Design Patterns Interview

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Contents

Design Patterns Interview Questions for Freshers

1.   What are design patterns?
2.   What are the advantages of Java Design Patterns?
3.   How can you describe a design pattern?
4.   What are the types of design patterns in Java?
5.   What is Inversion of Control?
6.   What Is Gang of Four (GOF) in Design Patterns?
7.   What are the SOLID Principles?
8.   What do you understand by the Open-Closed Principle (OCP)?
9.   What are some of the design patterns used in Java’s JDK library?
10.   How are design principles different from design patterns?
11.   How are design patterns different from algorithms?

Design Patterns Interview Questions for

Experienced
12.   What is a Factory Design Pattern?
13.   What is an Adapter Design Pattern?
14.   What is a Proxy Design Pattern?
15.   What is a Bridge Design Pattern?
16.   What are some instances where we prefer abstract classes over interfaces in
Java?
17.   What is a Chain of Responsibility pattern? In what scenarios to apply this
pattern?
18.   What is Decorator Design Pattern?

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Design Patterns Interview Questions for

Experienced (.....Continued)

19.   What is a Command pattern?

20.   What is an Observer Design Pattern?
21.   What problem does Builder Pattern try to solve?
22.   Consider a scenario where you are writing classes for providing market data and
we have the flexibility to switch to different vendors or we can be directed to the
Direct Exchange Feed. How will you approach this problem to design the
system?
23.   What do you understand by the Null Object pattern?
24.   What is the MVC design pattern?
25.   What are the components of the Composite Entity pattern?
26.   What is the main advantage of using a prototype design pattern over object
creation using a new keyword?
27.   How can you achieve thread-safe singleton patterns in Java?
28.   What would happen if we do not have a synchronized method for returning
Singleton instance in a multi-threaded environment?

Pattern Programming
29.   Write a Java Program to display the pyramid as per the below design.
30.   Write a Java Program to display the le triangle star pattern on the system
console.
31.   Write a Java program to print Diamond Number Pattern.
32.   Write a Java program that takes a String as an input and prints the pattern in the
increasing order of odd numbers as shown in the example below:
33.   Write a Java program to print Pascal’s Triangle Pattern.

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Let's get Started

Introduction to Design Patterns

Design patterns are the reusable template solutions that are for solving common
problems that occur in so ware development such as repetitive code, reusable
patterns, redundant functions etc. They are similar to customizable blueprints for
solving any problem. This concept was first described by Christopher Alexander and
was later picked by 4 authors - Erich Gamma, John Vlissides, Ralph Johnson, and
Richard Helm - popularly known as the Gang of Four and published in their book
Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented So ware in 1994. Design
Patterns teaches the developers how to solve commonly recurring problems without
spending too much time and effort while developing solutions to them. Due to this,
the demand for so ware developers to know these patterns has grown a lot. 
In this article, we will see the most commonly asked design patterns interview
questions for both freshers and experienced professionals.

Design Patterns Interview Questions for Freshers

1.   What are design patterns?
Design patterns are the reusable solutions that solve common problems of so ware
development. These problems include repetitive code, redundant functions and logic
etc. These help to save considerable effort and time required for the developers while
developing so ware. Design patterns are commonly used in object-oriented so ware
products by incorporating best practices and promoting reusability for developing
robust code.

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2.   What are the advantages of Java Design Patterns?

Design patterns are template-based reusable solutions to help developers work
effortlessly in multiple projects. In Java, the design patterns are flexible and help to
identify unwanted repetitive code easily. The architecture of the so ware can be
customised as per the requirements. Some of the advantages of using design
patterns in Java are:
They are reusable and can be used in multiple projects.
They provide template solutions for defining system architecture.
They provide transparency to so ware design.
They are well-tested and proven means of developing robust solutions
effortlessly.

3.   How can you describe a design pattern?

For describing a design pattern, we follow the below things:

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Define a pattern name and what classification of design pattern the pattern
would fall to.
Define a Problem and what is the corresponding solution
What are the variations and language-dependent alternatives for the problem
that needs to be addressed?
What are the real-time use cases and the efficiency of the so ware that uses
these patterns?

4.   What are the types of design patterns in Java?

There are three types of design patterns. They are:
Creational Patterns: These patterns provide freedom of choice between
creating objects by hiding the logic. The objects constructed are decoupled from
the implemented system. Some of the examples of creational patterns are -
Factory design pattern, Builder design, Prototype design, Singleton design,
Abstract Factory design.
Structural Patterns: These patterns help in defining how the structures of
classes and objects should be like for defining the composition between classes,
interfaces and objects. Some of the examples of structural patterns are -
Adaptor design, Facade design, Decorator design, proxy design etc.
Behavioural Patterns: These patterns help to define how the objects should
communicate and interact with one another. Some of the examples of
behavioural patterns are - Command pattern, Iterator pattern, Observer pattern,
Strategy pattern, etc.
The following diagram represents the summary of the types of design patterns.

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5.   What is Inversion of Control?

