Spring Boot Interview Questions and Answers

Spring Boot is a Java-based framework used to develop stand-alone,

production-ready applications with minimal configuration. Introduced by
Pivotal in 2014, it simplifies the development of Spring applications by offering
embedded servers, auto-configuration, and fast startup. Many top companies,
including Accenture, Netflix, Amazon, and Google, rely on it for its
performance and ease of development.

In this guide, we provide comprehensive Spring Boot interview questions

for both freshers and experienced developers. It covers essential topics such
as Core Spring concepts, REST APIs, microservices, auto-configuration,
embedded servers, monitoring, and error handling, helping you prepare for
any Spring Interview Questions with confidence.

Spring Boot Interview Questions for Freshers

1. What is Spring Boot?

Spring Boot is built on top of the Spring framework to create stand-alone

RESTful web applications with very minimal configuration and there is no
need of external servers to run the application because it has embedded
servers like Tomcat and Jetty etc.

● Spring Boot framework is independent.

● It creates executable spring applications that are production-grade.
To know more about Spring Boot, refer to this article – Introduction to
Spring Boot

2. What are the Features of Spring Boot?

There are many useful features of Spring Boot. Some of them are mentioned
below:

● Auto-configuration – Spring Boot automatically configures

dependencies by using @EnableAutoconfiguration annotation and
reduces boilerplate code.
● Spring Boot Starter POM – These Starter POMs are pre-configured
dependencies for functions like database, security, maven
configuration etc.
● Spring Boot CLI (Command Line Interface) – This command line
tool is generally for managing dependencies, creating projects and
running the applications.
● Actuator – Spring Boot Actuator provides health check, metrics and
monitors the endpoints of the application. It also simplifies the
troubleshooting management.
● Embedded Servers – Spring Boot contains embedded servers like
Tomcat and Jetty for quick application run. No need of external
servers.
3. What are the advantages of using Spring Boot?

Spring Boot is a framework that creates stand-alone, production grade Spring

based applications. So, this framework has so many advantages.

● Easy to use: The majority of the boilerplate code required to create

a Spring application is reduced by Spring Boot.
● Rapid Development: Spring Boot’s opinionated approach and
auto-configuration enable developers to quickly develop apps without
the need for time-consuming setup, cutting down on development
time.
● Scalable: Spring Boot apps are intended to be scalable. This implies
they may be simply scaled up or down to match your application’s
needs.
 ● Production-ready: Metrics, health checks, and externalized
configuration are just a few of the features that Spring Boot includes
and are designed for use in production environments.

4. Define the Key Components of Spring Boot.

The key components of Spring Boot are listed below:

● Spring Boot starters

● Auto-configuration
● Spring Boot Actuator
● Spring Boot CLI
● Embedded Servers

5. Why do we prefer Spring Boot over Spring?

Here is a table that summarizes why we use Spring Boot over Spring
framework.

Feature Spring Spring Boot

Ease of use More complex Easier

 Production More
Less production-ready
readiness production-ready

Scalability Less scalable More scalable

Speed Slower Faster

Customization Less Customizable More Customizable

To know more, refer to the article – Difference between Spring and

Spring Boot

6. Explain the internal working of Spring Boot.

Here are the main steps involved in how Spring Boot works:

● Start by creating a new Spring Boot project.

● Add the necessary dependencies to your project.
● Annotate the application with the appropriate annotations.
● Run the application.
To know more about internal working of spring boot application, refer to
this article – How Spring Boot Application works Internally?

7. What are the Spring Boot Starter Dependencies?

Spring Boot provides many starter dependencies. Some of them which are
used the most in the Spring Boot application are listed below:

● Data JPA starter

● Web starter
● Security starter
● Test Starter
● Thymeleaf starter

8. How does a spring application get started?

A Spring application gets started by calling the main() method with

@SpringBootApplication annotation in the SpringApplication class. This
method takes a SpringApplicationBuilder object as a parameter, which is used
to configure the application.

● Once the SpringApplication object is created, the run() method is

called.
● Once the application context is initialized, the run() method starts the
application’s embedded web server.

Example:

Java
import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
@SpringBootApplication
public class MyApplication
{
public static void main(String[] args) {
SpringApplication.run(MyApplication.class, args);
}
}

9. What does the @SpringBootApplication annotation do

internally?

