Object Oriented Programming (OOP)

Java is a computer programming language that is concurrent, class-based and object-oriented. The
advantages of object oriented software development are shown below:

 Modular development of code, which leads to easy maintenance and modification.

 Reusability of code.
 Improved reliability and flexibility of code.
 Increased understanding of code.

Object-oriented programming contains many significant features, such as encapsulation, inheritance,

polymorphism and abstraction. We analyze each feature separately in the following sections.

Encapsulation

Encapsulation provides objects with the ability to hide their internal characteristics and behavior. Each
object provides a number of methods, which can be accessed by other objects and change its internal
data. In Java, there are three access modifiers: public, private and protected. Each modifier imposes
different access rights to other classes, either in the same or in external packages. Some of the
advantages of using encapsulation are listed below:

 The internal state of every objected is protected by hiding its attributes.

 It increases usability and maintenance of code, because the behavior of an object can be
independently changed or extended.
 It improves modularity by preventing objects to interact with each other, in an undesired way.

You can refer to our tutorial here for more details and examples on encapsulation.

Polymorphism

Polymorphism is the ability of programming languages to present the same interface for differing
underlying data types. A polymorphic type is a type whose operations can also be applied to values of
some other type.

Inheritance

Inheritance provides an object with the ability to acquire the fields and methods of another class, called
base class. Inheritance provides re-usability of code and can be used to add additional features to an
existing class, without modifying it.

Abstraction
Abstraction is the process of separating ideas from specific instances and thus, develop classes in terms
of their own functionality, instead of their implementation details. Java supports the creation and
existence of abstract classes that expose interfaces, without including the actual implementation of all
methods. The abstraction technique aims to separate the implementation details of a class from its
behavior.

Differences between Abstraction and Encapsulation

Abstraction and encapsulation are complementary concepts. On the one hand, abstraction focuses on the
behavior of an object. On the other hand, encapsulation focuses on the implementation of an object’s
behavior. Encapsulation is usually achieved by hiding information about the internal state of an object
and thus, can be seen as a strategy used in order to provide abstraction.

General Questions about Java

1. What is JVM ? Why is Java called the “Platform Independent Programming Language” ? A
Java virtual machine (JVM) is a process virtual machine that can execute Java bytecode. Each Java
source file is compiled into a bytecode file, which is executed by the JVM. Java was designed to allow
application programs to be built that could be run on any platform, without having to be rewritten or
recompiled by the programmer for each separate platform. A Java virtual machine makes this possible,
because it is aware of the specific instruction lengths and other particularities of the underlying hardware
platform.

2. What is the Difference between JDK and JRE ? The Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is basically
the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) where your Java programs are being executed. It also includes browser
plugins for applet execution. The Java Development Kit (JDK) is the full featured Software Development
Kit for Java, including the JRE, the compilers and tools (like JavaDoc , and Java Debugger ), in order for
a user to develop, compile and execute Java applications.

3. What does the “static” keyword mean ? Can you override private or static method in
Java ? The static keyword denotes that a member variable or method can be accessed, without requiring
an instantiation of the class to which it belongs. A user cannot override static methods in Java, because
method overriding is based upon dynamic binding at runtime and static methods are statically binded at
compile time. A static method is not associated with any instance of a class so the concept is not
applicable.

4. Can you access non static variable in static context ? A static variable in Java belongs to its
class and its value remains the same for all its instances. A static variable is initialized when the class is
loaded by the JVM. If your code tries to access a non-static variable, without any instance, the compiler
will complain, because those variables are not created yet and they are not associated with any instance.

5. What are the Data Types supported by Java ? What is Autoboxing and Unboxing ? The eight
primitive data types supported by the Java programming language are:

 byte
 short
 int
 long
 float
 double
 boolean
 char

Autoboxing is the automatic conversion made by the Java compiler between the primitive types and
their corresponding object wrapper classes. For example, the compiler converts an int to an Integer , a
double to a Double , and so on. If the conversion goes the other way, this operation is called unboxing .

