Interview Questions and Answers for 'Overstock.com' | Search Interview Question

Interview Questions and Answers for 'Overstock.com' - 33 question(s) found - Order By Rating

Q1. Write a Program to print all nodes of the data structure ?

^{This question was recently asked at 'Overstock.com'.This question is still unanswered. Can you please provide an answer.}

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Q2. Have you ever worked on continuations in Java ?

Core Java

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Q3. What is the programming advantage of Immutability ?

Design

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Q4. How do you keep yourself aupdated with the changes in technologies ?

General

^{This question was recently asked at 'Sofi,Overstock.com,General Electric (GE)'.This question is still unanswered. Can you please provide an answer.}

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Frequently asked Spring interview question.

Q5. What are the components of Spring framework ?

Spring

Ans. Core: [Core, Bean, Context, Expression Language]

Web: [Web, Portlet, Servlet, etc]

Data Access [JMS, JDBC, etc]

AOP, Aspect

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Q6. Scale yourself on Java on the scale of 1 to 10

General

Ans. [Open Ended Answer]

The objective of the question is to check how efficient one is in the language so that appropriate level questions are asked. Don't tell too high number if you are being interviewed for a junior or mid level position as the interviewer may throw advance level questions.

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Q7. What technical stuff you like to do in your free time ?

General

Ans. [Open Ended Answer]

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Q8. Have you ever had any conflict with the team member (like disagreement on some design decision ) and How you reacted to it ?

General

Ans. [Open Ended Answer]

This is a very sensitive question and should be dealt with caution. Just simply saying that you never had any disagreement will present you as dumb team member. Showing your self as too aggressive in such decisions will present you as a trouble maker. You should present a situation where you had an argument / disagreement but eventually you and your team mates mutually found a way out of it.

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_{Like Discuss Correct / Improve Asked in 20 Companies basic}

Q9. How is String class unique ?

Core Java

Ans. String class is immutable as well as final. Because of these properties , String objects offer many benefits

1. String Pool - When a string is created and if it exists in the pool, the reference of the existing string will be returned instead of creating a new object. If string is not immutable, changing the string with one reference will lead to the wrong value for the other references.

Example -

String str1 = "String1";
String str2 = "String1"; // It doesnt create a new String and rather reuses the string literal from pool

// Now both str1 and str2 pointing to same string object in pool, changing str1 will change it for str2 too

2. To Cache its Hashcode - If string is not immutable, One can change its hashcode and hence its not fit to be cached.

3. Security - String is widely used as parameter for many java classes, e.g. network connection, opening files, etc. Making it mutable might possess threats due to interception by the other code segment.

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Q10. Write an Algorithm for Graph Traversal ? The Graph has a loop.

Algorithm

Ans. Please not that all such questions can be easily answered through recursion.

Simple recursive implementation could be

traverse(root);

void traverse(Element element){
if(element.hasNext()){
traverse(element.next());
} else {
System.out.println(element);
}
}

but this algo / code lead to endless loop if there is a loop in graph traversal.

So you can keep a collection to keep track of which elements have laready been traversed

static List<Elements> listOfAlreadyTraversedElements = new ArrayList<Elements>();

main(){
traverse(root);
}

void traverse(Element element){
if(element.hasNext()){
traverse(element.next());
} else {
listOfAlreadyTraversedElements.add(element);
System.out.println(element);
}
}

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_{Like Discuss Correct / Improve graph traversal algorithm graph traversal algorithm using recursion Asked in 1 Companies intermediate}

Frequently asked question in companies using Rest Web services.

Q11. Different between POST and PUT in Rest

Rest

Ans. PUT requests are only meant to place the object as it is on server. For example - You want a file to be uploaded and then placed in a particular folder or you want an Employee object to be persisted in the table.

POST requests are also meant to transfer information from client to server but that information once received at the server is evaluated , modified or refactored before persisting.

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_{Like Discuss Correct / Improve Put vs Post Rest Asked in 5 Companies frequent}

Very frequently asked. Among first few questions in almost all interviews. Among Top 5 frequently asked questions. Frequently asked in Indian service companies (HCL,TCS,Infosys,Capgemini etc based on multiple feedback ) and Epam Systems

Q12. Difference between == and .equals() ?

Core Java

Ans. "equals" is the method of object class which is supposed to be overridden to check object equality, whereas "==" operator evaluate to see if the object handlers on the left and right are pointing to the same object in memory.

x.equals(y) means the references x and y are holding objects that are equal. x==y means that the references x and y have same object.

Sample code:

String x = new String("str");
String y = new String("str");

System.out.println(x == y); // prints false
System.out.println(x.equals(y)); // prints true

Sample Code for equals

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Frequently asked at HCL Technologies ( Based on 3 feedback )

Q13. Difference between Checked and Unchecked exceptions ?

