JAVA Interview Questions

JAVA Interview Questions

Question: How could Java classes direct program messages to the system console, but error messages, say to a file?

Answer: The class System has a variable out that represents the standard output, and the variable errthat represents the standard error device. By default, they both point at the system console. This how the standard output could be re-directed:

Stream st = new Stream(new FileOutputStream("output.txt")); System.setErr(st); System.setOut(st);

Question: What's the difference between an interface and an abstract class?

Answer: An abstract class may contain code in method bodies, which is not allowed in an interface. With abstract classes, you have to inherit your class from it and Java does not allow multiple inheritance. On the other hand, you can implement multiple interfaces in your class.

Question: Why would you use a synchronized block vs. synchronized method?

Answer: Synchronized blocks place locks for shorter periods than synchronized methods.

Question: Explain the usage of the keyword transient?

Answer: This keyword indicates that the value of this member variable does not have to be serialized with the object. When the class will be de-serialized, this variable will be initialized with a default value of its data type (i.e. zero for integers).

Question: How can you force garbage collection?

Answer: You can't force GC, but could request it by calling System.gc(). JVM does not guarantee that GC will be started immediately.

Question: How do you know if an explicit object casting is needed?

Answer: If you assign a superclass object to a variable of a subclass's data type, you need to do explicit casting. For example:

Object a; Customer b; b = (Customer) a;

When you assign a subclass to a variable having a supeclass type, the casting is performed automatically.

Question: What's the difference between the methods sleep() and wait()

Answer: The code sleep(1000); puts thread aside for exactly one second. The code wait(1000), causes a wait of up to one second. A thread could stop waiting earlier if it receives the notify() or notifyAll() call. The method wait() is defined in the class Object and the method sleep() is defined in the class Thread.

Question: Can you write a Java class that could be used both as an applet as well as an application?

Answer: Yes. Add a main() method to the applet.

Question: What's the difference between constructors and other methods?

Answer: Constructors must have the same name as the class and can not return a value. They are only called once while regular methods could be called many times.

Question: Can you call one constructor from another if a class has multiple constructors

Answer: Yes. Use this() syntax.

Question: Explain the usage of Java packages.

Answer: This is a way to organize files when a project consists of multiple modules. It also helps resolve naming conflicts when different packages have classes with the same names. Packages access level also allows you to protect data from being used by the non-authorized classes.

Question: If a class is located in a package, what do you need to change in the OS environment to be able to use it?

Answer: You need to add a directory or a jar file that contains the package directories to the CLASSPATH environment variable. Let's say a class Employee belongs to a package com.xyz.hr; and is located in the file c:\dev\com\xyz\hr\Employee.java. In this case, you'd need to add c:\dev to the variable CLASSPATH. If this class contains the method main(), you could test it from a command prompt window as follows:

c:\>java com.xyz.hr.Employee

Question: What's the difference between J2SDK 1.5 and J2SDK 5.0?

Answer:  There's no difference, Sun Microsystems just re-branded this version.

Question: What would you use to compare two String variables - the operator == or the method equals()?

Answer:  I'd use the method equals() to compare the values of the Strings and the == to check if two variables point at the same instance of a String object.

Question: Does it matter in what order catch statements for FileNotFoundException and IOExceptipon are written?

Answer: Yes, it does. The FileNoFoundException is inherited from the IOException. Exception's subclasses have to be caught first.

Question: Can an inner class declared inside of a method access local variables of this method?

Answer: It's possible if these variables are final.

Question: What can go wrong if you replace && with & in the following code: String a=null; if (a!=null && a.length()>10) {...}

Answer: A single ampersand here would lead to a NullPointerException.

Question: What's the main difference between a Vector and an ArrayList

Answer: Java Vector class is internally synchronized and ArrayList is not.

Question: When should the method invokeLater()be used?

Answer: This method is used to ensure that Swing components are updated through the event-dispatching thread.

Question: How can a subclass call a method or a constructor defined in a superclass?

Answer: Use the following syntax: super.myMethod(); To call a constructor of the superclass, just write super(); in the first line of the subclass's constructor.

Question: When you declare a method as abstract method ?

Answer: When i want child class to implement the behavior of the method.

Question: Can I call a abstract method from a non abstract method ? 

Answer: Yes, We can call a abstract method from a Non abstract method in a Java abstract class      

Question: What is the difference between an Abstract class and Interface in Java ? or can you explain when you use Abstract classes ? 

Answer: Abstract classes let you define some behaviors; they force your subclasses to provide others. These abstract classes will provide the basic funcationality of your applicatoin, child class which inherited this class will provide the funtionality of the abstract methods in abstract class. When base class calls this method, Java calls the method defined by the child class.

• An Interface can only declare constants and instance methods, but cannot implement default behavior.
• Interfaces provide a form of multiple inheritance. A class can extend only one other class.
• Interfaces are limited to public methods and constants with no implementation. Abstract classes can have a partial implementation, protected parts, static methods, etc.
• A Class may implement several interfaces. But in case of abstract class, a class may extend only one abstract class.
• Interfaces are slow as it requires extra indirection to find corresponding method in the actual class. Abstract classes are fast.

Question: What is user-defined exception in java ? 

Answer: User-defined expections are the exceptions defined by the application developer which are errors related to specific application. Application Developer can define the user defined exception by inherite the Exception class as shown below. Using this class we can throw new exceptions.

Java Example : public class noFundException extends Exception { } Throw an exception using a throw statement: public class Fund { ... public Object getFunds() throws noFundException { if (Empty())throw new noFundException(); ... } } User-defined exceptions should usually be checked.