The @SpringBootApplication annotation combines three annotations.

Those three annotations are: @Configuration, @EnableAutoConfiguration,
and @ComponentScan .

● @AutoConfiguration : This annotation automatically configuring

beans in the class path and automatically scans the dependencies
according to the application need.
● @ComponentScan : This annotation scans the components
(@Component, @Service, etc.) in the package of annotated class
and its sub-packages.
● @Configuration: This annotation configures the beans and
packages in the class path.

@SpringBootApplication automatically configures the application based on the

dependencies added during project creation and bootstraps the application by
using run() method inside the main class of an application.
@SpringBootApplication = @Configuration + @EnableAutoConfiguration +
@ComponentScan

10. What is Spring Initializr?

Spring Initializer is a tool that helps us to create skeleton of spring boot

project or project structure by providing a maven or gradle file to build the
application. It set up the framework from scratch.

11. What are Spring Boot CLI and the most used CLI commands?

Spring Boot CLI is a command-line tool that can be used to create, run, and
manage Spring Boot applications. It is a powerful tool that can help us to get
started with Spring Boot quickly and easily. It is built on top of the Groovy
programming language.

Most used CLI commands are:

● -run
● -test
● -jar
● -war
● –init
● -help
Spring Boot Intermediate Interview Questions

12. What are the basic Spring Boot Annotations?

● @SpringBootApplication: This is the main annotation used to

bootstrap a Spring Boot application. It combines three annotations:
@Configuration , @EnableAutoConfiguration , and
@ComponentScan . It is typically placed on the main class of the
application.
● @Configuration: This annotation is used to indicate that a class
contains configuration methods for the application context. It is
typically used in combination with @Bean annotations to define
beans and their dependencies.
● @Component: This annotation is the most generic annotation for
any Spring-managed component. It is used to mark a class as a
Spring bean that will be managed by the Spring container.
● @RestController: This annotation is used to define a RESTful web
service controller. It is a specialized version of the @Controller
annotation that includes the @ResponseBody annotation by default.
● @RequestMapping: This annotation is used to map HTTP requests
to a specific method in a controller. It can be applied at the class
level to define a base URL for all methods in the class, or at the
method level to specify a specific URL mapping.

To know more about Spring Boot Annotations, refer to this article –

Spring Boot – Annotations
13. What is Spring Boot dependency management?

Spring Boot dependency management makes it easier to manage

dependencies in a Spring Boot project. It makes sure that all necessary
dependencies are appropriate for the current Spring Boot version and are
compatible with it.

To create a web application, we can add the S pring Boot starter web
dependency to our application.

To know more about Spring Boot Dependency Management, refer to this

article – Spring Boot – Dependency Management
14. Is it possible to change the port of the embedded Tomcat
server in Spring Boot?

Yes, it is possible to change the port of the embedded Tomcat server in a

Spring Boot application.

The simple way is to set the server. port property in your application’s
application.properties file. For example, to set the port to 8081, add the
following property to the application.properties file:

server.port=8081

15. What is the starter dependency of the Spring boot module?

Spring Boot Starters are a collection of pre-configured maven dependencies

that makes it easier to develop particular types of applications. These starters
include,

● Dependencies
● Version control
● Configuration needed to make certain features.

To use a Spring Boot starter dependency , we simply need to add it to our

project’s pom.xml file. For example, to add the Spring Boot starter web
dependency, add the following dependency to the pom.xml file:

<dependency>

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

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

To know more about Spring Boot Starters, refer to this article – Spring
Boot – Starters

16. What is the default port of Tomcat in spring boot?

The default port of the embedded Tomcat server in Spring Boot is 8080 . We
can change the default port by setting the server.port property in your
application’s application.properties file.

17. Can we disable the default web server in the Spring Boot
application?

Yes, we can disable the default web server in the Spring Boot application. To
do this, we need to set the server.port property to “-1” in the application’s
application.properties file.

18. How to disable a specific auto-configuration class?

To disable a specific auto-configuration class in a Spring Boot application, we

can use the @EnableAutoConfiguration annotation with the ” exclude”
attribute.

@EnableAutoConfiguration(exclude = {//classname})

19. Can we create a non-web application in Spring Boot?

Yes, we can create a non-web application in Spring Boot. Spring Boot is not
just for web applications. Using Spring Boot, we can create applications like
Microservices, Console applications, and batch applications.

