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Top 20 Java Multithreading

Interview Questions & Answers
Java has been rated number one in TIOBE popular
programming developers which are used by over 10
Million developers over 15 billion devices supporting
Java. It is used for creating applications for trending
technologies like Big Data to household devices like
Mobiles and DTH Boxes, it is used everywhere in
today’s information age.

Multithreading in Core Java(J2SE) is a very important

topic from an interview point of view. It can lead you
to become a Java Developer, Java Testing
Engineer, Java Architect, Lead Analyst, Java
Consultant, and most important a real good Java
programmer enabling the confidence to dive in J2EE
programming which stands for Java to enterprising
edition or in layman language making you fit to work
in corporate domain workflow directly. Perks wide
varied in India for Java developers from 300K to
25000K for as fresher based upon the level of
intellect.

So, let’s get started with most asked Java

Multithreading Interview Questions with their detailed
answers.

Q-1 What is multitasking?

A multitasking operating system is an operating

system that gives you the perception of 2 or more
tasks/jobs/processes running at the same time. It
does this by dividing system resources amongst
these tasks/jobs/processes and switching between
the tasks/jobs/processes while they are executing
over and over again. Usually, the CPU processes
only one task at a time but the switching is so fast
that it looks like the CPU is executing multiple
processes at a time. They can support either
preemptive multitasking, where the OS provides time
to applications (virtually all modern OS), or
cooperative multitasking, where the OS waits for the
program to give back control (Windows 3.x, Mac OS
9, and earlier), leading to hangs and crashes. Also
known as Timesharing, multitasking is a logical
extension of multiprogramming.

Multitasking programming is of two types which are

as follows:

1. Process-based Multitasking
2. Thread-based Multitasking

Note: Performing multiple tasks at one time is

referred to as multithreading in java which is of
two types namely Process-based multithreading
and Thread based multithreading.

Q-2 How can you identify the process?

Any program which is in a working state is referred to

as a process. These processes do have threads that
are single dispatchable units.

Q-3 How do you see a thread?

In order to see threads status let us take windows as

an operating system, it illustrates then we’d have
ProcessExplorer where you can see GUI shown
below for windows operating systems.

This PC > OS > Users > GeeksforGeeks > Downloads >

ProcessExplorer is illustrated below in the windows

operating systems

Note: All of them as listed in the above media

are the processes as shown above where at a
time many are running in parallel to each other
henceforth illustrating multiprocessing in the
Jwindows operating system.

As we have seen threads do reside in a single

process so we have to deep dive into a specific
process to see them in order to show users how
multithreading is going on in the computers at the
backend. For example: let us pick a random process
from the above media consisting of various processes
say it be ‘chrome’. Now we need to right-click over
the process and click the properties’ menu.

From the above media, it is clearly perceived that

chrome is a process and after proceeding with the
steps to figure out threads running inside the chrome
process we go to properties of the process ‘chrome’
below pictorial output will be generated representing
threads running in the process chrome.

Note: If we look scroll way from up to down then

it will be seeing some colors against a few of
those threads. Here green color threads are
associated as the newly created threads and red
colors associated threads are representing the
closed threads.

Note: So for chrome to increase the

performance by reducing the response time that
is referred to as Thread based multitasking.

Q-4 What is Multithreading and How it is Different

from Multitasking?

Multithreading is a specialized form of multitasking.

Process-based multitasking refers to executing
several tasks simultaneously where each task is a
separate independent process is Process-based
multitasking.

Example: Running Java IDE and running TextEdit at

the same time. Process-based multitasking is
represented by the below pictorial which is as follows:

Thread-based multitasking refers to executing

several tasks simultaneously where each task is a
separate independent part of the same program
known as a thread. For example, JUnits uses
threads to run test cases in parallel. Henceforth,
process-based multitasking is a bigger scenario
handling process where threads handle the details. It
is already discussed to deeper depth already with
visual aids.

For more details, please refer to Process-based

and Thread-based multitasking in Java

Q-5 Which Kind of Multitasking is Better and

Why?

