If you’re preparing for a backend developer interview that requires Java

and Spring Boot knowledge, you'll need to focus on a variety of topics.

These topics will cover both fundamental programming concepts and the
specific skills required to develop and maintain backend applications using
Spring Boot and related Java technologies. Below is a comprehensive list
of topics you should focus on:

1. Core Java Concepts

You should have a solid understanding of the core Java language features.
This includes:

 Basic Syntax & Data Types: Understanding variables, data types,

operators, control structures (if-else, loops), etc.

 Object-Oriented Programming (OOP):

o Classes & Objects: Understanding constructors, method

overloading, inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism, and
abstraction.

o Interfaces & Abstract Classes: When to use interfaces vs

abstract classes.

o Encapsulation, Inheritance, and Polymorphism.

 Collections Framework:

o Working with List, Set, Map, Queue interfaces and their

implementations (e.g., ArrayList, HashMap, HashSet).

o Sorting and searching algorithms (e.g., Collections.sort(),

Comparable and Comparator interfaces).

o Streams API: Filtering, mapping, reducing data using Java

streams (Stream, Collectors).

 Concurrency:

o Threads, synchronization, ExecutorService, Callable, Future,

thread-safe collections, and Java concurrency utilities.

o Locks: ReentrantLock, ReadWriteLock, etc.

o Deadlocks and Thread Pooling.

 Exception Handling:

o Try-catch-finally blocks, custom exceptions, and best practices

for exception handling.
2. Java Design Patterns

Familiarize yourself with common design patterns and when to use them,
such as:

 Singleton, Factory, Abstract Factory, Builder.

 Observer, Strategy, Command, Decorator.

 Dependency Injection (DI) and Inversion of Control (IoC)

principles.

3. Spring Framework (Core and Spring Boot)

Since you’re preparing for Spring Boot-related interviews, it’s crucial to

focus on Spring Core and Spring Boot topics.

Spring Core

 Spring Dependency Injection (DI):

o @Autowired, @Component, @Service, @Repository, and

@Controller annotations.

o Constructor Injection vs Setter Injection.

o Bean Scopes: Singleton, Prototype, Request, Session, etc.

o ApplicationContext and BeanFactory.

 Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP):

o @Aspect annotation, @Before, @After, @Around, and

@AfterReturning.

o Use of AOP for cross-cutting concerns like logging and

transaction management.

 Spring Configuration:

o Java-based configuration using @Configuration and XML-

based configuration (though XML is less common in modern
Spring projects).

Spring Boot

 Introduction to Spring Boot: Purpose, advantages, and how it

simplifies Spring application setup.
  Auto Configuration: Understanding how Spring Boot automatically
configures beans based on classpath and properties.

 Spring Boot Starters: Use of pre-configured starter dependencies

for various tasks (e.g., spring-boot-starter-web, spring-boot-starter-
data-jpa, spring-boot-starter-security).

 Embedded Servers: Use of embedded Tomcat, Jetty, or

Undertow for running Spring Boot applications.

 Spring Boot Profiles: Using @Profile for environment-specific

configurations.

 Spring Boot Actuator: Health checks, metrics, and monitoring

endpoints.

 Spring Boot Testing:

o Writing unit and integration tests with Spring Boot Test

(@SpringBootTest, @MockBean, @WebMvcTest, etc.).

4. Spring Data and Persistence

 JPA (Java Persistence API) and Hibernate:

o Entity mapping using @Entity, @Id, @GeneratedValue,

@Column, etc.

o Repository Layer: Using JpaRepository and

CrudRepository to manage CRUD operations.

o Query Methods and Custom Queries with JPQL or native

SQL.

o Transactions: Using @Transactional for managing

transactions.

o Lazy vs Eager Loading and understanding the N+1 Query

Problem.

5. RESTful Web Services with Spring Boot

Since backend APIs are often built using REST principles, make sure to
understand:

 REST Principles: Statelessness, resource-based, client-server

architecture.
  Spring MVC and REST Controllers:

o @RestController and @RequestMapping, @GetMapping,

@PostMapping, @PutMapping, @DeleteMapping
annotations.

o RequestBody and ResponseBody for handling request and

response bodies.

 Path Variables and Request Parameters: Extracting values from

URLs and query parameters.

 Spring HATEOAS: For adding hypermedia links to your REST API

responses.

 Spring Security: Basic security mechanisms such as JWT, OAuth2,

or session-based authentication in REST APIs.

 Validation: Using @Valid and @NotNull, @Size annotations for

validating incoming request data.

 Pagination and Sorting in REST APIs: Efficiently returning large

datasets in chunks using Pageable and Sort.

6. Security

Security is a critical aspect of backend development, so be sure to cover:

 Authentication & Authorization using Spring Security:

o JWT Authentication, OAuth2, Basic Auth, and Role-based

access control.

 CSRF Protection, CORS, Session Management.

 Password Encoding: Using BCrypt or PBKDF2.

7. Database and Caching

 SQL Databases: Understanding how to work with relational

databases (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle) using JPA and
Hibernate.

 NoSQL Databases: Familiarity with databases like MongoDB or

Redis for caching and NoSQL data storage.

 Caching: Implementing caching with Spring Cache abstraction or

Redis for performance improvement.
  Database Migrations: Using Flyway or Liquibase for database
versioning and migrations.

8. Microservices Architecture

 Spring Cloud for building and managing microservices:

o Spring Cloud Config for centralized configuration

management.

o Spring Cloud Eureka for service discovery.

o Spring Cloud Gateway or Zuul for API Gateway

functionality.

o Spring Cloud Circuit Breaker (Hystrix) for fault tolerance.

 Event-Driven Architecture with Spring Kafka or RabbitMQ.

9. Testing

 Unit Testing with JUnit:

o Writing effective unit tests with Mockito for mocking

dependencies.

 Integration Testing:

o Using @SpringBootTest, @WebMvcTest, and

@DataJpaTest annotations for testing different layers of the
application (e.g., web layer, database layer).

 Test Coverage: Using tools like Jacoco to measure test coverage.

10. Performance and Scalability

 Profiling and Monitoring: Using Spring Boot Actuator and tools

like Prometheus and Grafana to monitor application health and
performance.

 Load Testing: Using tools like JMeter to test the API's scalability.

 Concurrency and Threading: Ensuring that your application can

handle multiple requests concurrently without performance
degradation.
11. DevOps and Deployment

 Docker: Containerizing Spring Boot applications for consistent

deployment across environments.

 CI/CD: Understanding Continuous Integration/Continuous

Deployment pipelines (e.g., using Jenkins, GitLab CI, or GitHub
Actions).

 Kubernetes: Basic knowledge of deploying applications in

Kubernetes clusters.

Final Thoughts

The topics listed above represent a comprehensive coverage of the skills

typically required for a Java backend developer role using Spring Boot.
However, keep in mind that different companies may focus on certain
aspects more than others, so it’s a good idea to tailor your preparation
based on the job description and the type of project you will be working
on. Additionally, hands-on experience is crucial, so try to build small
projects to apply the concepts you learn and practice coding interviews to
prepare for algorithmic challenges.