Sunday, June 22, 2008

How to succeed in Java / J2EE interviews?

Why does one need 'Interview Skills' ?
Many a times, even an academically successful person could not easily turn into an IT professional. This is because, many are afraid of taking up an interview or they are not confident. So, one always needs to know that succeeding an interview is an art. Clearing the interview is a very easy task, but it is a process oriented one and anyone looking for a job should dedicate some time towards the preparation for an interview.

What happens in a normal interview?
Normally, the interview starts with the basic questions like 'Can you say about yourself',
'Why do you want a job in our company' and 'Say a few words about your family', etc. The first thing that happens in any interview is that the interviewer wants to know about you by you.

What do I prepare for an interview other than technical subject?
It always takes an hour or two to write down in a piece of paper about you, your skills, family background, academic background, etc. Though you know all these things already, it is always better to practice a little bit (like singing in a bathroom!) and say it to yourself loud about you and your good qualities. This definitely brings some confidence in you.


The Concept of any Java based interview:
The interview does not happen so randomly. It is a systemmatic process. At first, the interviewer just tests if you know the basics, for example the question is more likely as 'what is the difference between Vector and ArrayList', 'How do you handle a session' , etc. In this stage, you need to be very clear and short in your answer.

If you keep answering the questions, he/she gradually increases the depth of the questions and expect you to answer more technically/professionally than just mentioning answers. For example, the questions are more likely to test the concept behind it and not to test the answer. For example, the questions are more likely to be 'how can you implement a filter', 'why do we need to use hidden form fields', etc. In this stage, you need to come out of your shell, and narrate clearly the concepts the interviewer expects from you.

No interviewer would allow you to answer all the questions and appreciate you straightaway. So, in the next stage, the interviewer would try to trap you with questions such that you cannot answer. This is the phase wherein you prove yourself and not to try to fool the interviewer. You should never forget to be very friendly and kind to the interviewer while answering (from the heart).

I have tried to demonstrate some of the questions as given below for the professionals with various levels of experience.

Interview Questions (Samples) for "Java Developers" in Java/J2EE:

1. Which is the parser that is used in Struts to parse the struts-config.xml file?

2. Are struts action classes thread-safe?

3. Explain the life-cycle of Struts?

4. What is the difference between ArrayList & Vector?

5. Assume String x=”Chennai”, y=”Chennai”. Do x and y refer the same? Why?

6. How would you submit the struts's action automatically from the JSP page?

7. What is the difference between sendRedirect() and forward()?

Interview Questions (samples) for "Technical Leads" in Java/J2EE

1. What are the possible layers in Java? How would you decide number of layers?

2. How would you decide the number of developers required for the project?

3. What are the design issues that could occur in a J2EE application? How to solve them?

4. How would you design an exception handling techniques? What are the factors to consider?

5. What are the techniques behind displaying error or information to the user through JSP page?

6. What are custom tags? How would you create them?

Tips for being successful in interviews:

1. At first, be trained to talk about yourself and never let yourself down before the interviewer. Because, everybody wants to recruit people who are self-confident.

2. Collect your experiences in your projects and if possible, have info-base for yourself that clearly narrates the problems and solutions that you can refer later.

3. Collect the technical aspects of the projects in general, so that you can explain to the interviewer spontaneously rather than thinking at the wrong time.

4. As you grow, focus on design techniques of the projects rather than technicalities.

5. Explain with situations, examples, scenarios rather than giving the answer monotonously.

I would try to update this blog everyday with various interesting facts, scenarios and interview questions. Keep visiting this page regularly.....
Thanks and I wish all the readers all the best in the interviews.
Cheers.

7 comments:

sankar said...

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Raja said...

please post the answers plzz

Rayapudi said...

thank you swathika madam,
we will be very thankful to u if you can also post answers to the interview questions.(It will help us a lot to get a job)

thanking you in anticipation

Murali Krishna

mukesh said...

thanks mam
will be thankful if u can send the answers to these question also.

Ashu said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ashu said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Deepugadu said...

thanks,but post answers plssssssssss