Inversion of control is a pattern used to decouple the dependencies between layers
and components in the system. The Dependency-Injection (DI) pattern is an example
of an IoC pattern that helps in removing dependencies in the code.
Let us understand this with the help of an example. Consider we have a class A
that makes use of class B as shown below:

public class A{
private B b;

public A(){
this.b = new B();
}
}

Here, we have a dependency between classes A and B. If we had the IoC pattern
implemented, we would not have used the new operator to assign value to the
dependent variable. It would have been something as shown below:

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public class A {
private IocB b;
public A(IocB b) {
this.b = b;
}
}

We have inverted the control of handing the dependency of instantiating the object
of class B to the IoC class IocB .

6.   What Is Gang of Four (GOF) in Design Patterns?

Gang of Four (GOF) are the 4 superheroes who invented the concept of design
patterns. These heroes are Erich Gamma, Ralph Johnson, Richard Hel and John
Vlissides. These people documented the design patterns in a book called “Design
Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented So ware” in 1995. If not for these
people, the so ware developers would have wasted time-solving problems of
recurring nature instead of focussing on business requirements.

7.   What are the SOLID Principles?

SOLID principles were the Object-Oriented principles introduced by Robert C. Martin
in his paperwork “Design Principles and Design patterns” in the year 2000. The
acronym for SOLID goes as follows:

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S - Single Responsibility Principle (SRP): The single responsibility principle

ensures that every class or module should be accountable and responsible for
only one functionality. There should be one and only one reason for changing
any class.
O - Open Closed Principle (OCP): Every class is open for extension but closed for
modification. Here, we are allowed to extend the entities behaviour by not
modifying anything in the existing source code.
L - Liskov Substitution Principle(LSP): LSP principle states that the objects can
be replaced by the subtype instances without affecting the correctness of the
program.
I - Interface Segregation Principle (ISP): The ISP principle states that we can
use as many interfaces specific to the client’s requirements instead of creating
only one general interface. Clients should not be forced to implement the
functionalities that they do not require.
D - Dependency Inversion Principle: Here, the high-level modules should not be
dependent on the lower level modules or concrete implementations. Instead,
they should be dependent on the abstractions.

8.   What do you understand by the Open-Closed Principle (OCP)?

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The Open close principle states that any class, component or entity should be open
for extension but closed for modification. A class can be extended via Inheritance,
Interfaces, Composition whenever required instead of modifying the code of the
class. Consider an instance where we have a class that calculates the area of a square.
Later, we get the requirement of calculating the area of a rectangle. Here, instead of
modifying the original class, we can create one base class and this base class can be
extended by the new class rectangle.

9.   What are some of the design patterns used in Java’s JDK

library?
Following are some design patterns used in Java’s JDK library:
Decorator pattern are used by the Wrapper classes.
Singleton pattern is used in classes like Calendar and Runtime.
Factory pattern is used for methods like Integer.valueOf methods in wrapper
classes.
Observer pattern is used for handling event frameworks like awt, swing etc.

10.   How are design principles different from design patterns?

Design principles are those principles that are followed while designing
so ware systems for any platform by making use of any programming language.
SOLID principles are the design principles that we follow as guidelines to
develop robust, extensible and scalable so ware systems. These apply to all
aspects of programming.
Design Patterns are the reusable template solutions for commonly occurring
problems that can be customized as per the problem requirements. These are
well-implemented solutions that are tested properly and are safe to use. Factory
Design Pattern, Singleton pattern, Strategy patterns are a few of the examples of
design patterns.

11.   How are design patterns different from algorithms?

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Both Design Patterns and Algorithms describe typical solutions to any given problem.
But the main difference is that the algorithm defines a clear set of actions for
achieving a goal and a design pattern provides a high-level description of any
solution. Design patterns applied to two different problems might be the same but
the logic of implementation would be different and is based on the requirements.

Design Patterns Interview Questions for

Experienced
12.   What is a Factory Design Pattern?
Factory design pattern belongs to the category of Creational Design Patterns. Here,
the objects are created without exposing the logic of creation to the client. The
objects refer to the common interface.
Let us understand this with the help of an example.
Let’s consider 3 classes Square, Rectangle and Triangle. We will be using factory
patterns to create objects of these three classes without exposing the creation logic
by making use of ShapeFactory class. The Driver class would be passing the
information like RECTANGLE/SQUARE/TRIANGLE for getting the required object. The
following UML diagram represents the scenario.

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Now to implement the factory design pattern for the above example, let us follow the
below steps:
Step 1: Create a Shape interface.

//Shape.java
public interface Shape {
void draw();
}

Step 2: Create concrete classes Rectangle, Square, Triangle that implements the
Shape interface.

//Rectangle.java
public class Rectangle implements Shape {
@Override
public void draw() {
System.out.println("Rectangle Drawn");
}
}

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//Square.java
public class Square implements Shape {
@Override
public void draw() {
System.out.println("Square Drawn");
}
}

//Triangle.java
public class Triangle implements Shape {
@Override
public void draw() {
System.out.println("Triangle Drawn");
}
}

Step 3: Create ShapeFactory class and create a method called

getShapeInstance() for generating objects of the concrete classes defined above.

