Servlet Interview Questions

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Contents

Servlet Interview Questions for Freshers

1. What is a Servlet?
2. How do you write a servlet that is part of a web application?
3. What are some of the advantages of Servlets?
4. Explain the Servlet API.
5. What do you mean by server-side include (SSI) functionality in Servlets?
6. Explain the server-side include expansion.
7. Define ‘init’ and ‘destroy’ methods in servlets.
8. How is retrieving information different in Servlets as compared to CGI?
9. Compare CGI Environment Variables and the Corresponding Servlet Methods.
10. How does a servlet get access to its init parameters?
11. How does a servlet examine all its init parameters?

Servlet Interview Questions for Experienced

12. What do you mean by Servlet chaining?
13. What do you mean by ‘filtering’ in servlets?
14. What are the uses of Servlet chaining?
15. What are the advantages of Servlet chains?
16. Explain the Servlet Life Cycle.
17. What is the life cycle contract that a servlet engine must conform to?
18. What do you mean by Servlet Reloading?

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 Servlet Interview Questions

Servlet Interview Questions for

Experienced (.....Continued)

19. What are the methods that a servlet can use to get information about the
server?
20. How can a servlet get the name of the server and the port number for a
particular request?
21. How can a servlet get information about the client machine?
22. Explain the Single-Thread Model in servlets.
23. How does Background Processing take place in servlets?
24. How does Servlet collaboration take place?
25. Explain Request parameters associated with servlets.
26. What are the three methods of inter-servlet communication?
27. What are the reasons we use inter-servlet communication?
28. What do you mean by Servlet Manipulation?
29. What is the javax.servlet package?

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Let's get Started

Introduction to Servlet:

A servlet is an extension to a server. It is a Java class that is loaded to expand the

functionality of the server. It helps extend the capability of web servers by providing
support for dynamic response and data persistence. These are commonly used with
web servers, where they can take the place of CGI scripts. A servlet runs inside a Java
Virtual Machine (JVM) on the server, and hence it is safe and portable. Servlets
operate only within the domain of the server. These do not require support for Java
in the web browser.
The original servlet specification was created by Sun Microsystems. Sun packed Java
with Internet functionality and announced the servlet interface. The first version was
finalized in June 1997. The servlet specification was developed under the Java
Community Process starting with version 2.3. Servlets represent a more efficient
architecture as compared to the older CGI.

Servlet Interview Questions for Freshers

1. What is a Servlet?

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 Servlet Interview Questions

A servlet is a small Java program that runs within a Web server. Servlets receive and
respond to requests from Web clients, usually across HTTP, the HyperText Transfer
Protocol. Servlets can also access a library of HTTP-specific calls and receive all the
benefits of the mature Java language, including portability, performance, reusability,
and crash protection. Servlets are o en used to provide rich interaction functionality
within the browser for users (clicking link, form submission, etc.)

2. How do you write a servlet that is part of a web application?

To write a servlet that is part of a web application:
Create a Java class that extends javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.
Import the classes from servlet.jar (or servlet-api.jar ).
These will be needed to compile the servlet.

3. What are some of the advantages of Servlets?

Servlets provide a number of advantages over the other approaches. These include
power, integration, efficiency, safety, portability, endurance, elegance, extensibility,
and also flexibility. Here are the advantages of servlets:
A Servlet is convenient in modifying regular HTML
We can write the servlet code into the JSP
Servlets includes the feature of multithreading of java
We can make use of exception handling
Servlets have a separate layer of business logic in the application
Easy for developers to show and process the information.
Servlets provide a convenient way to modify HTML pages.
Servlets have a separate layer of business logic in the application.
All the advantages of Java-like multi-threading, exception handling, etc. are
there in Servlets

4. Explain the Servlet API.

A servlet does not have a main() method, unlike a regular Java program, and just like
an applet. It has some methods of a servlet that are called upon by the server for the
purpose of handling requests. It invokes the servlet’s service() method, every time the
server sends a request to a servlet.

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 Servlet Interview Questions

To handle requests that are appropriate for the servlet, a typical servlet must
override its service() method. The service() method allows 2 parameters: these are
the request object and the response object. The request object is used to inform the
servlet about the request, whereas the response object is used to then give a
response.
As opposed to this, an HTTP servlet typically does not override the service() method.
However, it actually overrides the doGet() to handle the GET requests and the
doPost() to handle POST requests. Depending on the type of requests it needs to
handle, an HTTP servlet can override either or both of these methods.

5. What do you mean by server-side include (SSI) functionality

in Servlets?
Servlets can be added in HTML pages with the server-side include (SSI) functionality.
A page can be preprocessed by the server to add the output from servlets at some
points within the page, in the servers that support servlets.