Thread-based multitasking is better as multitasking of

threads requires less overhead as compared to
process multitasking because processes are
heavyweight in turn requiring their own separate
address space in memory while threads being very
light-weight processes and share the same address
space as cooperatively shared by heavyweight
processes.

Switching is a secondary reason as inter-process

communication is expensive and limited. Context
switching from one process to another is cost hefty
whereas inter-thread communication is inexpensive
and context switching from one thread to another is
lower in cost.

Note: However java programs make use of

process-based multitasking environments, but
this feature is not directly under Java’s direct
control while multithreading is complete.

Q-6 What is a thread?

Threads are lightweight processes within processes

as seen. In java, there are two ways of creating
threads namely via Thread class and via Runnable
interface.

To read more about this, please refer Thread class in

Java, Runnable interface in Java

Q-7 What are the different states of a thread, or

what is thread lifecycle?

A thread in Java at any point of time exists in any one

of the following states. A thread lies only in one of the
shown states at any instant:

1. New
2. Runnable
3. Blocked
4. Waiting
5. Timed Waiting
6. Terminated

To read more about this, please refer Lifecycle and

States of a Thread in Java

Q-8 What is the task of the main thread?

All Java programs have at least one thread, known as

the main thread which is created by JVM at the
program start when the main() method is invoked with
the main thread as depicted from the output
perceived from pseudo-code illustration.

Illustration:

System.out.println(“Mayank Solanki”);

Output: Mayank Solanki

System.out.println(Thread.currentthread().getname()

Output: main

Q-9 What are the Different Types of threads in

Java?

There are two types of threads in Java as follows:

User thread
Daemon thread

User threads are created by java developers for

example Main thread. All threads are created inside
the main() method are by default non-daemon thread
because the ‘main’ thread is non-daemon. Daemon
thread is a low-priority thread that runs in the
background to perform tasks such as garbage
collection, etc. They do not prevent daemon threads
from exiting when all user threads finish their
execution. JVM terminates itself when all non-
daemon threads finish their execution. JVM does not
care whether a thread is running or not, if JVM finds a
running daemon thread it terminates the thread and
after that shutdown itself.

Q-10 How to Create a User thread?

As discussed earlier when the JVM starts it creates a

main thread over which the program is run unless an
additional thread is not created by the user. The first
thing “Main” thread looks for ‘public static void
main(String [] args)’ method to invoke it as it acts as
an entry point to the program. All other threads
created in main acts as child threads of the “Main”
thread.

User thread can be implemented in two ways listed

below:

1. Using Thread class by extending java.lang.Thread

class.
2. Using Runnable Interface by implementing it.

Q-11 How to set the name of the thread?

We can name a thread by using a method been

already up there known as setName() replacing
default naming which was ‘Thread-0’, ‘Thread-1’, and
so on.

thread_class_object.setName("Name_thread_here");

Q-12 What is thread priority?

Priorities in threads is a concept where each thread

is having a priority which in layman’s language one
can say every object is having priority here which is
represented by numbers ranging from 1 to 10.

The default priority is set to 5 as excepted.

Minimum priority is set to 0.
Maximum priority is set to 10.

Here 3 constants are defined in it namely as follows:

1. public static int NORM_PRIORITY

2. public static int MIN_PRIORITY
3. public static int MAX_PRIORITY

To read more about this, please refer Thread Priority

in Multithreading in Java

Q-13 How deadlock plays a important role in

multithreading?

If we do incorporate threads in operating systems one

can perceive that the process scheduling algorithms
in operating systems are strongly deep-down working
on the same concept incorporating thread in Gantt
charts. A few of the most popular are listed below
which wraps up all of them and are used practically in
software development.

First In First Out

Last In First Out
Round Robin Scheduling

Now one Imagine the concept of Deadlock in

operating systems with threads by now how the
switching is getting computed over internally if one
only has an overview of them.

Q-14 Why output is not ordered?

Scheduling of threads involves two boundary

scheduling,

Scheduling of user-level threads (ULT) to kernel-

level threads (KLT) via lightweight process (LWP)
by the application developer.
Scheduling of kernel-level threads by the system
scheduler to perform different unique os functions.

