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Friday, November 2, 2012

Best JSP/Servlets interview questions Answers

1. What is the difference between JSP and Servlets ?
JSP is used mainly for presentation only. A JSP can only be HttpServlet that means the only supported protocol in JSP is HTTP. But a servlet can support any protocol like HTTP, FTP, SMTP etc.
2. What is difference between custom JSP tags and beans?
Custom JSP tag is a tag you defined. You define how a tag, its attributes and its body are interpreted, and then group your tags into collections called tag libraries that can be used in any number of JSP files. To use custom JSP tags, you need to define three separate components: the tag handler class that defines the tag’s behavior ,the tag library descriptor file that maps the XML element names to the tag implementations and the JSP file that uses the tag library
JavaBeans are Java utility classes you defined. Beans have a standard format for Java classes. You use tags
Custom tags and beans accomplish the same goals — encapsulating complex behavior into simple and accessible forms. There are several differences:
Custom tags can manipulate JSP content; beans cannot. Complex operations can be reduced to a significantly simpler form with custom tags than with beans. Custom tags require quite a bit more work to set up than do beans. Custom tags usually define relatively self-contained behavior, whereas beans are often defined in one servlet and used in a different servlet or JSP page. Custom tags are available only in JSP 1.1 and later, but beans can be used in all JSP 1.x versions.
3. What are the different ways for session tracking?
Cookies, URL rewriting, HttpSession, Hidden form fields
4. What mechanisms are used by a Servlet Container to maintain session information?
Cookies, URL rewriting, and HTTPS protocol information are used to maintain session information
5. Difference between GET and POST
In GET your entire form submission can be encapsulated in one URL, like a hyperlink. query length is limited to 255 characters, not secure, faster, quick and easy. The data is submitted as part of URL.
In POST data is submitted inside body of the HTTP request. The data is not visible on the URL and it is more secure.
6. What is session?
The session is an object used by a servlet to track a user’s interaction with a Web application across multiple HTTP requests. The session is stored on the server.
7. What is servlet mapping?
The servlet mapping defines an association between a URL pattern and a servlet. The mapping is used to map requests to Servlets.
8. What is servlet context ?
The servlet context is an object that contains a information about the Web application and container. Using the context, a servlet can log events, obtain URL references to resources, and set and store attributes that other servlets in the context can use.
9. What is a servlet ?
servlet is a java program that runs inside a web container.
10. Can we use the constructor, instead of init(), to initialize servlet?
Yes. But you will not get the servlet specific things from constructor. The original reason for init() was that ancient versions of Java couldn’t dynamically invoke constructors with arguments, so there was no way to give the constructor a ServletConfig. That no longer applies, but servlet containers still will only call your no-arg constructor. So you won’t have access to a ServletConfig or ServletContext.
12. How many JSP scripting elements are there and what are they?
There are three scripting language elements: declarations, scriptlets, expressions.
13. How do I include static files within a JSP page?
Static resources should always be included using the JSP include directive. This way, the inclusion is performed just once during the translation phase.
14. How can I implement a thread-safe JSP page?
You can make your JSPs thread-safe adding the directive <%@ page isThreadSafe="false" % > within your JSP page.
15. What is the difference in using request.getRequestDispatcher() and context.getRequestDispatcher()?
In request.getRequestDispatcher(path) in order to create it we need to give the relative path of the resource. But in resourcecontext.getRequestDispatcher(path) in order to create it we need to give the absolute path of the resource.
16. What are the lifecycle of JSP?
When presented with JSP page the JSP engine does the following 7 phases.
Page translation: -page is parsed, and a java file which is a servlet is created.
Page compilation: page is compiled into a class file
Page loading : This class file is loaded.
Create an instance :- Instance of servlet is created
jspInit() method is called
_jspService is called to handle service calls
_jspDestroy is called to destroy it when the servlet is not required.
17. What are context initialization parameters?
Context initialization parameters are specified by the in the web.xml file, these are initialization parameter for the whole application.
18. What is a Expression?
Expressions are act as place holders for language expression, expression is evaluated each time the page is accessed. This will be included in the service method of the generated servlet.
19. What is a Declaration?
It declares one or more variables or methods for use later in the JSP source file. A declaration must contain at least one complete declarative statement. You can declare any number of variables or methods within one declaration tag, as long as semicolons separate them. The declaration must be valid in the scripting language used in the JSP file. This will be included in the declaration section of the generated servlet.
20. What is a Scriptlet?
A scriptlet can contain any number of language statements, variable or expressions that are valid in the page scripting language. Within scriptlet tags, you can declare variables to use later in the file, write expressions valid in the page scripting language, use any of the JSP implicit objects or any object declared with a . Generally a scriptlet can contain any java code that are valid inside a normal java method. This will become the part of generated servlet’s service method.