//ShapeFactory.java
public class ShapeFactory {
//the method will be used to get object of required shape
public Shape getShapeInstance(String type){
if(type == null){
return null;
}
if(type.equalsIgnoreCase("TRIANGLE")){
return new Triangle();
} else if(type.equalsIgnoreCase("SQUARE")){
return new Square();
} else if(type.equalsIgnoreCase("RECTANGLE")){
return new Rectangle();
}
return null;
}
}

Step 4: Implement the Driver class and utilise the factory class for getting the
object of the required type.

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//Driver.java
public class Driver {
public static void main(String[] args) {
ShapeFactory shapeFactory = new ShapeFactory();
//get Triangle object and call draw()
Shape triangle = shapeFactory.getShape("Triangle");
triangle.draw();
//get Rectangle object and call draw()
Shape rectangle = shapeFactory.getShape("RECTANGLE");
rectangle.draw();
//get Square object and call draw()
Shape square = shapeFactory.getShape("SQUARE");
square.draw();
}
}

Step 5: Validate the output

The output of this implementation would be:

Triangle Drawn
Rectangle Drawn
Square Drawn

The advantages of a factory design pattern are:

This pattern allows hiding the creation logic of the application by using
interfaces and factory classes.
It lets to test the seamlessness of the application by using mock or stubs.
Introduces loose coupling in the application by allowing flexibility in the
implementation of methods when new classes are introduced.

13.   What is an Adapter Design Pattern?

The adapter design pattern falls under the category of a structural design pattern
that lets incompatible objects collaborate. It acts as a wrapper between 2 different
objects. The adapter catches the call for one object and transforms them to be
recognizable by the second object.

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Let us understand this with the help of an example of a USB to Ethernet adapter that
is used when we have an ethernet interface at one end and the USB interface on the
other end. The USB and ethernet are incompatible with each other which is why we
require an adapter. The adapter class has a Client class that expects some object type
and it has an Adaptee class that offers the same feature but by exposing a different
interface. Now to make these both communicate, we have an Adapter class. The
client requests the Adapter by using the target interface. The Adapter class translates
the request using the Adaptee Interface on the adaptee. The Client receives the
results unaware of the adapter’s role. This has been described in the class diagram as
shown below:
Class Diagram:

Let us consider that we have a MediaPlayer Interface which is implemented by the

AudioPlayer class. The AudioPlayer can play mp3 format by default. Consider another
interface AdvancedPlayer that is being implemented by MP4Player class that plays
mp4 formats and WAVPlayer that plays wav formats. If we want to make AudioPlayer
class play other formats, then we make use of the MediaAdapter class that
implements the MediaPlayer Interface and uses the AdvancedPlayer objects for
playing the required format. The code implementation of this scenario is as follows:

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//MediaPlayer.java
public interface MediaPlayer {
public void play(String format, String file);
}

//AdvancedPlayer.java
public interface AdvancedPlayer {
public void playMp4(String file);
public void playWav(String file);
}

//Mp4Player.java
public class Mp4Player implements AdvancedPlayer{
@Override
public void playMp4(String file) {
System.out.println("MP4 File "+ file + " Playing....");
}

@Override
public void playWav(String file) {
//do nothing
}
}

//WAVPlayer.java
public class WAVPlayer implements AdvancedPlayer{
@Override
public void playMp4(String file) {
//do nothing
}

@Override
public void playWav(String file) {
System.out.println("WAV File "+ file + " Playing....");
}
}

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//MediaAdapter.java
public class MediaAdapter implements MediaPlayer {
AdvancedPlayer advancedPlayer;
public MediaAdapter(String format){
if(format.equalsIgnoreCase("mp4") ){
advancedPlayer = new Mp4Player();
}else if(format.equalsIgnoreCase("wav") ){
advancedPlayer = new WAVPlayer();
}
}
@Override
public void play(String format, String file) {

if(format.equalsIgnoreCase("mp4")){
advancedPlayer.playMp4(file);
}
else if(format.equalsIgnoreCase("wav")){
advancedPlayer.playWav(file);
}
}
}

//AudioPlayer.java
public class AudioPlayer implements MediaPlayer {
MediaAdapter mediaAdapter;
@Override
public void play(String format, String file) {
//inbuilt support to play mp3 music files
if(format.equalsIgnoreCase("mp3")){
System.out.println("MP3 file " + file +" Playing...");
}
//Make use of Adapter to support different formats
else if(format.equalsIgnoreCase("wav") || format.equalsIgnoreCase("mp4")){
mediaAdapter = new MediaAdapter(format);
mediaAdapter.play(format, file);
}
else{
System.out.println("Format not supported");
}
}
}

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//Driver.java
public class Driver {
public static void main(String[] args) {
AudioPlayer audioPlayer = new AudioPlayer();
audioPlayer.play("mp3", "music1.mp3");
audioPlayer.play("wav", "music2.wav");
audioPlayer.play("mp4", "music3.mp4");
audioPlayer.play("avi", "music4.avi");
}
}

The output of this code would be:

MP3 file music1.mp3 Playing...

