subclass of Serializable. Java provides Externalizable

interface that gives you more control over what is being serialized and it can produce smaller
object footprint. ( You can serialize whatever field values you want to serialize)

This interface defines 2 methods: readExternal() and writeExternal() and you have to implement
these methods in the class that will be serialized. In these methods you'll have to write code that
reads/writes only the values of the attributes you are interested in. Programs that perform
serialization and deserialization have to write and read these attributes in the same sequence.

Question: Explain garbage collection ? 

Answer: Garbage collection is an important part of Java's security strategy. Garbage collection
is also called automatic memory management as JVM automatically removes the unused
variables/objects from the memory. The name "garbage collection" implies that objects that are
no longer needed by the program are "garbage" and can be thrown away. A more accurate and
up-to-date metaphor might be "memory recycling." When an object is no longer referenced by
the program, the heap space it occupies must be recycled so that the space is available for
subsequent new objects. The garbage collector must somehow determine which objects are no
longer referenced by the program and make available the heap space occupied by such
unreferenced objects. In the process of freeing unreferenced objects, the garbage collector must
run any finalizers of objects being freed

Question : How you can force the garbage collection ? 

Answer : Garbage collection automatic process and can't be forced. We can call garbage
collector in Java by calling System.gc() and Runtime.gc(), JVM tries to recycle the unused
objects, but there is no guarantee when all the objects will garbage collected.

Question : What are the field/method access levels (specifiers) and class access levels ? 
Answer: Each field and method has an access level:

 private: accessible only in this class

 (package): accessible only in this package
 protected: accessible only in this package and in all subclasses of this class
 public: accessible everywhere this class is available

Similarly, each class has one of two possible access levels:

 (package): class objects can only be declared and manipulated by code in this package

public: class objects can be declared and manipulated by code in any package