20. Describe the flow of HTTPS requests through the Spring Boot
application.

The flow of HTTPS requests through a Spring Boot application is as follows:

● First client makes an HTTP request ( GET, POST, PUT, DELETE ) to

the browser.
● After that the request will go to the controller, where all the requests
will be mapped and handled.
● After this in Service layer, all the business logic will be performed. It
performs the business logic on the data that is mapped to JPA (Java
Persistence API) using model classes.
 ● In repository layer, all the CRUD operations are being done for the
REST APIs .
● A JSP page is returned to the end users if no errors are there.

21. Explain @RestController annotation in Spring Boot.

@RestController annotation is like a shortcut to building RESTful services. It

combines two annotations:

● @Controller : Marks the class as a request handler in the Spring

MVC framework.
● @ResponseBody : Tells Spring to convert method return values
(objects, data) directly into HTTP responses instead of rendering
views.

It enables us to Define endpoints for different HTTP methods (GET, POST,

PUT, DELETE), return data in various formats (JSON, XML, etc.) and map the
request parameters to method arguments.

22. Difference between @Controller and @RestController

Features @Controller @RestController

 It combines two
It marks a class as a annotations i.e.
Usage
controller class. @Controller and
@ResponseBody.

Used for Web

Application Used for RESTful APIs.
applications.

Used with
@RequestMapping Used to handle
Request handling
annotation to map requests like GET, PUT,
and Mapping
HTTP requests with POST, and DELETE.
methods.

Note: Both annotations handle requests, but @RestController prioritizes data

responses for building API.

23. What is the difference between RequestMapping and

GetMapping?
 Features @RequestMapping @GetMapping

Annotations @RequestMapping @GetMapping

Handles various types of

Specifically handles HTTP
Purpose HTTP requests (GET,
GET requests.
POST, etc.)

@RequestMapping(valu
@GetMapping(“/example”
Example e = “/example”, method
)
= RequestMethod.GET)

24. What are the differences between @SpringBootApplication

and @EnableAutoConfiguration annotation?

@EnableAutoConfigurati
Features @SpringBootApplication
on
When to When we want to customize
When we want to use auto-configuration
use auto-configuration

Can be used on any

Typically used on the main class of a
Entry configuration class or in
Spring Boot application, serving as the
point conjunction with
entry point.
@SpringBootApplication.

Compone
Includes @ComponentScan annotation Does not perform component
nt
to enable component scanning. scanning by itself.
Scanning

@SpringBootApplication public class

@Configuration
MyApplication { public static void
@EnableAutoConfiguration
Example main(String[] args) {
public class MyConfiguration {
SpringApplication.run(MyApplication.clas
}
s, args); } }

25. What are Profiles in Spring?

Spring Profiles are like different scenarios for the application depending on
the environment.
 ● You define sets of configurations (like database URLs) for different
situations (development, testing, production).
● Use the @Profile annotation to clarify which config belongs to
where.
● Activate profiles with environment variables or command-line
options.

To use Spring Profiles, we simply need to define the spring.profiles.active

property to specify which profile we want to use.

26. Mention the differences between WAR and embedded

containers.

Embedded
Feature WAR
containers

Contains all of the It is a web application

files needed to deploy server included in the
Packaging
a web application to a same JAR file as the
web server. application code.
 Requires external
Uses configuration
configuration files
properties or
Configuration (e.g., web.xml,
annotations within the
context.xml) to define
application code.
the web application.

Can be deployed to a Can be made more

web server that is secure by using
Security
configured with security features that
security features. are provided by JRE.

Spring Boot Interview Questions For Experienced

27. What is Spring Boot Actuator?

Spring Boot Actuator is a component of the Spring Boot framework that

provides production-ready operational monitoring and management
capabilities. We can manage and monitor your Spring Boot application while it
is running.

Note: To use Spring Boot Actuator, we simply need to add the

spring-boot-starter-actuator dependency to our project.
To know more about Actuator, refer to this article – Spring Boot Actuator

28. How to enable Actuator in the Spring boot application?

Below are the steps to enable actuator in Spring Boot Application:

● Add Actuator dependency.

● Enable endpoints in application.properties.
● Run your Spring Boot app.