21. What are the implicit objects?
Certain objects that are available for the use in JSP documents without being declared first. These objects are parsed by the JSP engine and inserted into the generated servlet. The implicit objects are: request, response, pageContext, session, application, out, config, page, exception
22. What’s the difference between forward and sendRedirect?
forward is server side redirect and sendRedirect is client side redirect. When you invoke a forward request, the request is sent to another resource on the server, without the client being informed that a different resource is going to process the request. This process occurs completely with in the web container And then returns to the calling method. When a sendRedirect method is invoked, it causes the web container to return to the browser indicating that a new URL should be requested. Because the browser issues a completely new request any object that are stored as request attributes before the redirect occurs will be lost. This extra round trip a redirect is slower than forward. Client can disable sendRedirect.
23. What are the different scopes available ?
page, request, session, application
24. Is JSP extensible ?
Yes, it is. JSP technology is extensible through the development of custom actions, or tags, which are encapsulated in tag libraries.
25. What’s the Servlet Interface?
The central abstraction in the Servlet API is the Servlet interface. All servlets implement this interface, either directly or, more commonly, by extending a class that implements it such as HttpServlet.
26. What are two different types of Servlets ?
GenericServlet and HttpServlet. HttpServlet is used to implement HTTP protocol, where as Generic servlet can implement any protocol.
27. What is the life cycle of servlet?
Each servlet has the same life cycle: first, the server loads and initializes the servlet by calling the init method. This init() method will be executed only once during the life time of a servlet. Then when a client makes a request, it executes the service method. finally it executes the destroy() method when server removes the servlet.
28. Can we call destroy() method on servlets from service method ?
Yes.
29. What is the need of super.init (config) in servlets ?
Then only we will be able to access the ServletConfig from our servlet. If there is no ServletConfig our servlet will not have any servlet nature.
30. What is the difference between GenericServlet and HttpServlet?
GenericServlet supports any protocol. HttpServlet supports only HTTP protocol. By extending GenericServlet we can write a servlet that supports our own custom protocol or any other protocol.
32. Can we write a constructor for servlet ?
Yes. But the container will always call the default constructor only. If default constructor is not present , the container will throw an exception.
33. What is the difference between <%@ include ...> (directive include) and ?
@ include is static include. It is inline inclusion. The contents of the file will get included on Translation phase. It is something like inline inclusion. We cannot have a dynamic filename for directive include. is dynamic include. Here the included file will be processed as a separate file and the response will be included. We can have a dynamic filename for . We can also pass parameters to
34. Can I just abort processing a JSP?
Yes. You can put a return statement to abort JSP processing.
35. What are the parameters for service method ?
ServletRequest and ServletResponse
36. What are cookies ?
Cookies are small textual information that are stored on client computer. Cookies are used for session tracking.
37. How do I prevent the output of my JSP or Servlet pages from being cached by the browser?
By setting appropriate HTTP header attributes we can prevent caching by the browser
<%
response.setHeader("Cache-Control","no-store"); //HTTP 1.1
response.setHeader("Pragma","no-cache"); //HTTP 1.0
response.setDateHeader ("Expires", 0); //prevents caching at the proxy server
%>
38. How to refer the “this” variable within a JSP page?
Under JSP 1.0, the page implicit object page is equivalent to “this”, and returns a reference to the servlet generated by the JSP page.
39. How many JSP scripting elements and what are they?
There are three scripting elements in JSP . They are declarations, scriptlets, expressions.
40. Can we implement an interface in JSP ?
No.

