OOP with JAVA basic intervies questions and answer

1. What is the difference between a constructor and a method?

A constructor is a member function of a class that is used to create objects of that class. It has the same name as the class itself, has no return type, and is invoked using the new operator.
A method is an ordinary member function of a class. It has its own name, a return type (which may be void), and is invoked using the dot operator.

2. What is the purpose of garbage collection in Java, and when is it used?

The purpose of garbage collection is to identify and discard objects that are no longer needed by a program so that their resources can be reclaimed and reused.
A Java object is subject to garbage collection when it becomes unreachable to the program in which it is used.

3. Describe synchronization in respect to multithreading.

With respect to multithreading, synchronization is the capability to control the access of multiple threads to shared resources.
Without synchonization, it is possible for one thread to modify a shared variable while another thread is in the process of using or updating same shared variable. This usually leads to significant errors.

4. What is an abstract class?

Abstract class must be extended/subclassed (to be useful). It serves as a template. A class that is abstract may not be instantiated (ie. you may not call its constructor), abstract class may contain static data.
Any class with an abstract method is automatically abstract itself, and must be declared as such. A class may be declared abstract even if it has no abstract methods. This prevents it from being instantiated.

5. What is the difference between an Interface and an Abstract class?

An abstract class can have instance methods that implement a default behavior. An Interface can only declare constants and instance methods, but cannot implement default behavior and all methods are implicitly abstract.
An interface has all public members and no implementation. An abstract class is a class which may have the usual flavors of class members (private, protected, etc.), but has some abstract methods.

6. Explain different way of using thread?

The thread could be implemented by using runnable interface or by inheriting from the Thread class. The former is more advantageous, 'cause when you are going for multiple inheritance, the only interface can help.

7. What is an Iterator?

Some of the collection classes provide traversal of their contents via a java.util.Iterator interface. This interface allows you to walk through a collection of objects, operating on each object in turn.
Remember when using Iterators that they contain a snapshot of the collection at the time the Iterator was obtained; generally it is not advisable to modify the collection itself while traversing an Iterator.

8. State the significance of public, private, protected, default modifiers both singly and in combination and state the effect of package relationships on declared items qualified by these modifiers.

public: Public class is visible in other packages, field is visible everywhere (class must be public too)
private : Private variables or methods may be used only by an instance of the same class that declares the variable or method, A private feature may only be accessed by the class that owns the feature.
protected : Is available to all classes in the same package and also available to all subclasses of the class that owns the protected feature. This access is provided even to subclasses that reside in a different package from the class that owns the protected feature.
What you get by default ie, without any access modifier (ie, public private or protected). It means that it is visible to all within a particular package.

9. What is static in java?

Static means one per class, not one for each object no matter how many instance of a class might exist. This means that you can use them without creating an instance of a class.Static methods are implicitly final, because overriding is done based on the type of the object, and static methods are attached to a class, not an object.
A static method in a superclass can be shadowed by another static method in a subclass, as long as the original method was not declared final. However, you can't override a static method with a nonstatic method. In other words, you can't change a static method into an instance method in a subclass.

10. What is final class?

A final class can't be extended ie., final class may not be subclassed. A final method can't be overridden when its class is inherited. You can't change value of a final variable (is a constant).

11. What if the main() method is declared as private?

The program compiles properly but at runtime it will give "main() method not public." message.

12. What if the static modifier is removed from the signature of the main() method?

Program compiles. But at runtime throws an error "NoSuchMethodError".

13. What if I write static public void instead of public static void?

Program compiles and runs properly.

14. What if I do not provide the String array as the argument to the method?

Program compiles but throws a runtime error "NoSuchMethodError".

15. What is the first argument of the String array in main() method?

The String array is empty. It does not have any element. This is unlike C/C++ where the first element by default is the program name.

16. If I do not provide any arguments on the command line, then the String array of main() method will be empty or null?

It is empty. But not null.

17. How can one prove that the array is not null but empty using one line of code?

Print args.length. It will print 0. That means it is empty. But if it would have been null then it would have thrown a NullPointerException on attempting to print args.length.