WAV File music2.wav Playing...
MP4 File music3.mp4 Playing...
Format not supported

14.   What is a Proxy Design Pattern?

Proxy design pattern falls under the category of structural design that represents the
functionality of other classes. This pattern lets the developers provide a substitute for
another object. This is called a proxy object. This helps to control the access to the
original object and allows us to perform many tasks before or a er the request
reaches the original object. 

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As shown in the figure above, in this pattern, we have a ServiceInterface interface

that has some operation. This interface is being implemented by a Service class and a
Proxy class. The Service class has useful business logic and the Proxy class has a
reference field pointing to the service object. Once the proxy finishes processing lazy
initialization, logging, caching etc, the request will be passed to the service object.
And finally, we have a client that works with the services and the proxies by using the
interface. This helps to pass proxy objects to any piece of code.

15.   What is a Bridge Design Pattern?

The bridge pattern is a type of structural design pattern that lets to split large class or
closely related classes into 2 hierarchies - abstraction and implementation. These
hierarchies are independent of each other and are used whenever we need to
decouple an abstraction from implementation. This is called a Bridge pattern
because it acts as a bridge between the abstract class and the implementation class.
In this pattern, the abstract classes and the implementation classes can be altered or
modified independently without affecting the other one.

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The above image is the UML representation of the Bridge Pattern. There are 4 main
elements of Bridge Pattern. They are:
Abstraction – This is the core of the pattern and it defines its crux. This contains
a reference to the implementer.
Refined Abstraction – This extends the abstraction and takes refined details of
the requirements and hides it from the implementors.
Implementer – This is the interface for the implementation classes.
Concrete Implementation – These are the concrete implementation classes
that implement the Implementer interface.

16.   What are some instances where we prefer abstract classes

over interfaces in Java?
Both Abstract classes and interfaces in Java follow the principle of writing code for
interface rather than the implementation. This principle ensures that flexibility is
added to the code to tackle dynamic requirements. Some of the pointers for deciding
what to prefer over what are as follows:

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Java lets to extend only one class and let’s implement multiple interfaces. If we
extend one class then we cannot extend other classes. In such cases, it is better
to implement the interfaces wherever possible and reserve the inheritance of
classes to only important ones.
Interfaces are used for representing the behaviour of the class. Java lets to
implement multiple interfaces which is why we can take the help of interfaces to
help classes have multiple behaviours at the same time.
Abstract classes are slightly faster than interfaces. It can be used for time-critical
applications.
In cases where there are common behaviours across the inheritance hierarchy,
these can be coded at one place in abstract classes. Interfaces and abstract
classes can also be used together to define a function in interface and
functionality in abstract class.

17.   What is a Chain of Responsibility pattern? In what scenarios

to apply this pattern?
Chain of Responsibility belongs to the category of a behavioural design pattern that
passes requests via a chain of handlers. Whenever a request is received, the handler
decides whether to process the request or pass it to the next handler of the chain. It is
used for achieving loose coupling where the client request is passed through an
object chain to process them.

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The above image represents the UML diagram of this pattern. There are 3
components of this design, they are:
Client: This is the point of request origination and the component that accesses
the handler for handling the request.
Handler: Handler can either be a class or an interface that received the request
primarily and dispatches it to the chain of handlers. This Handler knows only the
first handler of the chain.
Concrete Handlers: These are the actual request handlers in sequential order.
This pattern can be used in the following cases:
Whenever we want to decouple the sender and the receiver of the request.
Whenever we want multiple objects to handle a request at runtime.
Whenever we do not want to explicitly specify handlers in the code.
Whenever we want to issue a request to several objects without explicitly
specifying handlers.

18.   What is Decorator Design Pattern?

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Decorator design pattern belongs to the category of structural pattern that lets users
add new features to an existing object without modifying the structure. This pattern
creates a class called decorator class that acts as a wrapper to the existing class by
keeping the signatures of class methods intact. This pattern makes use of abstract
classes and interfaces with composition for implementing the wrapper. They are
mostly used to apply SRP (Single Responsibility Principle) as we divide functionalities
into classes with unique concerns. This pattern is structurally similar to the chain of
responsibility pattern. Following are the steps to implement decorator design
pattern:
Create an interface and concrete classes that implement this interface.
Create an abstract decorator class that implements the above interface.
Create a concrete decorator class that extends the above abstract class.
Use the concrete decorator class to decorate the interface objects and verify the
output.
Let us understand this with the help of an example. Here, we will be creating a Shape
Interface and concrete classes- Rectangle and Triangle that implement this Shape
interface. We will be creating an abstract decorator class “ShapeDecorator” that
implements the Shape interface. We will create RedColorDecorator that extends
ShapeDecorator. We will be then using this decorator to implement the
functionalities.

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Creating “Shape” Interface

// Shape.java
public interface Shape {
void draw();
}

Create concrete classes Rectangle.java and Triangle.java that implement Shape

Interface.

