Hire Java Developers

Interviewing a Java developer is one of the most crucial stages of the entire recruitment process. Because until and unless the answers are satisfactory, it is impossible to decide if the applicant is suitable for your company or not. Thus, you can divide the interview phase into technical and personal interviews.

The technical interview focuses on knowledge about the programming language, popular frameworks used for coding, real-time business resolutions and suggestions, innovative ideas, and so on of the applicant. While the personal interview questions consider characteristics of the applicants like hobbies, management, leadership qualities, cooperative nature, etc.

1. How can Java be considered a platform-independent programming language?

   Java is a platform-independent programming language that runs on the Java virtual machine or JVM. If the candidate does not know the concept of JVM and how Java codes can be written on one machine and executed on the other, they won’t be able to understand the basic concepts of this programming language. Moreover, this particular feature sets Java apart from C programming language.

2. What are the four prime features of Java?

   The candidate must know and understands all these four features and their implementation in real-time projects. Since it determines the use of class and objects and their behavior within a code. These prime features are:

   • Java is an object-oriented program.
   • Neutral Architecture
   • Inheritance – to implement to extend the functions and methods defined in the parent class in a child class.
   • Polymorphism – To implement 2 basic concepts: overloading and overriding.

3. What are the access specifiers Java class supports?

   Access specifiers are certain keywords that Java allows to set the scope of a variable defined under the main function and any other subsidiary function. There are four major access specifiers in Java:

   • Private
   • Protected
   • Public
   • Default

   Each access specifier has a certain purpose. For example, when a variable is declared with the private access specifier, a developer can use that particular variable within the same class where it is defined.

   On the other hand, if a developer has to access a certain variable in multiple classes used in the project, they have to use the keyword public. Suppose any candidate does not know the access specifiers and their scope. In that case, it won’t be possible for that person to properly define the variables and limit their scope to implement abstraction and encapsulation.

4. What is the difference between fail-safe and fail-fast iterators in Java?

   In real-time projects, the Java codes are quite complicated and each class can have multiple functional modules with numerous logic statements. If there is any glitch in the logic or the functional modules, the code will throw an error during compilation or runtime. Most often, these exceptions become blocker defects for the software and can impact the business severely.

   Sometimes, Java developers handle the exceptions in the program either by bypassing the logic statement or using fail-safe and fail-fast iterators. For example, if a collection in Java is modified, the fail-fast iterators will throw an exception to warn the developer that the logic statement is modified. On the contrary, the fail-safe iterator is used to bypass that exception when the collection clone is executed.

5. What are the uses of Java loop statements?

   Whether it is to get user-defined values for an array or to set a logic Ford capturing values in an iterative mode, a condition needs to be specified along with the incremental or decremental value. A Java developer can use three major loop statements to define all these.

   Although the purpose of the statements is the same, the way of defining them and their function is different. The candidate must know that for a loop statement, it is crucial to define the initial value of the iterator variable, followed by the condition and then the incremental or decremental value. Similarly, the condition must be specified at the top through the wild statement for a while loop or do a while loop.

6. What functionality can Java implement to store confidential and sensitive information?

   While coding a block of Java statements that will extract and store confidential or sensitive information like passwords, user information, banking statements, and so on, the Java developer needs to use a character array instead of a string. After asking this question, if the candidate answers that the string is more feasible to store such sensitive information, it means that the person does not have enough understanding about how string operates.

   For instance, when a value is stored in the string, it remains in the memory dump for an indeterminate time or till the garbage collector removes the data. If anyone has access to the memory dump, extracting the sensitive information won’t be difficult. And that can put the overall business at stake. This is why a character array is used to store the information. Because the values in the array are mutable and can be changed every time the loop function is executed.

7. How the Java application can be connected to the database?

   In real-time projects, Java developers need to ensure that the developed application is connected to a database for storing and modifying different datasets. As these are confidential to the application, user-centric, or business data. Several databases can be used, like MongoDB, MySQL, and so on. Regardless of the DB type, the candidate must know how to connect the application to the database with the help of the JDBC driver. Similarly, if it is an Android application, the candidate should also know how to use com.google.cloud.sql dependent and its relationship with Gradle.

8. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

   First and foremost, as a recruiter, you need to ask the Java developer how the person views the next five years. One of the most common answers to this question is: “ I would like to see you as a successful Java developer within the next five years, having in-depth knowledge about implementing different programming language features in real-time projects.” However, this is not the exact answer you should be looking for.

   Instead, it would be best if you chose a candidate who not only sees himself as a successful Java developer in the next five years but also has goals like developing management and leadership skills, and learning more about Java implementation in other fields except that of development. Upskilling oneself and learning new technologies related to Java, and so on.

9. How well can you accommodate the agile environment?

   Nowadays, most companies are moving from Waterfall to Agile methodology to increase speed, project delivery, & reduce redundancies. It means the Java developer should be able to work fast and collaboratively with the testing team. Because the SDLC development and testing phase are done simultaneously for an agile project.

   So, a Java developer working in an agile environment must know about the responsibilities that come with this new work system. Plus the candidate must be skilled to handle new code development & debugging existing codes to find and fix the defects before they are released and locked in the production environment.

10. Are you aware of unit testing?

    The developer is not only responsible for writing the codes or modifying them according to their business requirements, but they also need to run unit testing. This testing is usually done in the local environment where the impact is not seen in the testing environment or the database. With the help of unit testing, developers can easily know if the code they have developed or the modifications introduced are working fine and not hampering any other functionality. After successful unit testing, the professionals must release the code to the testing environments (SIT and UAT).

11. Are you prepared to give support at any time to the business?

    The IT world works 24X7. However, you must ask the Java developer if they can work flexible hours if there is an emergency. Notably, the developer must be ready & able to provide support to ensure that your business does not take a hit due to any technical glitch. In addition, the candidate should be comfortable working in various schedules apart from the one concerning the offshore time zone.