6. What is Function Overriding and Overloading in Java ? Method overloading in Java occurs when
two or more methods in the same class have the exact same name, but different parameters. On the
other hand, method overriding is defined as the case when a child class redefines the same method as a
parent class. Overridden methods must have the same name, argument list, and return type. The
overriding method may not limit the access of the method it overrides.

7. What is a Constructor, Constructor Overloading in Java and Copy-Constructor ? A

constructor gets invoked when a new object is created. Every class has a constructor. In case the
programmer does not provide a constructor for a class, the Java compiler (Javac) creates a default
constructor for that class. The constructor overloading is similar to method overloading in Java. Different
constructors can be created for a single class. Each constructor must have its own unique parameter list.
Finally, Java does support copy constructors like C++, but the difference lies in the fact that Java doesn’t
create a default copy constructor if you don’t write your own.

8. Does Java support multiple inheritance ? No, Java does not support multiple inheritance. Each
class is able to extend only on one class, but is able to implement more than one interfaces.

9. What is the difference between an Interface and an Abstract class ? Java provides and
supports the creation both of abstract classes and interfaces. Both implementations share some common
characteristics, but they differ in the following features:

 All methods in an interface are implicitly abstract. On the other hand, an abstract class may
contain both abstract and non-abstract methods.
 A class may implement a number of Interfaces, but can extend only one abstract class.
 In order for a class to implement an interface, it must implement all its declared methods.
However, a class may not implement all declared methods of an abstract class. Though, in this case,
the sub-class must also be declared as abstract.
 Abstract classes can implement interfaces without even providing the implementation of interface
methods.
 Variables declared in a Java interface is by default final. An abstract class may contain non-final
variables.
 Members of a Java interface are public by default. A member of an abstract class can either be
private, protected or public.
 An interface is absolutely abstract and cannot be instantiated. An abstract class also cannot be
instantiated, but can be invoked if it contains a main method.

Also check out the Abstract class and Interface differences for JDK 8.
10. What are pass by reference and pass by value ? When an object is passed by value, this means
that a copy of the object is passed. Thus, even if changes are made to that object, it doesn’t affect the
original value. When an object is passed by reference, this means that the actual object is not passed,
rather a reference of the object is passed. Thus, any changes made by the external method, are also
reflected in all places.

Java Threads
11. What is the difference between processes and threads ? A process is an execution of a
program, while a Thread is a single execution sequence within a process. A process can contain multiple
threads. A Thread is sometimes called a lightweight process.

12. Explain different ways of creating a thread. Which one would you prefer and why ? There
are three ways that can be used in order for a Thread to be created:

 A class may extend the Thread class.

 A class may implement the Runnable interface.
 An application can use the Executor framework, in order to create a thread pool.

The Runnable interface is preferred, as it does not require an object to inherit the Thread class. In case
your application design requires multiple inheritance, only interfaces can help you. Also, the thread pool
is very efficient and can be implemented and used very easily.

13. Explain the available thread states in a high-level. During its execution, a thread can reside in
one of the following states :

 NEW : The thread becomes ready to run, but does not necessarily start running immediately.

 RUNNABLE : The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is actively executing the thread’s code.

 BLOCKED : The thread is in a blocked state while waiting for a monitor lock.

 WAITING : The thread waits for another thread to perform a particular action.

 TIMED_WAITING : The thread waits for another thread to perform a particular action up to a
specified waiting time.
 TERMINATED : The thread has finished its execution.

14. What is the difference between a synchronized method and a synchronized block ? In
Java programming, each object has a lock. A thread can acquire the lock for an object by using the
synchronized keyword. The synchronized keyword can be applied in a method level (coarse grained lock)
or block level of code (fine grained lock).

15. How does thread synchronization occurs inside a monitor ? What levels of
synchronization can you apply ? The JVM uses locks in conjunction with monitors. A monitor is
basically a guardian that watches over a sequence of synchronized code and ensuring that only one
thread at a time executes a synchronized piece of code. Each monitor is associated with an object
reference. The thread is not allowed to execute the code until it obtains the lock.
16. What’s a deadlock ? A condition that occurs when two processes are waiting for each other to
complete, before proceeding. The result is that both processes wait endlessly.

