Spring MVC Interview Questions for Interview Preparation

Preparing for a tech interview? This article will help you assess your Spring MVC knowledge for your interview (especially for the role of a Java developer) by listing out some commonly-asked Spring MVC interview questions.

Due to its extensive features and flexibilities, Spring has been one of the most favored frameworks for developing enterprise-level Java-based applications. It is one of the most robust Java frameworks and has caught recruiters’ attention around the world. Spring core and Spring MVC frameworks are used by default in all the new Java applications.

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In this article, we’ll cover:

• What Is Spring?
• What Is MVC?
• What Is Spring MVC?
• Why Is Spring Framework Needed?
• Spring MVC Interview Questions and Answers
• Spring MVC Interview Questions
• Advantages of Spring MVC
• FAQs on Spring MVC

What Is Spring?

Spring is an open-source Java framework that was released in 2002. The Spring framework serves as an Inversion of Control (IOC) container for the Java platform and gives us a comprehensive programming and configuration model for Java-based applications.

Spring provides infrastructural support at the application level that helps groups focus on the logic at the application level instead of concerning themselves with connections to certain deployment environments. Over the Java EE platform, you can build web applications with the help of extensions. Also, any Java application can make use of the core features of Spring.

What Is MVC?

Model View Controller or MVC refers to a software architectural design pattern that divides an application’s functionality into three parts: Model, View, and Controller. These three parts are also interconnected. MVC design pattern helps us in parallel development and reusability of the code.

What Is Spring MVC?

Spring MVC is the Spring framework built on Service API that uses the Model View Controller design pattern. It’s used to create dynamic and flexible web applications. Spring MVC has all the core features of the Spring framework, including dependency injection and inversion of control.

Why Is Spring Framework Needed?

Spring Framework is required because it:

• Provides infrastructural support for developing dynamic Java applications
• Helps in developing high-performance applications using Plain Old Java Objects or POJOs
• Ensures you don’t have to worry much about the infrastructure and can focus on the application side of things.

Spring MVC Interview Questions and Answers

Let us now look at some of the most common spring MVC questions interviewers ask, along with some answer examples.

Spring and Spring MVC Interview Questions and Answers for Beginners

1. What do you understand by ModelMap in Spring MVC?

ModelMap is a class in Spring MVC which implements a map. We can use it when we’re building model data for use with UI tools. ModelMap extends the LinkedHashMap class, supports chained calls and generation of model attribute names, and helps us pass a collection of values as though the values were within a Map.

2. What are validations in Spring MVC?

One of the most crucial features of Spring MVC, Validation, is used to restrict input that a user provides. If you want to validate the user’s input, you need to use the latest versions of Spring (4 or higher) along with Bean Validation API. You can validate both client-side and server-side applications using Spring validations.

Spring MVC Interview Questions and Answers for 3 Years Experienced

Here are some of the commonly asked spring MVC framework interview questions and answers for experienced candidates:

1. Describe the flow of Spring MVC.

• The request generated is first intercepted by the front controller, that is, the DispatcherServlet.
• Then from the XML file, DispatcherServlet receives an entry of handler mapping.
• Next, DispatcherServlet forwards the request to the controller, which returns a ModelAndView object.
• Finally, DispatcherServlet checks the view resolver’s entry in the XML file and invokes that particular view component.

2. What is the core difference between Model, ModelMap, and ModelAndView?

The core difference between the three is that Model is an interface, ModelMap implements an interface (the Map interface), and ModelAndView allows the controller to return both Model and ModelMap as a single value.

Spring MVC Interview Questions

Here are some Spring MVC interview questions to help you assess your preparation:

Spring Framework Interview Questions

In the context of the Spring Framework, what is:

1. Bean factory
2. Bean wiring
3. Inner bean
4. XMLBeanFactory
5. PreparedStatementCreator
6. Advice
7. Aspect
8. Weaving
9. Joinpoint
10. Pointcut
11. Spring configuration file
12. Bean factory Interface
13. IOC
14. ApplicationContext
15. Auto Wiring
16. Dependency injection
17. Core container module
18. AOP module
19. AOP Alliance
20. DAO
21. Autoproxying
22. Proxy
23. DataAccessException

Java Spring MVC Interview Questions

1. Define and describe the role of Spring MVC.
2. Define and describe the role of Spring MVC form tag library.
3. Define and describe the role of @RequestBody annotation.
4. Define and describe the role of @ResponseBody annotation.
5. Define and describe the role of @EnableWebMVC annotation.
6. Define and describe the role of Front Controller Pattern.
7. Define and describe the role of Annotations we use in Spring MVC.
8. In Spring MVC, how would you declare a class as a controller class?
9. How would you map a controller class along with its methods with a URL?
10. What is a better way of using JDBC in Spring?
11. Describe some ways you can read data from a form in Spring MVC.
12. How would you validate a user's input is within a given number range in Spring MVC?

Spring MVC And Hibernate Interview Questions

Describe:

1. Bean Validation API
2. Validation Using Spring MVC
3. How Hibernate can be accessed using Spring
4. ORM integration modules
5. DAO in Spring MVC
6. HibernateTemplate
7. HibernateDaoSupport
8. Spring bean configurations needed for Hibernate integration
9. Spring-Hibernate integration using an example

Spring MVC Architecture Interview Questions

1. Describe:

• Model 1 Architecture
• Model 2 Architecture
• MVC design pattern
• The flow of Spring MVC
• Cross-cutting concern in Spring AOP
• The advantages of Spring MVC
• Front-controller in Spring MVC
• Validations in Spring MVC

2. What do the contents of an additional configuration file in a Spring MVC application look like?

3. Name and explain all the types of:

• Modules used in Spring MVC
• Editors used in Spring MVC
• Transaction management supported by Spring MVC

Advantages of Spring MVC

Some advantages of Spring MVC include:

• With Spring MVC, the applications are divided into Model, View, and Controller, which are three separate, but interconnected layers, where each one of the three layers has a unique role.
• It uses the lightweight servlet container for the development and deployment of applications.
• It helps in quick and parallel development.
• It offers particular annotations that effortlessly redirect the page.
• With Spring MVC, we can use existing business objects instead of creating new ones.
• It offers a robust configuration for both framework and application classes that also facilitates easy referencing across contexts.

FAQs on Spring MVC

1. Do you need spring-mvc.jar in your classpath, or is it part of Spring core?

You need the spring-mvc.jar in your classpath, as jar is not a part of the Spring core. Using Spring MVC framework in a Java project requires the inclusion of spring-mvc.jar in the application's classpath.

2. What is the main difference between Spring core and Spring MVC?

Spring MVC makes use of Spring core, but the main difference between the two is that while Spring core is an IOC container that injects dependencies into various bean classes, Spring MVC leverages the power of that IOC container, in other words, Spring core, to set up required web framework components.

3. What is Inversion of Control in Spring?

Inversion of Control or IOC if Spring refers to the control of creating and instantiating the spring beans being passed to the Spring IOC container, taking the load off of the developer, who only has to configure the beans in the spring XML file. IOC is also called dependency injection (DI) as, through this method, objects define their own dependency, and the container injects these defined dependencies when it creates the bean. Since the bean is responsible for the instantiation/location of its own dependencies, the control is fundamentally the reverse, leading to the term Inversion of control.

4. How many containers are there in Spring?

Spring offers two types of containers: BeanFactory and ApplicationContext.

5. What are the benefits of the Spring MVC Framework?

Some benefits of the Spring MVC framework are fast development, roles separated into three separate but interconnected layers, parallel development, flexible mapping, and reusable code.

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