18. What environment variables do I need to set on my machine in order to be able to run Java programs?

CLASSPATH and PATH are the two variables.

19. Can an application have multiple classes having main() method?

Yes it is possible. While starting the application we mention the class name to be run. The JVM will look for the Main method only in the class whose name you have mentioned.
Hence there is not conflict amongst the multiple classes having main() method.

20. Can I have multiple main() methods in the same class?

No the program fails to compile. The compiler says that the main() method is already defined in the class.

21. Do I need to import java.lang package any time? Why ?

No. It is by default loaded internally by the JVM.

22. Can I import same package/class twice? Will the JVM load the package twice at runtime?

One can import the same package or same class multiple times. Neither compiler nor JVM complains about it. And the JVM will internally load the class only once no matter how many times you import the same class.

23. What are Checked and UnChecked Exception?

A checked exception is some subclass of Exception (or Exception itself), excluding class RuntimeException and its subclasses. Making an exception checked forces client programmers to deal with the possibility that the exception will be thrown.
Example: IOException thrown by java.io.FileInputStream's read() method·
Unchecked exceptions are RuntimeException and any of its subclasses. Class Error and its subclasses also are unchecked. With an unchecked exception, however, the compiler doesn't force client programmers either to catch the exception or declare it in a throws clause. In fact, client programmers may not even know that the exception could be thrown.
Example: StringIndexOutOfBoundsException thrown by String's charAt() method· Checked exceptions must be caught at compile time. Runtime exceptions do not need to be. Errors often cannot be.

24. What is Overriding?

When a class defines a method using the same name, return type, and arguments as a method in its superclass, the method in the class overrides the method in the superclass.
When the method is invoked for an object of the class, it is the new definition of the method that is called, and not the method definition from superclass. Methods may be overridden to be more public, not more private.

25. Are the imports checked for validity at compile time? Example: will the code containing an import such as java.lang.ABCD compile?

Yes the imports are checked for the semantic validity at compile time. The code containing above line of import will not compile. It will throw an error saying, can not resolve symbol
symbol : class ABCD
location: package io
import java.io.ABCD;

26. Does importing a package imports the subpackages as well? Example: Does importing com.MyTest.* also import com.MyTest.UnitTests.*?

No you will have to import the subpackages explicitly. Importing com.MyTest.* will import classes in the package MyTest only. It will not import any class in any of it's subpackage.

27. What is the difference between declaring a variable and defining a variable?

In declaration we just mention the type of the variable and it's name. We do not initialize it. But defining means declaration + initialization.
Example: String s; is just a declaration while String s = new String ("abcd"); Or String s = "abcd"; are both definitions.

28. What is the default value of an object reference declared as an instance variable?

The default value will be null unless we define it explicitly.

29. Can a top level class be private or protected?

No. A top level class cannot be private or protected. It can have either "public" or no modifier. If it does not have a modifier it is supposed to have a default access.
If a top level class is declared as private the compiler will complain that the "modifier private is not allowed here". This means that a top level class can not be private. Same is the case with protected.

30. What type of parameter passing does Java support?

In Java the arguments are always passed by value.

31. Primitive data types are passed by reference or pass by value?

Primitive data types are passed by value.

32. Objects are passed by value or by reference?

Java only supports pass by value. With objects, the object reference itself is passed by value and so both the original reference and parameter copy both refer to the same object.

33. What is serialization?

Serialization is a mechanism by which you can save the state of an object by converting it to a byte stream.

34. How do I serialize an object to a file?

The class whose instances are to be serialized should implement an interface Serializable. Then you pass the instance to the ObjectOutputStream which is connected to a fileoutputstream. This will save the object to a file.

35. Which methods of Serializable interface should I implement?

The serializable interface is an empty interface, it does not contain any methods. So we do not implement any methods.

36. How can I customize the seralization process? i.e. how can one have a control over the serialization process?

Yes it is possible to have control over serialization process. The class should implement Externalizable interface. This interface contains two methods namely readExternal and writeExternal.
You should implement these methods and write the logic for customizing the serialization process.

