Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Servlet Interview Questions

Q: Explain the life cycle methods of a Servlet.

A: The javax.servlet.Servlet interface defines the three methods known as life-cycle method.
Initializing a Servlet:public void init(ServletConfig config) throws ServletException
Interacting with Clients:public void service( ServletRequest req, ServletResponse res) throws ServletException, IOException
Destroying a Servlet
public void destroy()
First the servlet is constructed, then initialized wih the init() method.
Any request from client are handled initially by the service() method before delegating to the doXxx() methods in the case of HttpServlet.

The servlet is removed from service, destroyed with the destroy() methid, then garbaged collected and finalized.

Q: What is the difference between HttpServlet and GenericServlet?

A: A GenericServlet has a service() method aimed to handle requests. HttpServlet extends GenericServlet and adds support for doGet(), doPost(), doHead() methods (HTTP 1.0) plus doPut(), doOptions(), doDelete(), doTrace() methods (HTTP 1.1).
Both these classes are abstract.

Q: Explain ServletContext.

A: ServletContext interface is a window for a servlet to view it's environment. A servlet can use this interface to get information such as initialization parameters for the web applicationor servlet container's version. Every web application has one and only one ServletContext and is accessible to all active resource of that application.

Q: What is the difference between Difference between doGet() and doPost()?

Answer: doGet is used when there is a requirement of sending data appended to a query string in the URL. The doGet models the GET method of Http and it is used to retrieve the info on the client from some server as a request to it. The doGet cannot be used to send too much info appended as a query stream. GET puts the form values into the URL string. GET is limited to about 256 characters (usually a browser limitation) and creates really ugly URLs.
A request string for doGet() looks like the following:
http://www.allapplabs.com/svt1?p1=v1&p2=v2&...&pN=vN


POST allows you to have extremely dense forms and pass that to the server without clutter or limitation in size. e.g. you obviously can't send a file from the client to the server via GET. POST has no limit on the amount of data you can send and because the data does not show up on the URL you can send passwords. But this does not mean that POST is truly secure. For real security you have to look into encryption which is an entirely different topic

Q: What is the difference between ServletContext and ServletConfig?

A: ServletContext: Defines a set of methods that a servlet uses to communicate with its servlet container, for example, to get the MIME type of a file, dispatch requests, or write to a log file.The ServletContext object is contained within the ServletConfig object, which the Web server provides the servlet when the servlet is initialized

ServletConfig: The object created after a servlet is instantiated and its default constructor is read. It is created to pass initialization information to the servlet

Q :: Difference between forward and sendRedirect?

A :: 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 completly with in the web container.

When a sendRedirtect 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 completly 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.and you want to forward to is not in the same web application, use sendRedirect().

Q: What are the common mechanisms used for session tracking?
A: Cookies
SSL sessions
URL- rewriting

Q: Explain the directory structure of a web application.
A: The directory structure of a web application consists of two parts.
1) private directory called WEB-INF
2) public resource directory which contains public resource folder.

WEB-INF folder consists of
1. web.xml
2. classes directory
3. lib directory

Q.What is the difference between the getRequestDispatcher(String path) ServletRequest interface and ServletContext interface?

The getRequestDispatcher(String path) method of ServletRequest interface accepts parameter the path to the resource to be included or forwarded to, which can be relative to the request of the calling servlet. If the path begins with a "/" it is interpreted as relative to the current context root.

The getRequestDispatcher(String path) method of ServletContext interface cannot accepts relative paths. All path must sart with a "/" and are interpreted as relative to curent context root. If the resource is not available, or if the server has not implemented a RequestDispatcher object for that type of resource, getRequestDispatcher will return null. Your servlet should be prepared to deal with this condition.

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