// Rectangle.java
public class Rectangle implements Shape {
// Overriding the draw method
@Override public void draw()
{
System.out.println("Rectangle Drawn...");
}
}

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// Triangle.java
public class Triangle implements Shape {
// Overriding the draw method
@Override public void draw()
{
System.out.println("Triangle Drawn...");
}
}

Create ShapeDecorator abstract class that implements the Shape interface.

// ShapeDecorator.java
public abstract class ShapeDecorator implements Shape {
protected Shape shapeDecorated;
public ShapeDecorator(Shape shapeDecorated)
{
this.shapeDecorated = shapeDecorated;
}
public void draw() {
shapeDecorated.draw();
}
}

Create the RedColorDecorator.java class that extends the ShapeDecorator class.

public class RedColorDecorator extends ShapeDecorator {

public RedColorDecorator(Shape shapeDecorated)
{
super(shapeDecorated);
}
@Override
public void draw()
{
shapeDecorated.draw();
setRedBorder(shapeDecorated);
}
private void setRedBorder(Shape shapeDecorated)
{
System.out.println("Red color border added...");
}
}

Implement the Driver class to demo the decorator class.

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// Driver.java
public class Driver {
// Main driver method
public static void main(String[] args)
{

Shape triangle = new Triangle();

Shape redTriangle
= new RedColorDecorator(new Triangle());
Shape redRectangle = new RedColorDecorator(new Rectangle());
// Draw normal triangle
triangle.draw();
System.out.println(".........");
// make the triangle red
redTriangle.draw();
System.out.println(".........");
// make the rectangle red
redRectangle.draw();
System.out.println(".........");
}
}

Validate the output. The output of the above code would be:

Triangle Drawn...
.........
Triangle Drawn...
Red color border added...
.........
Rectangle Drawn...
Red color border added...
.........

19.   What is a Command pattern?

The command pattern is a type of behavioural design pattern that transforms a
request into a stand-alone object containing all the details about the request. This
pattern is a data-driven pattern because we make use of the information about the
request by wrapping it as an object and is passed to the invoker object as a
command. The invoker object checks for the object that can handle the command
and passes it to that object to execute the command. The following diagram is the
UML diagram that represents the command design pattern.

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We have a client that calls the invoker to run a command. We have a Command
interface that acts as an abstraction to the underlying concrete classes. Let us
understand this with the help of an example of remote control that has only one
button. Using this button, we will be controlling the behaviour of two objects
tubelight and a radio. The command to control the objects will be implemented
using the command design pattern.
Create Command interface:

// Command Interface
interface Command
{
public void execute();
}

Create Tubelight class and its command classes that extend the above interface
to control the tubelight.

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// Tubelight class
class TubeLight
{
public void lightOn(){
System.out.println("TubeLight on...");
}
public void lightOff(){
System.out.println("TubeLight off...");
}
}
// Command class to turn on the tubelight
class TubeLightOnCommand implements Command
{
TubeLight tubeLight;
// The constructor is passed the light it
// is going to control.
public TubeLightOnCommand(TubeLight tubeLight){
this.tubeLight = tubeLight;
}
public void execute(){
tubeLight.lightOn();
}
}
// Command class to turn off the tubelight
class TubeLightOffCommand implements Command
{
TubeLight tubeLight;
public TubeLightOffCommand(TubeLight tubeLight) {
this.tubeLight = tubeLight;
}
public void execute() {
tubeLight.lightOff();
}
}

Create a Radio class and its command classes that extend the above interface to
control the radio.

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// Radio class
class Radio
{
public void radioOn()
{
System.out.println("Radio on ...");
}
public void radioOff()
{
System.out.println("Radio off...");
}
public void setVolume(int volumeLevel)
{
// code to set the volume
System.out.println("Radio volume set to " + volumeLevel);
}
}
// Command class to turn on the radio
class RadioOnCommand implements Command
{
Radio radio;
public RadioOnCommand(Radio radio)
{
this.radio = radio;
}
public void execute()
{
radio.radioOn();
}
}
// Command class to set the volume of the radio
class RadioVolumeCommand implements Command
{
Radio radio;
int volumeLevel;
public RadioVolumeCommand(Radio radio, int volumeLevel)
{
this.radio = radio;
this.volumeLevel=volumeLevel;
}
public void execute()
{
radio.setVolume(volumeLevel);
}
}

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Create a remote control class that has only one button and on click of the
button, execute the command functionality:

// remote control with one button

class RemoteControl{
Command button; // only one button
public RemoteControl(){}
public void setCommand(Command command){
// set the command the remote will
// execute
button = command;
}
public void pressButton(){
// execute the command on click (call) of the button
button.execute();
}
}

Create a Driver class to implement the pattern. Here we will be first turning on
the tubelight on the first click of the button, on next click, we will be turning on
the radio, then we will be setting the volume of the radio to 4 and then we will
be turning off the tubelight.