37. What is the common usage of serialization?

Whenever an object is to be sent over the network, objects need to be serialized. Moreover if the state of an object is to be saved, objects need to be serilazed.

38. What is Externalizable interface?

Externalizable is an interface which contains two methods readExternal and writeExternal. These methods give you a control over the serialization mechanism.
Thus if your class implements this interface, you can customize the serialization process by implementing these methods.

39. When you serialize an object, what happens to the object references included in the object?

The serialization mechanism generates an object graph for serialization. Thus it determines whether the included object references are serializable or not. This is a recursive process.
Thus when an object is serialized, all the included objects are also serialized alongwith the original obect.

40. What one should take care of while serializing the object?

One should make sure that all the included objects are also serializable. If any of the objects is not serializable then it throws a NotSerializableException.

41. What happens to the static fields of a class during serialization?

There are three exceptions in which serialization doesnot necessarily read and write to the stream. These are
1. Serialization ignores static fields, because they are not part of ay particular state state.
2. Base class fields are only hendled if the base class itself is serializable.
3. Transient fields.

42. Does Java provide any construct to find out the size of an object?

No, there is not sizeof operator in Java. So there is not direct way to determine the size of an object directly in Java.

43. What are wrapper classes?

Java provides specialized classes corresponding to each of the primitive data types. These are called wrapper classes.
They are example: Integer, Character, Double etc.

44. Why do we need wrapper classes?

It is sometimes easier to deal with primitives as objects. Moreover most of the collection classes store objects and not primitive data types. And also the wrapper classes provide many utility methods also.
Because of these resons we need wrapper classes. And since we create instances of these classes we can store them in any of the collection classes and pass them around as a collection. Also we can pass them around as method parameters where a method expects an object.

45. What are checked exceptions?

Checked exception are those which the Java compiler forces you to catch.
Example: IOException are checked exceptions.

46. What are runtime exceptions?

Runtime exceptions are those exceptions that are thrown at runtime because of either wrong input data or because of wrong business logic etc. These are not checked by the compiler at compile time.

47. What is the difference between error and an exception?

An error is an irrecoverable condition occurring at runtime. Such as OutOfMemory error.
These JVM errors and you can not repair them at runtime. While exceptions are conditions that occur because of bad input etc. Example: FileNotFoundException will be thrown if the specified file does not exist. Or a NullPointerException will take place if you try using a null reference.
In most of the cases it is possible to recover from an exception (probably by giving user a feedback for entering proper values etc.).

48. How to create custom exceptions?

Your class should extend class Exception, or some more specific type thereof.

49. If I want an object of my class to be thrown as an exception object, what should I do?

The class should extend from Exception class. Or you can extend your class from some more precise exception type also.

50. If my class already extends from some other class what should I do if I want an instance of my class to be thrown as an exception object?

One can not do anytihng in this scenarion. Because Java does not allow multiple inheritance and does not provide any exception interface as well.

51. How does an exception permeate through the code?

An unhandled exception moves up the method stack in search of a matching When an exception is thrown from a code which is wrapped in a try block followed by one or more catch blocks, a search is made for matching catch block. If a matching type is found then that block will be invoked. If a matching type is not found then the exception moves up the method stack and reaches the caller method.
Same procedure is repeated if the caller method is included in a try catch block. This process continues until a catch block handling the appropriate type of exception is found. If it does not find such a block then finally the program terminates.

52. What are the different ways to handle exceptions?

There are two ways to handle exceptions,
1. By wrapping the desired code in a try block followed by a catch block to catch the exceptions. and
2. List the desired exceptions in the throws clause of the method and let the caller of the method hadle those exceptions.

53. Is it necessary that each try block must be followed by a catch block?

It is not necessary that each try block must be followed by a catch block. It should be followed by either a catch block or a finally block. And whatever exceptions are likely to be thrown should be declared in the throws clause of the method.

54. If I write return at the end of the try block, will the finally block still execute?

Yes even if you write return as the last statement in the try block and no exception occurs, the finally block will execute. The finally block will execute and then the control return.