41. What is the meaning of response has already been committed error?
You will get this error only when you try to redirect a page after you already have flushed the output buffer. This happens because HTTP specification force the header to be set up before the lay out of the page can be shown. When you try to send a redirect status, your HTTP server cannot send it right now if it hasn’t finished to set up the header. Simply it is giving the error due to the specification of HTTP 1.0 and 1.1
42. How do I use a scriptlet to initialize a newly instantiated bean?
A jsp:useBean action may optionally have a body. If the body is specified, its contents will be automatically invoked when the specified bean is instantiated (Only at the time of instantiation.) Typically, the body will contain scriptlets or jsp:setProperty tags to initialize the newly instantiated bean, although you are not restricted to using those alone.
43. What is JSP?
JSP is a server side scripting technology. JSP allows Java as well as a few special tags to be embedded into a web file (HTML/XML, etc). The suffix must ends with .jsp.
44. What are JSP Actions?
JSP actions use constructs in XML syntax to control the behavior of the servlet engine. You can dynamically insert a file, reuse JavaBeans components, forward the user to another page, or generate HTML for the Java plugin. Available actions include: jsp:include, jsp:useBean, jsp:setProperty, jsp:getProperty, jsp:forward and Jsp: plugin
45. What is the difference between ServletContext and ServletConfig?
The ServletConfig gives the information about the servlet initialization parameters. The servlet engine implements the ServletConfig interface in order to pass configuration information to a servlet. The server passes an object that implements the ServletConfig interface to the servlet’s init() method. The ServletContext gives information about the container. The ServletContext interface provides information to servlets regarding the environment in which they are running. It also provides standard way for servlets to write events to a log file.
46. How can a servlet refresh automatically?
We can use a client-side Refresh or Server Push
47. What is Server side push?
Server Side push is useful when data needs to change regularly on the clients application or browser, without intervention from client. The mechanism used is, when client first connects to Server, then Server keeps the TCP/IP connection open.
48. What is client side refresh?
The standard HTTP protocols ways of refreshing the page, which is normally supported by all browsers.
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="5; URL=/servlet/MyServlet/">
This will refresh the page in the browser automatically and loads the new data every 5 seconds.
49. What is the Max amount of information that can be saved in a Session Object ?
There is no such limit on the amount of information that can be saved in a Session Object. The only limit is the Session ID length , which should not exceed more than 4K.
50. Why should we go for inter servlet communication?
The three major reasons to use inter servlet communication are: a) Direct servlet manipulation – allows to gain access to the other currently loaded servlets and perform certain tasks (through the ServletContext object) b) Servlet reuse – allows the servlet to reuse the public methods of another servlet. c) Servlet collaboration – requires to communicate with each other by sharing specific information (through method invocation)
51. What is a output comment?
A comment that is sent to the client in the viewable page source. The JSP engine handles an output comment as un interpreted HTML text, returning the comment in the HTML output sent to the client. You can see the comment by viewing the page source from your Web browser.
52. What is a Hidden Comment
Hidden Comments are JSP comments. A comments that documents the JSP page but is not sent to the client. The JSP engine ignores a hidden comment, and does not process any code within hidden comment tags.
53. What are the differences between a session and a cookie?
Session is stored in server but cookie stored in client. Session should work regardless of the settings on the client browser. There is no limit on the amount of data that can be stored on session. But it is limited in cookie. Session can store objects and cookies can store only strings. Cookies are faster than session.
54. What is HttpTunneling?
HTTP tunneling is used to encapsulate other protocols within the HTTP or HTTPS protocols. Normally the intranet is blocked by a firewall and the network is exposed to the outer world only through a specific web server port, that listens for only HTTP requests. To use any other protocol, that by passes the firewall, the protocol is embedded in HTTP and send as HttpRequest.
55. How to pass information from JSP to included JSP?
By using tag.
56. What is the better way to enable thread-safe servlets and JSPs? SingleThreadModel Synchronization?
The better approach is to use synchronization. Because SingleThreadModel is not scalable. SingleThreadModel is pretty resource intensive from web server’s perspective. The most serious issue is when the number of concurrent requests exhaust the servlet instance pool. In that case, all the un serviced requests are queued until something becomes free – which results in poor performance.
57. What is the difference between ServletContext and PageContext?
ServletContext gives the information about the container and PageContext gives the information about the Request
58. Why in Servlet 2.4 specification SingleThreadModel has been deprecated?
SingleThreadModel is pretty resource intensive from web server’s perspective. When the number of concurrent requests exhaust the servlet instance pool, all the un serviced requests are queued until something becomes free – which results in poor performance.
59. How do you pass data (including JavaBeans) to a JSP from a servlet?
By forwarding the request to the servlet ( the data must be there in the request scope) we can pass the data from a JSP to servlet. Also we can use a session to pass the data.
60. How can I set a cookie?
 Cookie c = new Cookie("name","value");
    response.addCookie(c);
 