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// Driver class
public class Driver
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
RemoteControl remote = new RemoteControl();
TubeLight tubeLight = new TubeLight();
Radio radio = new Radio();
// Turn on Tubelight
remote.setCommand(new TubeLightOnCommand(tubeLight));
remote.pressButton();
//Turn on Radio
remote.setCommand(new RadioOnCommand(radio));
remote.pressButton();
//Turn off Radio
remote.setCommand(new RadioVolumeCommand(radio,4));
remote.pressButton();
// Turn off Tubelight
remote.setCommand(new TubeLightOffCommand(tubeLight));
remote.pressButton();
}
}

Validate the result of this pattern to see if it’s working fine. The result of this
code would be:

TubeLight on...
Radio on ...
Radio volume set to 4
TubeLight off...

20.   What is an Observer Design Pattern?

An observer design pattern is a type of behavioural design pattern that is used for
defining the one to many dependencies between the objects. It is most useful when
we want to get notified about any change in the state of an object. In this pattern,
when the state of one object changes, all the dependent objects are notified
automatically. The object whose state is monitored is called the Subject whereas the
dependents are called the Observers. In Java, we can implement this pattern by
making use of the java.util.Observable class and the java.util.Observer
interface. The following UML diagram represents the observer design pattern clearly:

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

This design pattern has 3 main components:

Subject - This can be an interface or an abstract class that defines operations for
attaching ( registerObserver() ) and detaching the observers
( removeObserver() ) to the subject.
Concrete Subject - This is a concrete class of the Subject. This maintains the
object state and whenever any change occurs in that state, the observers are
notified about it using notifyObservers() method.
Observer - This is an interface or an abstract class that defines the operations
for notifying this object ( update() ). One real work example of this pattern is
Facebook or Twitter. Whenever a person updates the status, all the followers
would get a notification about his update. An observer can get the notification
of the subject as long as it is subscribed or keeping track of it.

21.   What problem does Builder Pattern try to solve?

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

A builder pattern is a type of creational design pattern that lets to construct complex
objects in a step by step manner. The pattern lets to produce different
representations of an object using the same construction logic. It helps in creating
immutable classes having a large set of attributes. In the Factory and Abstract Factory
Design Patterns, we encounter the following issues if the object contains a lot of
attributes:
When the arguments are too many, the program will be error-prone while
passing from the client to the Factory Class in a specific order. It becomes
tedious to maintain the order of arguments when the types are the same.
There might be some optional attributes of the object and yet we would be
forced to send all parameters and optional attributes as Null.
When the object creation becomes complex due to heavy attributes, the
complexity of this class would become confusing.
The above problems can also be solved by using constructors of required parameters
alone. But this causes an issue when there would be new parameters that are added
as part of new requirements. This would result in inconsistency. That’s where Builder
comes into the picture. This pattern solves the issue of a large number of optional
attributes and the inconsistent state by providing means to build an object in a step-
by-step way and return the final object utilizing another method.
Builder pattern can be implemented by following the below steps:

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

Create a static nested class, copy all arguments from the outer class. This nested
class would be called the Builder class.
Proper naming convention has to be followed while naming this builder
class. For example, if the name of the class is Interviewbit , then the
name of the builder would be InterviewbitBuilder .
The builder class should have a public constructor with all required attributes
sent as parameters.
The builder class should have methods for setting optional parameters and
return the same builder object post setting these values.
The last step is to have a build() method inside the builder class that returns the
Object needed by the client. This would require a private constructor in the class
that takes the Builder class as the parameter.
Following is the sample example of the builder pattern implementation. We have a
User class and we will be building UserBuilder class to build the objects of the User
class.

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

class User
{
//All final attributes
private final String firstName; // required
private final String lastName; // required
private final int age; // required
private final String phoneNbr; // optional
private final String address; // optional
private final String nationality; //optional

private User(UserBuilder builder) {

this.firstName = builder.firstName;
this.lastName = builder.lastName;
this.age = builder.age;
this.phoneNbr = builder.phoneNbr;
this.address = builder.address;
this.nationality = builder.nationality;
}

//Setters are not provided to make it immutable

public String getFirstName() {
return firstName;
}
public String getLastName() {
return lastName;
}
public int getAge() {
return age;
}
public String getPhoneNbr() {
return phoneNbr;
}
public String getAddress() {
return address;
}
public String getNationality() {
return nationality;
}

@Override
public String toString() {
return "User: "+this.firstName+" "+this.lastName+", "+this.age+", "+this.nationa
}

public static class UserBuilder

{
private final String firstName;
private final String lastName;
private int age;
private String phoneNbr;
private String address;
private String nationality;

public UserBuilder(String firstName, String lastName) {

this.firstName = firstName;
this.lastName = lastName;
}
bli ild (i ) {
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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

The output of the above code would be:

User: Harry Potter, 30, null, 1234567, 221B Baker Street - London
User: Ron Weasley, 32, null, 5655, null
User: Hermoine Granger, 20, English, null, null

22.   Consider a scenario where you are writing classes for

providing market data and we have the flexibility to switch
to different vendors or we can be directed to the Direct
Exchange Feed. How will you approach this problem to
design the system?
We can do this by having an interface called “MarketData” which will consist of the
methods required by the Client. The MarketData should have the
MarketDataProvider as the dependency by employing Dependency Injection. This
ensures that even if the provider changes, the market data will not be impacted.
The implementation of this problem is le as an exercise to the reader.