Now we can access Actuator endpoints at URLs on the management port.

29. What is the purpose of using @ComponentScan in the class

files?

@ComponentScan annotation is used to tell Spring to scan a package and

automatically detect Spring components, configurations, and services to
configure. The @ComponentScan annotation can be used in the following
ways:

● Without arguments
● With basePackageClasses
● With basePackages

To know more about @ComponentScan annotation, refer to this article –

Spring @ComponentScan Annotation with Example
30. What are the @RequestMapping and @RestController
annotations in Spring Boot used for?

@RequestMapping: @RequestMapping is used to map HTTP requests to

handler methods in your controller classes. It can be used at the class level
and method level. It supports mapping by:

● HTTP method – GET, POST, PUT, DELETE

● URL path
● URL parameters
● Request headers

@RestController: @RestController is a convenience annotation that

combines @Controller and @ResponseBody . It indicates a controller where
every method returns a domain object instead of a view.

@RestController = @Controller + @ResponseBody

31. How to get the list of all the beans in your Spring boot
application?

● Using the ApplicationContext object in Spring Boot, we can retrieve

a list of all the beans in our application.
● The ApplicationContext is responsible for managing the beans and
their dependencies.
32. Can we check the environment properties in your Spring boot
application explain how?

Yes, we can check the environment properties in our Spring Boot Application.
The Environment object in a Spring Boot application can be used to check the
environment’s properties.

Configuration settings for the application, includes:

● property files
● command-line arguments
● environment variables

We can get the Environment instance by calling the getEnvironment()

method.

33. How to enable debugging log in the spring boot application?

To enable debugging log in Spring Boot Application, follow the below steps:

● Add the logging level property to application.properties.

● Configure the log pattern to include useful information.
● Run the Spring Boot application.

Using the actuator endpoint, the log level can also be changed at runtime.

Curl -X POST
\http://localhost:8080/actuator/loggers/<logger-name>

\ -H 'content-type: application/json' \-d '{"configuredLevel":

"DEBUG"}'
34. What is dependency Injection and its types?

Dependency Injection (DI) is a design pattern that enables us to produce

loosely coupled components. In DI, an object’s ability to complete a task
depends on another object. There three types of dependency Injections.

● Constructor injection: This is the most common type of DI in Spring

Boot. In constructor injection, the dependency object is injected into
the dependent object’s constructor.
● Setter injection: In setter injection, the dependency object is
injected into the dependent object’s setter method.
● Field injection : In field injection, the dependency object is injected
into the dependent object’s field.

To know more about Dependency Injection, refer to the article – Spring

Dependency Injection with Example – GeeksforGeeks

35. What is an IOC container?

An IoC (Inversion of Control) Container in Spring Boot is essentially a

central manager for the application objects that controls the creation,
configuration, and management of dependency injection of objects (often
referred to as beans), also referred to as a DI (Dependency Injection)
container.

To know more about IOC Container, refer to the article – Spring – IoC
Container
36. What is the difference between Constructor and Setter
Injection?

Constructor
Features Setter Injection
Injection

Dependencies are Dependencies are set

provided through through setter
Dependency
constructor methods after object
parameters. creation.

Promotes immutability Dependencies can be

Immutability as dependencies are changed dynamically
set at creation. after object creation.

Harder to override Allows easier

Dependency dependencies with overriding of
Overriding different dependencies using
implementations. different setter values.

Bonus Spring Boot Interview Questions and Answers

1. What is Thymeleaf?

Thymeleaf is a Java-based server-side template engine used in Java web

applications to render dynamic web pages. It is a popular choice for
server-side templating in the Spring ecosystem, including Spring Boot.

To know more about Thymeleaf, refer to this article – Spring Boot –

Thymeleaf with Example

2. Explain Spring Data and What is Data JPA?

Spring Data is a powerful framework that can be used to develop

data-oriented applications. It aims to simplify the development of data-centric
applications by offering abstractions, utilities, and integration with various data
sources.

● Spring Data JPA: This project provides support for accessing data
from relational databases using JPA.

3. Explain Spring MVC

MVC stands for Model, View, and Controller. Spring MVC is a web MVC
framework built on top of the Spring Framework. It provides a comprehensive
programming model for building web applications.

4. What is Spring Bean?

An object that is managed by the Spring IoC container is referred to as a
spring bean. A Spring bean can be any Java object.