61. How will you delete a cookie?

  1. Cookie c = new Cookie ("name"null);  
  2. c.setMaxAge(0);  
  3. response.addCookie(killCookie);  
62. What is the difference between Context init parameter and Servlet init parameter?
Servlet init parameters are for a single servlet only. No body out side that servlet can access that. It is declared inside the tag inside Deployment Descriptor, where as context init parameter is for the entire web application. Any servlet or JSP in that web application can access context init parameter. Context parameters are declared in a tag directly inside the tag. The methods for accessing context init parameter is getServletContext ().getInitParamter (“name”) where as method for accessing servlet init parameter is getServletConfig ().getInitParamter (“name”);
63. What are the different ways for getting a servlet context?
We will get ServletContext by calling getServletConfig ().getServletContext (). This is because a ServletConfig always hold a reference to ServletContext. By calling this.getServletContext () also we will get a ServletContext object.
64. What is the difference between an attribute and a parameter?
The return type of attribute is object, where the return type of parameter is String. The method to retrieve attribute is getAttribute () where as for parameter is getParameter (). We have a method setAttribute to set an attribute. But there is no setters available for setting a parameter.
65. How to make a context thread safe?
Synchronizing the ServletContext is the only solution to make a ServletContext thread safe.
Eg:

  1. synchronized (getServletContext ()) {  
  2.       // do whatever you want with thread safe context.  
  3. }  
66. What is the difference between setting the session time out in deployment descriptor and setting the time out programmatically?
In DD time out is specified in terms of minutes only. But in programmatically it is specified in seconds. A session time out value of zero or less in DD means that the session will never expire. To specify session will never expire programmatically it must be negative value.
67. What JSP lifecycle methods we can override?
You cannot override the _jspService() method within a JSP page. You can however, override the jspInit() and jspDestroy() methods within a JSP page.
68. How will you include a static file in a JSP page?
You can include a static resource to a JSP using or <%@ inlcude >.
69. How you can perform browser redirection?
We can use the method sendRedirect of HttpServletResponse or forward method of RequestDispatcher.
70. Can we use ServletOutputStream object from a JSP page?
No. You are supposed to use JSPWriter object (given to you in the form of the implicit object out) only for replying to clients.
71. How can you stop JSP execution in the middle of processing a request?
We can use the return statement to stop the processing of JSP. Because JSP is compiled to servlet and all the statements will go inside service method, any time you can stop the processing using return statement.
72. How can I invoke a JSP error page from a servlet?
You can invoke the JSP error page and pass the exception object to it from within a servlet. For that you need to create a request dispatcher for the JSP error page, and pass the exception object as a javax.servlet.jsp.jspException request attribute.
73. How will you pass information from JSP to included JSP?
By using <%jsp:param> tag.
74. How does JSP handle runtime exceptions?
Using errorPage attribute of page directive JSP handles runtime exceptions. We need to specify isErrorPage=true if the current page is intended to use as a JSP error page.
75. How can I enable session tracking for JSP pages if the browser has disabled cookies?
By default session tracking uses cookies to associate a session identifier with a user. If the browser does not support cookies, or if cookies are disabled, you can still use session tracking using URL rewriting. For URL rewriting to be effective, you need to append the session ID for each and every link that is part of your servlet response. By using the methods response.encodeURL() and response.encodeRedirectURL() we can achieve this.
76. How can you declare methods in your JSP page?
You can declare methods as declarations in your JSP page. The methods can then be invoked within any other methods you declare, or within JSP scriptlets and expressions.
77. How can we set the inactivity period on a per-session basis?
We can set the session time out programmatically by using the method setMaxInactiveInterval() of HttpSession.
78. How do you pass an init parameter to a JSP?
You need to configure the DD for passing init parameter to a JSP. You can configure the DD as follows.