17. How do you ensure that N threads can access N resources without deadlock ? A very
simple way to avoid deadlock while using N threads is to impose an ordering on the locks and force each
thread to follow that ordering. Thus, if all threads lock and unlock the mutexes in the same order, no
deadlocks can arise.

Java Collections
18. What are the basic interfaces of Java Collections Framework ? Java Collections
Framework provides a well designed set of interfaces and classes that support operations on a
collections of objects. The most basic interfaces that reside in the Java Collections Framework are:

 Collection , which represents a group of objects known as its elements.

 Set , which is a collection that cannot contain duplicate elements.

 List , which is an ordered collection and can contain duplicate elements.

 Map , which is an object that maps keys to values and cannot contain duplicate keys.

19. Why Collection doesn’t extend Cloneable and Serializable interfaces ? The Collection
interface specifies groups of objects known as elements. Each concrete implementation of a Collection
can choose its own way of how to maintain and order its elements. Some collections allow duplicate keys,
while some other collections don’t. The semantics and the implications of either cloning or serialization
come into play when dealing with actual implementations. Thus, the concrete implementations of
collections should decide how they can be cloned or serialized.

20. What is an Iterator ? The Iterator interface provides a number of methods that are able to
iterate over any Collection . Each Java Collection contains the iterator method that returns an
Iterator instance. Iterators are capable of removing elements from the underlying collection during the
iteration. 21. What differences exist between Iterator and ListIterator ? The differences of these
elements are listed below:

 An Iterator can be used to traverse the Set and List collections, while the ListIterator
can be used to iterate only over Lists .
 The Iterator can traverse a collection only in forward direction, while the ListIterator can
traverse a List in both directions.
 The ListIterator implements the Iterator interface and contains extra functionality, such as
adding an element, replacing an element, getting the index position for previous and next elements,
etc.

22. What is difference between fail-fast and fail-safe ? The Iterator's fail-safe property works
with the clone of the underlying collection and thus, it is not affected by any modification in the
collection. All the collection classes in java.util package are fail-fast, while the collection classes in
java.util.concurrent are fail-safe. Fail-fast iterators throw a ConcurrentModificationException , while
fail-safe iterator never throws such an exception.
23. How HashMap works in Java ? A HashMap in Java stores key-value pairs. The HashMap requires
a hash function and uses hashCode and equals methods, in order to put and retrieve elements to and
from the collection respectively. When the put method is invoked, the HashMap calculates the hash value
of the key and stores the pair in the appropriate index inside the collection. If the key exists, its value is
updated with the new value. Some important characteristics of a HashMap are its capacity, its load factor
and the threshold resizing.

24. What is the importance of hashCode() and equals() methods ? In Java, a HashMap uses the
hashCode and equals methods to determine the index of the key-value pair and to detect duplicates.
More specifically, the hashCode method is used in order to determine where the specified key will be
stored. Since different keys may produce the same hash value, the equals method is used, in order to
determine whether the specified key actually exists in the collection or not. Therefore, the
implementation of both methods is crucial to the accuracy and efficiency of the HashMap .

25. What differences exist between HashMap and Hashtable ? Both the HashMap and
Hashtable classes implement the Map interface and thus, have very similar characteristics. However,
they differ in the following features:

 A HashMap allows the existence of null keys and values, while a Hashtable doesn’t allow
neither null keys, nor null values.
 A Hashtable is synchronized, while a HashMap is not. Thus, HashMap is preferred in single-
threaded environments, while a Hashtable is suitable for multi-threaded environments.
 A HashMap provides its set of keys and a Java application can iterate over them. Thus, a
HashMap is fail-fast. On the other hand, a Hashtable provides an Enumeration of its keys.
 The Hashtable class is considered to be a legacy class.

26. What is difference between Array and ArrayList ? When will you use Array over
ArrayList ? The Array and ArrayList classes differ on the following features:

 Arrays can contain primitive or objects, while an ArrayList can contain only objects.

 Arrays have fixed size, while an ArrayList is dynamic.

 An ArrayList provides more methods and features, such as addAll , removeAll , iterator ,
etc.
 For a list of primitive data types, the collections use autoboxing to reduce the coding effort.
However, this approach makes them slower when working on fixed size primitive data types.