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 Servlet Interview Questions

<SERVLET CODE=ServletName CODEBASE=http://server:port/dir

initParam1=initValue1
initParam2=initValue2>
<PARAM NAME=param1 VALUE=val1>
<PARAM NAME=param2 VALUE=val2>
Text appearing here indicates that the web server which provides this page does not
</SERVLET>

6. Explain the server-side include expansion.

Server-side inclusion (SSI) is a feature of a server in which a placeholder <SERVLET>
tag is also returned. The <SERVLET> tag is then substituted by the corresponding
servlet code.
The server just parses the pages that are specially tagged, and it doesn’t parse and
analyses each page it returns. The Java Web Server parses solely pages with a .shtml
extension by default. With the SERVLET tag, in contrast to the APPLET tag, the client
web browser doesn’t see anything between SERVLET and /SERVLET unless SSI is not
supported by the server.

7. Define ‘init’ and ‘destroy’ methods in servlets.

Servlets Init Method is used to initialise a Servlet.

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 Servlet Interview Questions

A er the web container loads and instantiates the servlet class and before it delivers
requests from clients, the web container initializes the servlet. To customize this
process to allow the servlet to read persistent configuration data, initialize resources,
and perform any other one-time activities, you override the init method of the
Servlet interface.
Example:

public class CatalogServlet extends HttpServlet {

private ArticleDBAO articleDB;
public void init() throws ServletException {
articleDB = (ArticleDBAO)getServletContext().
getAttribute("articleDB");
if (articleDB == null) throw new
UnavailableException("Database not loaded");
}
}

When a servlet container determines that a servlet should be removed from service
(for example, when a container wants to reclaim memory resources or when it is
being shut down), the container calls the destroy method of the Servlet interface.
The following destroy method releases the database object created in the init
method.

public void destroy() {

bookDB = null;
}

8. How is retrieving information different in Servlets as

compared to CGI?
Servlets have a variety of ways to realize access to information. For the bulk of it,
every method returns a specific result. Compared with CGI programs its information
by making use of passed environment variables, One can see multiple advantages by
using the servlet approach.

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 Servlet Interview Questions

Stronger type checking:

Stronger type checking means that there is more support in the compiler for
finding errors in syntax and types. A CGI program utilizes one function to get its
environment variables, and several errors are not caught at compile-time and
they get only know at runtime cannot be caught until some runtime issue got
caused.
Delayed calculation:
The value for every environment variable has to be precalculated and passed
when a server starts a CGI program, even if the program uses it or not. In
contrast, servlets launched by servers can enhance the performance on the fly
by delaying calculation and do calculations when that piece of code is actually
used.
Interactives with the server:
A CGI program is free from its server, once the execution begins. Then, the single
communication path that the program uses is its standard output. However, a
servlet can work with the server. A servlet works in 2 ways: either in the server or
as a connected sidecar process outside the server.

9. Compare CGI Environment Variables and the Corresponding

Servlet Methods.

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 Servlet Interview Questions

CGI Environment Variable HTTP Servlet Method

SERVER_NAME req.getServerName()

SERVER_SOFTWARE getServletContext().getServerInfo()

SERVER_PROTOCOL req.getProtocol()

SERVER_PORT req.getServerPort()

REQUEST_METHOD req.getMethod()

PATH_INFO req.getPathInfo()

PATH_TRANSLATED req.getPathTranslated()

SCRIPT_NAME req.getServletPath()

DOCUMENT_ROOT req.getRealPath("/")

QUERY_STRING req.getQueryString()

REMOTE_HOST req.getRemoteHost()

REMOTE_ADDR req.getRemoteAddr()

AUTH_TYPE req.getAuthType()

REMOTE_USER req.getRemoteUser()

CONTENT_TYPE req.getContentType()

CONTENT_LENGTH req.getContentLength()

HTTP_ACCEPT req.getHeader("Accept")

HTTP_USER_AGENT req.getHeader("User-Agent")
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 Servlet Interview Questions

10. How does a servlet get access to its init parameters?

The getInitParameter() method is used by the servlet in order to get access to its init
parameters:

public String ServletConfig.getInitParameter(String name)

The above method returns the value of the named init parameter or if the named init
parameter does not exist it will return null. The value returned is always a single
string. The servlet then interprets the value.

11. How does a servlet examine all its init parameters?

We can make use of getInitParameterNames() function to examine all its init
parameters.

public Enumeration ServletConfig.getInitParameterNames()

This returns the names of the servlet's initialization parameters as an Enumeration of

String objects, or an empty Enumeration if the servlet has no initialization
parameters. This is o en used for debugging.