5. What are Inner Beans in Spring?

An Inner Bean refers to a bean that is defined within the scope of another
bean’s definition. It is a way to declare a bean inside the configuration of
another bean, without explicitly giving it a unique identifier.

To define an Inner Bean in Spring, we can declare it as a nested <bean>

element within the configuration of the enclosing bean.

6. What is Bean Wiring?

Bean wiring is a mechanism in Spring that is used to manage the

dependencies between beans. It allows Spring to inject collaborating beans
into each other. There are two types of Bean Wiring:

● Autowiring
● Manual wiring

To know more about Autowiring, refer to the article – Spring – Autowiring

7. What Are Spring Boot DevTools Used For?

Spring Boot DevTools provides a number of development-time features and

enhancements to increase developers’ productivity and can be used for the
following purposes:
 ● Automatic application restart
● Fast application startup:
● Actuator endpoints
● Additional development utilities

To know more about Spring Boot DevTools, refer to the article – Spring
Boot – DevTools

8. What error do you see if H2 is not present in the class path?

Below is the error we see if H2 is not present in the class path:

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.h2.Driver

9. Mention the steps to connect the Spring Boot application to a

database using JDBC.

To connect an external database like MySQL or Oracle to a Spring Boot

application using JDBC, we need to follow below steps:

● Add the dependency for the JDBC driver of the database.

● Create an application.properties file.
● Configure the database connection properties.
● Create a JdbcTemplate bean.
● Use the JdbcTemplate bean to execute SQL queries and statements.

To know more, refer to this article – Spring Boot – CRUD Operations using
MySQL Database
10. Mention the advantages of the YAML file over than Properties
file and the different ways to load the YAML file in Spring boot.

Advantages of YAML file over Properties file:

● Easy to edit and modify.

● Conciseness
● Supports Complex data types.

Different ways to load YAML file in Spring Boot:

● Using the @ConfigurationProperties annotation

● Using the YamlPropertiesFactoryBean class

11. What Do you understand about Spring Data Rest?

Spring Data REST is a framework that exposes Spring Data repositories as

RESTful web services. It allows us to expose repositories as REST endpoints
with minimal configuration by following Spring Data REST Technologies like
Spring Data and Spring MVC .

To know more about Spring Data REST, Please Refer to this article-
Spring – REST Controller

12. Why is Spring Data REST not recommended in real-world

applications?

Here are the reasons why not to choose Spring Data REST:
 ● Performance – Performance may not be optimal for very large-scale
applications.
● Versioning – It can be difficult to version the REST APIs exposed by
Spring Data REST.
● Relationships – Handling relationships between entities can be
tricky with Spring Data REST.
● Filtering – There are limited options for filtering the results returned
by the endpoints.

13. How is Hibernate chosen as the default implementation for

JPA without any configuration?

Spring Boot automatically configures Hibernate as the default JPA

implementation when we add the spring-boot-starter-data-jpa dependency
to our project. This dependency includes the Hibernate JAR file as well as the
Spring Boot auto-configuration for JPA.

To know more about Hibernate and JPA, Refer to below articles:

● Hibernate Architecture
● Java – JPA vs Hibernate

14. Explain how to deploy to a different server with Spring Boot?

Below are the steps on how to deploy to a different server with Spring Boot:

● Step 1: Build your Spring Boot application.

● Step 2: Create a deployment package.
 ● Step 3: Deploy the deployment package to the server.
● Step 4: Start the server.S9777

Spring Boot Interview Questions – FAQs

What will be the Spring Boot Interview Questions for 5 Years

Experience?

In the interview, candidates with over 5 years of experience are primarily

questioned about these concepts.

1. Auto-configuration: Spring Boot automatically configures beans

based on project dependencies, saving time in setup.
2. Starters : Dependency management artifacts for easy integration of
common Spring Boot features like web apps, data access, and
security.
3. Production-ready applications: Spring Boot provides embedded
servers, actuators, and metrics for creating production-ready apps.
4. Best practices: Use dependency injection, version control, and
thorough testing when developing Spring Boot apps.
5. Challenges : Understanding auto-configuration and selecting
appropriate dependencies may be challenging.
6. Improving skills : Enhance Spring Boot skills through
documentation, conferences, and contributing to the project.