27. What is difference between ArrayList and LinkedList ? Both the ArrayList and LinkedList
classes implement the List interface, but they differ on the following features:

 An ArrayList is an index based data structure backed by an Array . It provides random access
to its elements with a performance equal to O(1). On the other hand, a LinkedList stores its data
as list of elements and every element is linked to its previous and next element. In this case, the
search operation for an element has execution time equal to O(n).
 The Insertion, addition and removal operations of an element are faster in a LinkedList
compared to an ArrayList , because there is no need of resizing an array or updating the index
when an element is added in some arbitrary position inside the collection.
 A LinkedList consumes more memory than an ArrayList , because every node in a
LinkedList stores two references, one for its previous element and one for its next element.

Check also our article ArrayList vs. LinkedList.

28. What is Comparable and Comparator interface ? List their differences. Java provides the
Comparable interface, which contains only one method, called compareTo . This method compares two
objects, in order to impose an order between them. Specifically, it returns a negative integer, zero, or a
positive integer to indicate that the input object is less than, equal or greater than the existing object.
Java provides the Comparator interface, which contains two methods, called compare and equals . The
first method compares its two input arguments and imposes an order between them. It returns a
negative integer, zero, or a positive integer to indicate that the first argument is less than, equal to, or
greater than the second. The second method requires an object as a parameter and aims to decide
whether the input object is equal to the comparator. The method returns true, only if the specified object
is also a comparator and it imposes the same ordering as the comparator.

29. What is Java Priority Queue ? The PriorityQueue is an unbounded queue, based on a priority
heap and its elements are ordered in their natural order. At the time of its creation, we can provide a
Comparator that is responsible for ordering the elements of the PriorityQueue . A PriorityQueue
doesn’t allow null values, those objects that doesn’t provide natural ordering, or those objects that don’t
have any comparator associated with them. Finally, the Java PriorityQueue is not thread-safe and it
requires O(log(n)) time for its enqueing and dequeing operations.

30. What do you know about the big-O notation and can you give some examples with
respect to different data structures ? The Big-O notation simply describes how well an algorithm
scales or performs in the worst case scenario as the number of elements in a data structure increases.
The Big-O notation can also be used to describe other behavior such as memory consumption. Since the
collection classes are actually data structures, we usually use the Big-O notation to chose the best
implementation to use, based on time, memory and performance. Big-O notation can give a good
indication about performance for large amounts of data.

31. What is the tradeoff between using an unordered array versus an ordered array ? The
major advantage of an ordered array is that the search times have time complexity of O(log n),
compared to that of an unordered array, which is O (n). The disadvantage of an ordered array is that the
insertion operation has a time complexity of O(n), because the elements with higher values must be
moved to make room for the new element. Instead, the insertion operation for an unordered array takes
constant time of O(1).

32. What are some of the best practices relating to the Java Collection framework ?

 Choosing the right type of the collection to use, based on the application’s needs, is very crucial
for its performance. For example if the size of the elements is fixed and know a priori, we shall use an
Array , instead of an ArrayList .
 Some collection classes allow us to specify their initial capacity. Thus, if we have an estimation on
the number of elements that will be stored, we can use it to avoid rehashing or resizing.
 Always use Generics for type-safety, readability, and robustness. Also, by using Generics you
avoid the ClassCastException during runtime.
 Use immutable classes provided by the Java Development Kit (JDK) as a key in a Map, in order to
avoid the implementation of the hashCode and equals methods for our custom class.
 Program in terms of interface not implementation.
 Return zero-length collections or arrays as opposed to returning a null in case the underlying
collection is actually empty.

33. What’s the difference between Enumeration and Iterator interfaces ? Enumeration is twice
as fast as compared to an Iterator and uses very less memory. However, the Iterator is much safer
compared to Enumeration , because other threads are not able to modify the collection object that is
currently traversed by the iterator. Also, Iterators allow the caller to remove elements from the
underlying collection, something which is not possible with Enumerations .