Servlet Interview Questions for Experienced

12. What do you mean by Servlet chaining?
Servlet Chaining is a way where the output of one servlet is piped to the input of
another servlet, and the output of that servlet can be piped to the input of yet
another servlet and so on. Each servlet in the pipeline can either change or extend
the incoming request. The response is returned to the browser from the last servlet
within the servlet chain. In the middle, the output out of each servlet is passed as the
input to the next servlet, so every servlet within the chain has an option to either
change or extend the content. The figure below represents this. Servlets can help in
creating content via servlet chaining.

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 Servlet Interview Questions

13. What do you mean by ‘filtering’ in servlets?

There are usually 2 ways during which one will trigger a series of servlets for an
associate incoming request. In the first manner, it is such that the server that bound
URLs ought to be handled with the associated specified chain. the other manner is
that one will inform the server to redirect all the output of a selected content
through a selected servlet before it's returned to the client. This effectively creates a
series on the fly. once a servlet transforms one sort of content into another, this
method is named filtering.

14. What are the uses of Servlet chaining?

Given below are some of the use cases of Servlet chaining:
Change how a group of pages, a single page, or a type of content appears
quickly
One can talk to those who don’t understand a particular language by dynamically
translating the text from the pages to the language that can be read by the client.
One can keep away certain words that one doesn’t want others to read.
Display in special formats a kernel of content

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 Servlet Interview Questions

For instance, one can add custom tags within a page, and then a servlet can replace
these with HTML content.
Support for the esoteric data types
For instance, one can provide a filter that converts nonstandard image types to GIF or
JPEG for the unsupported image types.

15. What are the advantages of Servlet chains?

Servlet chains have the following advantages:
Servlet chains can be undone easily. This helps in quickly reversing the change.
Servlet chains dynamically handle content that is created. Because of this, one
can trust that all our restrictions are maintained, that the special tags are
replaced, and even in the output of a servlet, all the dynamically converted
PostScript images are properly displayed.
Servlet chains cache the content for later, so it does not execute the script every
time got added.

16. Explain the Servlet Life Cycle.

One of the most striking features of servlets is the Servlet Life Cycle. This is a powerful
mixture of the life cycles used in CGI programming and lower-level NSAPI and ISAPI
programming.
The CGI has certain resource and performance problems. In low-level server API
programming, there are some security concerns as well. These are addressed by the
servlet engines by the servlet life cycle. A servlet engine might execute all of its
servlets in a single Java virtual machine (JVM). Servlets can efficiently share data with
each other as they share the same JVM. Still, they are prevented from accessing each
other’s private data by the Java language. Additionally, servlets can be permitted to
remain between requests as object instances. Thus they take up lesser memory than
the complete processes.

17. What is the life cycle contract that a servlet engine must
conform to?
The life cycle contract that a servlet engine must conform to is as follows:

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 Servlet Interview Questions

Create the servlet and initialize it.

Manage none or more calls for service from clients.
Destroy the servlet and then the garbage collects it.

18. What do you mean by Servlet Reloading?

Servlet reloading may appear to be a simple feature, but it’s actually quite a trick—
and requires quite a hack. The objects in ClassLoader are developed to load a class
just once. To solve this limitation and to load servlets multiple times, servers use
custom class loaders. These custom class loaders load servlets from the default
servlets directory.
When a server dispatches a request to a servlet, it first checks if the servlet’s class file
has changed on disk. If the change appears, then the server abandons the class that
the loader used to load the old version and then creates a new instance of the
custom class loader to load the new version. Old servlet versions can stay in memory
indefinitely, but the old versions are not used to handle any more requests.

19. What are the methods that a servlet can use to get
information about the server?
A servlet can be used to learn about its server using 4 different methods. Out of these,
two methods are called using the ServletRequest object. These are passed to the
servlet. The other two are called from the ServletContext object. In these, the servlet
is executing.

20. How can a servlet get the name of the server and the port
number for a particular request?
A servlet can get the name of the server and the port number for a particular request
with getServerName() and getServerPort() , respectively:

public String ServletRequest.getServerName()

public int ServletRequest.getServerPort()

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 Servlet Interview Questions

These methods are attributes of ServletRequest because the values can change for
different requests if the server has more than one name (a technique called virtual
hosting).
The getServerInfo() and getAttribute() methods of ServletContext supply
information about the server so ware and its attributes:

public String ServletContext.getServerInfo()

public Object ServletContext.getAttribute(String name)

21. How can a servlet get information about the client

machine?
A servlet can use getRemoteAddr() and getRemoteHost() to retrieve the IP address
and hostname of the client machine, respectively:

public String ServletRequest.getRemoteAddr()

public String ServletRequest.getRemoteHost()

Both values are returned as String objects.

