Danske Bank Java Developer Interview Questions & Answers
1. Core Java
Q: What are the differences between HashMap, LinkedHashMap, and TreeMap?
A: HashMap is unordered, LinkedHashMap maintains insertion order, TreeMap sorts by keys.
Q: Explain immutability in Java and how to make a class immutable.
A: Make class final, all fields private and final, no setters, and return copies of mutable objects.
Q: How does Garbage Collection work in Java?
A: GC automatically frees memory by destroying unreachable objects using generational GC (Young/Old
Gen).
Q: Difference between abstract class and interface?
A: Abstract classes can have state and constructors, interfaces can't (prior to Java 8). Interfaces support
multiple inheritance.
Q: What is a functional interface?
A: An interface with a single abstract method. Used in lambda expressions. Example: Runnable,
Comparator.
Q: Explain synchronized vs concurrent collections.
A: Synchronized blocks access using intrinsic locks; Concurrent collections (e.g., ConcurrentHashMap)
offer better concurrency.
Q: What is the use of CompletableFuture?
A: Allows asynchronous computation and chaining tasks with better control than Future.
Q: Java 8+ features?
A: Lambdas, Streams, Optional, new Date/Time API, CompletableFuture.
2. Spring & Spring Boot
Q: Explain Dependency Injection and Inversion of Control.
A: IoC is the principle, DI is the implementation—Spring injects dependencies at runtime.
Q: Difference between @Component, @Service, @Repository, @Controller?
A: All are @Component types, used for different layers: service, DAO, controller.
Q: How does Spring Boot auto-configuration work?
A: Uses @EnableAutoConfiguration and classpath scanning to configure beans automatically.
Q: How does Spring Security work?
A: Uses filters and AuthenticationManager to intercept and secure HTTP requests.
Q: Difference between @RequestParam, @PathVariable, and @RequestBody?
A: @RequestParam for query params, @PathVariable for URI segments, @RequestBody for JSON payload.
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Danske Bank Java Developer Interview Questions & Answers
Q: How do you manage exceptions in Spring Boot?
A: Using @ControllerAdvice with @ExceptionHandler.
Q: What are Bean scopes in Spring?
A: singleton, prototype, request, session, application, websocket.
Q: How do you externalize configuration?
A: Using [Link], [Link], Spring Cloud Config.
3. JPA / Hibernate
Q: Difference between JPA and Hibernate?
A: JPA is a specification, Hibernate is an implementation of it.
Q: What is lazy loading vs eager loading?
A: Lazy fetches associations on demand, eager fetches immediately.
Q: Explain Entity Lifecycle in JPA.
A: States: New → Managed → Detached → Removed.
Q: What is N+1 problem?
A: Occurs when fetching collection causes many extra queries; solve with fetch joins.
Q: How to implement relationships in JPA?
A: Use annotations like @OneToMany, @ManyToOne, etc.
Q: What is a Criteria Query?
A: Type-safe, programmatic way to build dynamic queries.
Q: How to write custom queries?
A: Use @Query annotation with JPQL or native SQL.
4. Microservices & Architecture
Q: What are microservices?
A: Small, independently deployable services focused on specific business capabilities.
Q: How do services communicate?
A: Typically via REST APIs, messaging systems (Kafka, RabbitMQ).
Q: What is an API Gateway?
A: Single entry point for routing, authentication, rate limiting (e.g., Spring Cloud Gateway).
Q: What is service discovery?
A: Dynamically registers and finds services (Eureka, Consul).
Q: How do you manage configuration across services?
A: Using Spring Cloud Config or centralized config stores.
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Danske Bank Java Developer Interview Questions & Answers
Q: What is circuit breaker?
A: Prevents cascading failures by stopping calls to failing services (Resilience4j, Hystrix).
Q: How to trace/log requests across microservices?
A: Using Spring Sleuth and Zipkin/Jaeger.
Q: How to scale microservices?
A: Horizontally with container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes).
5. Payments Domain
Q: Explain credit transfer/SEPA flow.
A: Originator → Bank → Clearing System → Beneficiary Bank → Account.
Q: What are clearing and settlement?
A: Clearing: validation & netting of transactions. Settlement: actual fund transfer.
Q: How to ensure idempotency in payments?
A: Use unique transaction IDs and track processed operations.
Q: How to handle duplicate transactions?
A: De-duplication logic based on transaction ID or hash.
Q: Challenges in real-time systems?
A: Low latency, consistency, concurrency, resilience.
Q: How to handle retries/failures?
A: Use retry patterns, exponential backoff, message queues.
6. DevOps & CI/CD
Q: How to deploy Spring Boot apps?
A: Package as JAR, deploy with Docker, run on K8s or cloud platforms.
Q: Experience with Docker/Kubernetes?
A: Containerization of microservices, orchestration using deployments/services.
Q: CI/CD tools used?
A: Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI for build-test-deploy pipelines.
Q: How to monitor Spring Boot apps?
A: Use Actuator, Prometheus, Grafana for metrics and health checks.
7. Testing
Q: How to write unit tests?
A: Use JUnit, Mockito to test business logic in isolation.
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Danske Bank Java Developer Interview Questions & Answers
Q: Difference between @Mock and @MockBean?
A: @Mock is for unit tests, @MockBean is used to mock beans in Spring context.
Q: How to test REST APIs?
A: Use @WebMvcTest, TestRestTemplate, MockMvc.
Q: What is Testcontainers?
A: A library to spin up Docker containers for integration tests (DB, Kafka, etc).
8. Behavioral / Situational
Q: Describe a production issue you handled.
A: Give a STAR-based example: situation, task, action, result.
Q: How do you handle conflicting priorities?
A: Prioritize based on business value, communicate clearly, involve stakeholders.
Q: Why Danske Bank?
A: Highlight interest in fintech, stable work culture, and growth opportunities.
Q: Are you comfortable with Agile?
A: Yes, experienced in Scrum/Kanban, participate in standups, sprints, retrospectives.
Q: Challenging bug you fixed?
A: Give specific issue, debugging steps, root cause, and resolution.
9. Coding Examples
Q: Detect duplicate transactions in a stream?
A: Use Set or Map to store seen IDs; if already exists, it's a duplicate.
Q: Implement LRU Cache?
A: Use LinkedHashMap with access order or custom Doubly Linked List + HashMap.
Q: Thread-safe payment processor?
A: Synchronize shared resources or use concurrent structures like BlockingQueue.
Q: Parse and validate payment message?
A: Use Jackson for JSON, JAXB for XML, and write validation logic (e.g., schema, fields).
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