34. What is the difference between HashSet and TreeSet ? The HashSet is Implemented using a
hash table and thus, its elements are not ordered. The add, remove, and contains methods of a HashSet
have constant time complexity O(1). On the other hand, a TreeSet is implemented using a tree
structure. The elements in a TreeSet are sorted, and thus, the add, remove, and contains methods
have time complexity of O(logn).

Garbage Collectors
35. What is the purpose of garbage collection in Java, and when is it used ? The purpose of
garbage collection is to identify and discard those objects that are no longer needed by the application, in
order for the resources to be reclaimed and reused.

36. What does System.gc() and Runtime.gc() methods do ? These methods can be used as a hint
to the JVM, in order to start a garbage collection. However, this it is up to the Java Virtual Machine (JVM)
to start the garbage collection immediately or later in time.

37. When is the finalize() called ? What is the purpose of finalization ? The finalize method is
called by the garbage collector, just before releasing the object’s memory. It is normally advised to
release resources held by the object inside the finalize method.

38. If an object reference is set to null, will the Garbage Collector immediately free the
memory held by that object ? No, the object will be available for garbage collection in the next cycle
of the garbage collector.

39. What is structure of Java Heap ? What is Perm Gen space in Heap ? The JVM has a heap
that is the runtime data area from which memory for all class instances and arrays is allocated. It is
created at the JVM start-up. Heap memory for objects is reclaimed by an automatic memory
management system which is known as a garbage collector. Heap memory consists of live and dead
objects. Live objects are accessible by the application and will not be a subject of garbage collection.
Dead objects are those which will never be accessible by the application, but have not been collected by
the garbage collector yet. Such objects occupy the heap memory space until they are eventually collected
by the garbage collector.

40. What is the difference between Serial and Throughput Garbage collector ? The throughput
garbage collector uses a parallel version of the young generation collector and is meant to be used with
applications that have medium to large data sets. On the other hand, the serial collector is usually
adequate for most small applications (those requiring heaps of up to approximately 100MB on modern
processors).
41. When does an Object becomes eligible for Garbage collection in Java ? A Java object is
subject to garbage collection when it becomes unreachable to the program in which it is currently used.

42. Does Garbage collection occur in permanent generation space in JVM ? Garbage Collection
does occur in PermGen space and if PermGen space is full or cross a threshold, it can trigger a full
garbage collection. If you look carefully at the output of the garbage collector, you will find that PermGen
space is also garbage collected. This is the reason why correct sizing of PermGen space is important to
avoid frequent full garbage collections. Also check our article Java 8: PermGen to Metaspace.

Exception Handling
43. What are the two types of Exceptions in Java ? Which are the differences between
them ? Java has two types of exceptions: checked exceptions and unchecked exceptions. Unchecked
exceptions do not need to be declared in a method or a constructor’s throws clause, if they can be
thrown by the execution of the method or the constructor, and propagate outside the method or
constructor boundary. On the other hand, checked exceptions must be declared in a method or a
constructor’s throws clause. See here for tips on Java exception handling.

44. What is the difference between Exception and Error in java ? Exception and Error classes
are both subclasses of the Throwable class. The Exception class is used for exceptional conditions that
a user’s program should catch. The Error class defines exceptions that are not excepted to be caught
by the user program.

45. What is the difference between throw and throws ? The throw keyword is used to explicitly
raise a exception within the program. On the contrary, the throws clause is used to indicate those
exceptions that are not handled by a method. Each method must explicitly specify which exceptions does
not handle, so the callers of that method can guard against possible exceptions. Finally, multiple
exceptions are separated by a comma.

45. What is the importance of finally block in exception handling ? A finally block will always be
executed, whether or not an exception is actually thrown. Even in the case where the catch statement is
missing and an exception is thrown, the finally block will still be executed. Last thing to mention is that
the finally block is used to release resources like I/O buffers, database connections, etc.

46. What will happen to the Exception object after exception handling ? The Exception object
will be garbage collected in the next garbage collection.

47. How does finally block differ from finalize() method ? A finally block will be executed whether
or not an exception is thrown and is used to release those resources held by the application. Finalize is a
protected method of the Object class, which is called by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) just before an
object is garbage collected.