  1.     <servlet>  
  2.           <servlet-name>test.jsp</servlet-name>  
  3.           <jsp-file>test.jsp  
  4.                <init-param>  
  5. <param-name>Abc</param-name>  
  6. <param-value>Xyz</param-value>  
  7.            </init-param>  
  8.     </jsp-file></servlet>  
  9.       
79. How can my application get to know when a HttpSession is removed?
You can define a class which implements HttpSessionBindingListener and override the valueUnbound() method.
80. How many cookies can one set in the response object of the servlet? Also, are there any restrictions on the size of cookies?
If the client is using Netscape, the browser can receive and store 300 total cookies and 4 kilobytes per cookie. And the no of cookie is restricted to 20 cookies per server or domain

81. When a session object gets added or removed to the session, which event will get notified ?
HttpSessionBindingListener will get notified When an object is added and/or removed from the session object, or when the session is invalidated, in which case the objects are first removed from the session, whether the session is invalidated manually or automatically (timeout).
82. What is URL Encoding and URL Decoding ?
URL encoding is the method of replacing all the spaces and other extra characters into their corresponding Hex Characters and Decoding is the process of converting all Hex Characters back to their normal form.
83. What is the difference between an applet and a servlet?
Servlets run inside a web server and applets run inside web browsers. Applets must have graphical user interfaces whereas servlets have no graphical user interfaces.
84. What are the different web servers available name few of them?
Tomcat, Java Web Server, JRun,
85. What is a Java Bean?
A Java Bean is a software component that has been designed to be reusable in a variety of different environments.
86. What are the different types of ServletEngines?
The different types of ServletEngines available are:- Standalone ServletEngine: This is a server that includes built-in support for servlets. Add-on ServletEngine: It is a plug-in to an existing server. It adds servlet support to a server that was not originally designed with servlets in mind.
87. What is a Session Id?
It is a unique id assigned by the server to the user when a user starts a session.
88. What is use of parseQueryString ?
It parses a query string and builds a Hashtable of key-value pairs, where the values are arrays of strings. The query string should have the form of a string packaged by the GET or POST method.
89. When init() and Destroy() will be called.
init() is called whenever the servlet is loaded for the first time into the web server. Destroy will be called whenever the servlet is removed from the web server.
90. What is the use of setComment and getComment methods in Cookies ?
setComment: If a web browser presents this cookie to a user, the cookie’s purpose will be described using this comment. This is not supported by version zero cookies.
getComment: Returns the comment describing the purpose of this cookie, or null if no such comment has been defined.
91. Why we are used setMaxAge() and getMaxAge() in Cookies ?
setMaxAge : Sets the maximum age of the cookie. The cookie will expire after that many seconds have passed. Negative values indicate the default behavior, and will be deleted when the browser closes.
getMaxAge : Returns the maximum specified age of the cookie. If none was specified, a negative value is returned, indicating the default behavior described with setMaxAge.
92. What is the use of setSecure() and getSecure() in Cookies ?
setSecure method indicates to the web browser that the cookie should only be sent using a secure protocol (https). getSecure method returns the value of the ‘secure’ flag.
93. How do you communicate between the servlets?
We can communicate between servlets by using RequestDespatcher interface and servlet chaining.
94. What is Servlet chaining?
Servlet chaining is a technique in which two or more servlets can cooperate in servicing a single request. In servlet chaining, one servlet’s output is the input of next servlet. This process continues until the last servlet is reached. Its output is then sent back to the client. We are achieving Servlet Chaining with the help of RequestDispatcher.
95. How will you communicate from an applet to servlet?
There are three ways to communicate from an applet to servlet and they are: HTTP Communication (Text-based and object-based) , Socket Communication and RMI Communication
96. Can we call a servlet with parameters in the URL?
Yes. You can call a servlet with parameters in the URL like ?param=value
97. How do servlets handle multiple simultaneous requests?
When a request comes in, the web server will start a new thread and the request is assigned to a thread, which calls a service method of the servlet.
98. Explain the directory structure of a web application?
The directory structure of a web application consists of two parts. A private directory called WEB-INF and a public resource directory which contains files server to public. WEB-INF folder consists of web.xml (the deployment descriptor), classes directory (where we keeps all our classes and servlets) and lib directory (where we keeps all our jar files). The public folder contains the static resources of the web application.
99. What is pre initialization of a servlet?
A container doesn’t initialize the servlets when it starts up. It initializes a servlet when it receives a request for that servlet first time. This is called lazy loading. The servlet specification defines the element, which can be specified in the deployment descriptor to make the servlet container load and initialize the servlet as soon as it starts up. The process of loading a servlet before any request comes in is called preloading or pre initializing a servlet.
100. What are the uses of ServletRequest?
The ServletRequest gives information such as the names of the parameters passed by the client, the protocol (scheme) being used by the client, and the names of the remote host that made the request and the server that received it. The input stream, ServletInputStream.