22. Explain the Single-Thread Model in servlets.

It is standard to have a single servlet instance for each registered name of the servlet.
However, instead of this, it is also possible for a servlet to choose to have a pool of
instances created for each of its names that all share the task of handling requests.
These servlets indicate this action by implementing the
javax.servlet.SingleThreadModel interface.

According to the Servlet API documentation, a server loading the SingleThreadModel

servlet should guarantee, “that no two threads will execute concurrently the service
method of that servlet.” Each thread uses a free servlet instance from the pool in
order to achieve this. Therefore, any servlet using the SingleThreadModel isn’t
needed to synchronize usage to its instance variables and is considered thread-safe.

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 Servlet Interview Questions

23. How does Background Processing take place in servlets?

Servlets can do more than just persist between the accesses. They can also execute
between accesses. A thread that has been started by a servlet can continue to
execute even a er the response has been sent. This ability proves most useful for the
tasks that are long-running, and whose incremental results should be made available
to multiple clients. A background thread that has been started in init() performs
continuous work. It also performs request-handling threads displaying the current
status with doGet().

24. How does Servlet collaboration take place?

Servlets running together in the same server have many ways to communicate with
one another. There are two main styles of servlet collaboration:
Sharing information: Sharing information involves two or more servlets
sharing the state or even resources. A special case of sharing information is
Session tracking.
Sharing control: Sharing control involves two or more servlets sharing control
of the request. For example, one servlet could receive the request but let
another servlet handle some or all of the request-handling responsibilities.

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 Servlet Interview Questions

25. Explain Request parameters associated with servlets.

There can be any variety of request parameters related to the servlet with every
access to it. These parameters are usually [name-value] pairs that give the servlet any
further information that it desires so as to handle the request.
An HTTP servlet gets its request parameters as a part of its query string or as encoded
post data. A servlet used as a server-side includes its parameters equipped with
PARAM tags.
Fortunately, although a servlet will receive parameters in an exceeding variety of
various ways, every servlet retrieves its parameters the same way, by using
getParameter() and getParameterValues() :

public String ServletRequest.getParameter(String name)

public String[] ServletRequest.getParameterValues(String name)

26. What are the three methods of inter-servlet

communication?
The three methods of inter servlet communication are:
Servlet manipulation: In Servlet manipulation, one servlet directly invokes the
methods of another. These servlets can get references to other servlets using
getServletNames() and getServlet(String name).
Servlet reuse: In Servlet reuse, one servlet uses another’s abilities for its own
purposes. In some cases, this requires forcing a servlet load using a manual
HTTP request.
Servlet collaboration: In Servlet collaboration, the cooperating servlets share
information. Servlets can share information using the system properties list,
using a shared object, or using inheritance.

27. What are the reasons we use inter-servlet communication?

There are three major reasons to use the inter servlet communication:

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 Servlet Interview Questions

Direct servlet manipulation

Servlet reuse
Servlet collaboration

28. What do you mean by Servlet Manipulation?

When one servlet accesses the loaded servlets on its server, it is called Servlet
Manipulation. It also optionally performs some task on one or more of them. A
servlet gets information about other servlets through the ServletContext object. We
use getServlet() to get a particular servlet:

public Servlet ServletContext.getServlet(String name) throws ServletException

29. What is the javax.servlet package?

The core of the Servlet API is the javax.servlet package. It includes the basic Servlet
interface, which all servlets must implement in one form or another, and an abstract
GenericServlet class for developing basic servlets.
This package comprises of the following:
Classes for communicating with the host server and client (ServletRequest and
ServletResponse)
Communicating with the client (ServletInputStream and ServletOutputStream).
In situations where the underlying protocol is unknown, servlets should confine
themselves to the classes within this package.

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 Servlet Interview Questions

Conclusion:

Unlike CGI and FastCGI, which use many processes to handle separate programs and
separate requests, servlets are all handled by separate threads within the webserver
process. Thus, the servlets are efficient and scalable. As servlets run within the web
server, they can interact very closely with the server to do things that are not possible
with CGI scripts.
An advantage of servlets is that they are portable: both across operating systems like
with Java and also across web servers.
All of the major web servers support servlets.
References and Resources:
Java Servlet Programming, by Jason Hunter, Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Java Servlet & JSP Cookbook, by Bruce W. Perry
Java Interview
JSP Interview

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