Java / Spring Boot
Interview Questions

Look for understanding of underlying patterns, not just surface-level API knowledge.

Tests whether they stay current with the ecosystem.

Expect specifics: profiling tools, caching strategies, lazy loading, query optimization.

Strong candidates mention structured logging, monitoring, and error boundaries.

Look for unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end testing knowledge.

Evaluate understanding of state management patterns and trade-offs.

Should mention build, test, lint, and deployment stages.

Input validation, authentication, authorization, OWASP top 10.

Assess depth of hands-on experience with Spring Boot.

Assess depth of hands-on experience with Spring Cloud.

Assess depth of hands-on experience with Spring Security.

Assess depth of hands-on experience with Spring Data JPA.

Assess depth of hands-on experience with Microservices.

Tests decision-making ability and understanding of trade-offs.

Look for load balancing, caching, database sharding, and horizontal scaling.

Strangler fig pattern, incremental migration, feature flags, parallel running.

Repository, Observer, Factory, Strategy — look for appropriate usage.

Should discuss versioning, documentation, rate limiting, and response format.

Normalization, indexing, relationships, migrations, and performance.

Tests debugging methodology and persistence.

APM tools, query profiling, memory analysis, log analysis.

Testing first, incremental changes, code review, documentation.

Incident response: assess severity, patch, communicate, post-mortem.

Look for constructive communication and data-driven arguments.

Blogs, conferences, open-source contributions, certifications.

Agile mindset, flexibility, stakeholder communication.

Best practices, constructive feedback, mentoring mindset.

Communication tools, timezone management, documentation habits.

Practical integration experience with Apache Kafka.

Practical integration experience with Redis.

Practical integration experience with PostgreSQL.

Practical integration experience with MongoDB.

Maintenance, community, license, performance benchmarks.