If multiple threads are waiting to execute then thread

execution is decided by “ThreadScheduler” which is a
part of JVM hence its vendor dependent resulting in
unexpected execution of output order.

Note:

In multithreading, the guarantee of order is

very less where we can predict possible
outputs but not exactly one.
Also, note that synchronization when
incorporated with multithreading does affect
our desired output simply by using the
keyword ‘synchronized’.

It is as illustrated in the below illustration which is as

follows:

Q-15 What is Daemon Thread in Java and explain

their properties?

Daemon thread is a low-priority thread that runs in the

background to perform tasks such as garbage
collection. It does possess certain specific properties
as listed below:

They can not prevent the JVM from exiting when all
the user threads finish their execution.
JVM terminates itself when all user threads finish
their execution
If JVM finds a running daemon thread, it terminates
the thread and after that shutdown itself. JVM does
not care whether the Daemon thread is running or
not.
It is an utmost low priority thread

Note: The main difference between user thread

and daemon thread is that JVM does not wait for
daemon thread before exiting while it do waits
for the user thread.

To read more about this, please refer to Daemon

Thread in Java

Q-16 How to Make User Thread to Daemon

Thread?

It is carried out with the help of two methods listed in

‘Thread class’ known as setDaemon() and
isDaemon(). First, the setDaemon() method converts
user thread to daemon thread and vice-versa. This
method can only be called before starting the thread
using start() method else is called after starting the
thread with will throw IllegalThreadStateException
After this, isDaemon() method is used which returns a
boolean true if the thread is daemon else returns
false if it is a non-daemon thread.

Q-17 What are the tasks of the start() method?

The primary task of the start() method is to register

the thread with the thread scheduler, so one can tell
what child thread should perform, when, and how it
will be scheduled that is handled by the thread
scheduler. The secondary task is to call the
corresponding run() method got the threads.

Q-18 What is the difference between the start()

and run() method?

First, both methods are operated in general over the

thread. So if we do use threadT1.start() then this
method will look for the run() method to create a new
thread. While in case of theadT1.run() method will be
executed just likely the normal method by the “Main”
thread without the creation of any new thread.

Note: If we do replace start() method with run()

method then the entire program is carried by
‘main’ thread.

Q-19 Can we Overload run() method? What if we

do not override the run() method?
 Yes, it is possible to overload run() by passing
parameters to it and also keeping a check over to
comment down @override from the run() method.

It should be as good as a thread wherein thread we

do not have any arguments, so practice to overload is
to comment on the call out for overloaded run()
method. Now, so we need to acknowledge the same
whether the output is the same or not if we have not
overloaded it.

If we have overloaded the run() method, then we will

observe that output is always the main method as can
be perceived from the stack call from the above
image. It is because if we debug the code as provided
in the link below we see as soon as the start() method
is called again, run() is called because we have not
overridden the run() method.

For more refer to the Implementation part of how the

run() method is overloaded

Conclusion: We can overload the run() method

but start() method will call no argument run()
only. Hence, it will be of no help to us and is
considered as bad practice.

The compiler will simply execute the run() method of

the Thread class, keeping a check that the run()
method of the Thread class must have an empty
implementation. Hence, it results out in no output
corresponding to the thread. As we have discussed
above already, if we try to do so, then the Thread
class run() method will be called and we will never get
our desired output.

Note: Geek initially we are requesting to create a

thread for us and later the same thread is doing
nothing for us which we have created. So it
becomes completely meaningless to us by
writing unwanted operations to our code
fragments. Hence, it becomes useless not to
override the run() method.

Q-20 Can we Override the start() method?

Even if we override the start() method in the custom

class then no initializations will be carried on by the
Thread class for us. The run() method is also not
called and even a new thread is also not created.

Note: We can not restart the same thread again

as we will get IllegalThreadStateException from
java.lang package. Alongside we can not do this
indirectly with usage of ‘super.start()’ method.

Article Tags : Java Java-Multithreading

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