101. What are the uses of ServletResponse interface?
ServletResponse allows the servlet to set the content length and MIME type of that response. It provides an output stream, ServletOutputStream and a Writer through which the servlet can send data.
102. How HTTP Servlet handles client requests?
An HTTP Servlet handles client requests through its service method. The service method supports standard HTTP client requests by dispatching each request to a method designed to handle that request.
103. Is HTML page a web component?
No. Static HTML pages and applets are not considered as web components by J2EE specification. Even the server-side utility classes are not considered web components.
104. What is the container?
A container is a runtime support of a system-level entity. Containers provide components with services such as lifecycle management, security, deployment, and threading.
105. What is the web container?
Servlet and JSP containers are collectively referred to as Web containers.
106. What is deployment descriptor?
A deployment descriptor is an XML based file which describes a web application’s deployment settings. The name of deployment descriptor of a web application is web.xml.
107. How can I print the stack trace of an exception from a JSP page?
By creating an object of PrintWriter we can print the stack trace in JSP page. Eg:
PrintWriter pw = response.getWriter();
exception.printStackTrace(pw);
108. Do objects stored in a HTTP Session need to be serializable? Or can it store any object?
No, the objects need not to be serializable. We can store any type of objects in session.
109. What is the difference between JspWriter and PrintWriter?
JspWriter is buffered.
110. How can you implement singleton pattern in servlets ?
All servlets are singleton only , if the servlet is not implementing SingleThreadModel.
111. What is the difference between an application server and a web server?
Everything in web server must be achieved programmatically. But application server provides a lot of services like security, transaction , scalability. Application server will be having EJB support where web server don’t have an EJB support.
112. What is servlet exception?
It indicates that there is an exception occurred in the servlet.
113. Can we implement Runnable interface from within our servlet?
Our servlet can implement the Runnable interface.
114. What is a WAR file?
WAR stands for Web Archive. It is a compressed version of your web application. You can use this WAR file to deploy your web application.
115. What is a servlet filter?
Servlet filters are pluggable Web components that allow us to implement pre-processing and post-processing logic in our Web applications.

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