23.   What do you understand by the Null Object pattern?

In this pattern, a null object is used for replacing the check of validating if the object
instance is null or not. This Null Object has a “do nothing” relationship and these can
be used for providing default behaviour if the data is unavailable.

24.   What is the MVC design pattern?

MVC stands for Model-View-Controller. This pattern is used for separating the
application’s concerns as listed below:
Model - This represents the object (Java POJO) that carries the data. It can also
consist of the logic of updating the controller in case the data changes.
View - This represents the data visualization of the model.
Controller - This is an interface between the Model and the View by controlling
the flow of data into the model and updating the view whenever the model gets
updated. This ensures that the model and the views are kept separate.

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

The above image represents how the request flow happens in the MVC Pattern. First,
the Browser (client) sends request for a page to the controller of the server. The
controller invokes the model, retrieves the data and sends the response. The
response is then sent to the view for rendering. The view will be rendered and it is
sent back to the client for display.

25.   What are the components of the Composite Entity pattern?

This pattern is used in EJB (Enterprise Java Beans) persistence mechanism. A
composite entity represents the object graph and is an EJB entity. Whenever a
composite entity is updated, the object beans that are internally dependent on this
bean are updated automatically. There are 4 main components of the Composite
Entity Pattern:
Composite Entity - Primary entity bean that can have a coarse-grained object
that is meant for persistence.
Coarse-Grained Object - This contains the dependent objects which have their
life cycle and in turn manages the lifecycle of dependent objects.
Dependent Object - This object is dependent on the coarse-grained object
throughout the persistence lifecycle.
Strategies - These represent how to implement the composite entity.

26.   What is the main advantage of using a prototype design

pattern over object creation using a new keyword?

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

Prototype design pattern is used for creating duplicate objects based on the
prototype of the already existing object using cloning. Doing this has a positive
impact on the performance of object creation. Creating objects using the new
keyword requires a lot of resources and is a heavyweight process that impacts
performance. Hence, the prototype design pattern is more advantageous than the
object created using a new keyword.

27.   How can you achieve thread-safe singleton patterns in

Java?
A thread-safe singleton class is created which helps in object initialization in the
presence of multiple threads. It can be done using multiple ways:
Using Enums: Enums are the simplest means of creating a thread-safe singleton
class in Java because the synchronization support is inherently done by Java
itself. Enums are by default final and this also helps in preventing multiple
initializations at the time of serialization.

public enum ThreadSafeSingleton{

SINGLETON_INSTANCE;
public void display(){
System.out.println("Thread-safe singleton Display");
}
}
// The Singleton class methods can be invoked as below
ThreadSafeSingleton.SINGLETON_INSTANCE.show();

Using Static Field Initialization: Thread-safe singleton can also be created by

creating the instance at the time of class loading. This is achieved by making use
of static fields as the Classloader guarantees that the instances are initialized
during class loading and the instance is not visible until that has been fully
created.

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

public class ThreadSafeSingleton{

private static final ThreadSafeSingleton INSTANCE = new ThreadSafeSingleton();
private ThreadSafeSingleton(){ }
public static ThreadSafeSingleton getInstance(){
return INSTANCE;
}
public void display(){
System.out.println("Thread-safe Singleon");
}
}
ThreadSafeSingleton.getInstance().display();

But the disadvantage of this way is that the initialization cannot be done lazily and
the getInstance() method is called even before any client can call.
Using synchronized keyword: We can make use of the synchronized keyword
upon the getInstance method as shown below.
In this method, we can achieve lazy initialization, and also since we use
synchronized keywords, the object initialization is thread-safe.
The only problem is that since the whole method is synchronized, the
performance is impacted in the presence of multiple threads.

public class ThreadSafeSingleton

{
// Creating private instance to make it accessible only by getInstance() method
private static ThreadSafeSingleton instance;
private ThreadSafeSingleton()
{
// Making constructor private so that objects cant be initialized outside the cla
}
//synchronized getInstance method
synchronized public static ThreadSafeSingleton getInstance(){
if (this.instance == null)
{
// if instance is null, initialize
this.instance = new ThreadSafeSingleton();
}
return this.instance;
}
}

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

Double-check locking: Here, we will be using a synchronized block of code

within the getInstance method instead of making the whole method
synchronized. This ensures that only a handful of threads have to wait only for
the first time thereby not impacting the performance.

public class ThreadSafeSingleton {

// Creating private instance to make it accessible only by getInstance() method
private static ThreadSafeSingleton instance;
private ThreadSafeSingleton(){
// Making constructor private so that objects cant be initialized outside the cla
}
public static ThreadSafeSingleton getInstance(){
if (instance == null){
//synchronized block of code
synchronized (ThreadSafeSingleton.class){
if(instance==null)
{
// initialize only if instance is null
instance = new ThreadSafeSingleton();
}
}
}
return instance;
}
}

28.   What would happen if we do not have a synchronized

method for returning Singleton instance in a multi-threaded
environment?
In a multi-threaded environment, if we have a non-synchronized method for
returning instances, there are chances that the method can create more than one
instance. Consider that we have 2 threads and both enter the condition for checking
if the instance already exists. Both threads will find that the instance has not been
created and hence both will create the class instances. This goes against the principle
of the Singleton pattern. Hence, in a multi-threaded environment, it is
recommended to use synchronized checks.

Pattern Programming

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

29.   Write a Java Program to display the pyramid as per the

below design.

*
* *
* * *
* * * *
* * * * *

This can be achieved by using nested loops and calculatingly adding spaces and stars
as shown in the logic below:

public class InterviewBitPyramid{

public static void printPyramid(int n) {
for (int i=0; i<n; i++){ // for number of rows
for (int j=n-i; j>1; j--) {
System.out.print(" "); //print space
}
//for number of columns
for (int j=0; j<=i; j++ ) {
System.out.print("* "); // print star
}
//end-line after every row
System.out.println();
}
}

public static void main(String args[]){

printPyramid(5); //Print Pyramid stars of 5 rows
}
}

Output:

*
* *
* * *
* * * *
* * * * *

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

30.   Write a Java Program to display the le triangle star pattern

on the system console.
This can be again be achieved by using nested loops and calculatingly adding spaces
and stars as shown in the logic below:

public class InterviewBitLeftPyramid{

public static void printLeftTriangleStars(int n) {
int j;
for(int i=0; i<n; i++){ // outer loop for number of rows(n)
for(j=2*(n-i); j>=0; j--){ // for spaces
System.out.print(" "); // to print space
}
for(j=0; j<=i; j++){ // for columns
System.out.print("* "); // Print star and give space
}
System.out.println(); // Go to next line after every row
}
}
public static void main(String args[]){
printLeftTriangleStars(5); //print stars of 5 rows in left triangle fashion
}
}

Output:

*
* *
* * *
* * * *
* * * * *

31.   Write a Java program to print Diamond Number Pattern.

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

public class InterviewBitDiamondNumber{

public static void diamondNumberDisplay(int maxNum){
for (int i = 1; i <= maxNum; i++){
int n = maxNum;
for (int j = 1; j<= n - i; j++) {
System.out.print(" ");
}
for (int k = i; k >= 1; k--) {
System.out.print(k);
}
for (int l = 2; l <= i; l++) {
System.out.print(l);
}
System.out.println();
}
for (int i = maxNum-1; i >= 1; i--){
int n = maxNum-1;
for (int j = 0; j<= n - i; j++) {
System.out.print(" ");
}
for (int k = i; k >= 1; k--){
System.out.print(k);
}
for (int l = 2; l <= i; l++){
System.out.print(l);
}
System.out.println();
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = 5;
diamondNumberDisplay(n);

}
}

Output:

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

1
212
32123
4321234
543212345
4321234
32123
212
1

32.   Write a Java program that takes a String as an input and

prints the pattern in the increasing order of odd numbers as
shown in the example below:

If String input is PATTERN, then the pattern will be:

P (First Character Once)
AAA (Second Character thrice)
TTTTT (Third Character 5 times)
TTTTTTT :
EEEEEEEEE :
RRRRRRRRRRR :
NNNNNNNNNNNNN :

Solution:

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

import java.util.Scanner;
public class InterviewBitStringPattern{
public static void printStringPattern(String input){
for (int i = 1; i <= input.length(); i++) {
for (int j = input.length(); j > i; j--){
System.out.print(" ");
}
for (int k = i * 2 - 1; k >= 1; k--){
System.out.print(input.charAt(i - 1));
}
System.out.println("");
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
// to create a new Scanner object
Scanner scanner = new Scanner(System.in);
// to get the String from the user
System.out.println("Enter Input String: ");
String input = scanner.nextLine();
System.out.println("Printing Pattern.....");
printStringPattern(input);
}
}

Output:

Enter Input String:

PATTERN
Printing Pattern.....
P
AAA
TTTTT
TTTTTTT
EEEEEEEEE
RRRRRRRRRRR
NNNNNNNNNNNNN

33.   Write a Java program to print Pascal’s Triangle Pattern.

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

public class Main {

public static void printPascalsTriangle(int n){
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
int number = 1;
System.out.printf("%" + (n - i) * 2 + "s", "");
for (int j = 0; j <= i; j++) {
System.out.printf("%4d", number);
number = number * (i - j) / (j + 1);
}
System.out.println();
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
int n = 8;
printPascalsTriangle(n);
}
}

Output:

1
1 1
1 2 1
1 3
1 3
1 4 6 4 1
1 5 10 10 5 1
1 6 15 20 15 6 1
1 7 21 35 35 21 7 1

Conclusion

Design Patterns ensure that the reusable solutions that are well-tested are
implemented which improves the code flexibility and paves way for developing smart
and extendible solutions that solve problems easily. Due to this, the demand for
so ware developers to know the best design practices and implementation has been
rising steadily. These are generally discussed in the LLD (Low-Level Design) round of
the company interviews. In this article, we have covered the most commonly asked
design patterns interview questions for both freshers and experienced so ware
professionals.

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 Design Patterns Interview Questions

Useful Resources:
Java Interview Questions
System Design
Practice

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