Core Java

Ans. Checked exceptions are the exceptions for which compiler throws an errors if they are not checked whereas unchecked exceptions are caught during run time only and hence can't be checked.

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Advanced level question. Frequently asked in High end product companies. Frequently asked in Google , Cognizant and Deloitte ( Based on 2 feedback )

Q14. Why is String immutable in Java ?

Core Java

Ans. 1. String Pool - When a string is created and if it exists in the pool, the reference of the existing string will be returned instead of creating a new object. If string is not immutable, changing the string with one reference will lead to the wrong value for the other references.

Example -

String str1 = "String1";
String str2 = "String1"; // It doesn't create a new String and rather reuses the string literal from pool

// Now both str1 and str2 pointing to same string object in pool, changing str1 will change it for str2 too

2. To Cache its Hashcode - If string is not immutable, One can change its hashcode and hence it's not fit to be cached.

3. Security - String is widely used as parameter for many java classes, e.g. network connection, opening files, etc. Making it mutable might possess threats due to interception by the other code segment.

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Very Frequently asked. Usually asked along with String Class related questions.

Q15. What is an immutable class ?

Core Java

Ans. Class using which only immutable (objects that cannot be changed after initialization) objects can be created.

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Frequently asked to fresh graduates and less experienced.

Q16. Difference between Composition and Inheritance ?

Core Java

Ans. Inheritance means a object inheriting reusable properties of the base class. Compositions means that an abject holds other objects.

In Inheritance there is only one object in memory ( derived object ) whereas in Composition , parent object holds references of all composed objects.

From Design perspective - Inheritance is "is a" relationship among objects whereas Composition is "has a" relationship among objects.

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Very frequently asked in companies using SOA.

Q17. What are RESTful Web Services ?

Rest

Ans. REST or Representational State Transfer is a flexible architecture style for creating web services that recommends the following guidelines -

1. http for client server communication,
2. XML / JSON as formatiing language ,
3. Simple URI as address for the services and,
4. stateless communication.

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_{Like Discuss Correct / Improve java web services rest java j2ee architecture Asked in 14 Companies intermediate frequent}

Very Frequently asked. Favorite question in walkins and telephonic interviews. Usually among first few questions. Asked in different variants. Must know for intermediate and expert professionals.Among Top 10 frequently asked questions.

Q18. What is rule regarding overriding equals and hashCode method ?

Core Java

Ans. A Class must override the hashCode method if its overriding the equals method.

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Very frequently asked Hibernate interview question. Frequently asked in TCS ( based on 2 feedback )

Q19. What are different types of associations in Hibernate ?

Hibernate

Ans. There are 4 types of associations in Hibernate

One to One
One to Many
Many to One
Many to Many

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Q20. What are the contents of Hibernate configuration file ( hibernate.cfg.xml ) ?

Hibernate

Ans. HBM Files ( Mapping )
DB Connection ( DB Connection String , User Name , Password , Pool Size )
SQL Dialect ( SQL variant to be generated )
Show SQL ( Show / No show SQL on Console )
Auto Commit ( True / False )

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Very frequently asked if being interviewed for hibernate. Frequently asked in Tata Consultancy (TCS) and Overstock.com

Q21. Difference between load and get ?

Hibernate

Ans. If id doesnt exist in the DB load throws an exception whereas get returns null in that case.get makes the call to DB immediately whereas load makes the call to proxy.

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Q22. Is It Good to use Reflection in an application ? Why ?

Core Java

Ans. no, It's like challenging the design of application.

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Very frequently asked. Favorite question in Walk in Drive of many Indian service companies.

Q23. What is the difference between ArrayList and LinkedList ?

Core Java

Ans. Underlying data structure for ArrayList is Array whereas LinkedList is the linked list and hence have following differences -

1. ArrayList needs continuous memory locations and hence need to be moved to a bigger space if new elements are to be added to a filled array which is not required for LinkedList.

2. Removal and Insertion at specific place in ArrayList requires moving all elements and hence leads to O(n) insertions and removal whereas its constant O(1) for LinkedList.

3. Random access using index in ArrayList is faster than LinkedList which requires traversing the complete list through references.

4. Though Linear Search takes Similar Time for both, Binary Search using LinkedList requires creating new Model called Binary Search Tree which is slower but offers constant time insertion and deletion.

5. For a set of integers you want to sort using quicksort, it's probably faster to use an array; for a set of large structures you want to sort using selection sort, a linked list will be faster.

Sample Code for ArrayList

Sample Code for LinkedList

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Frequently asked question in companies using Hibernate.

Q24. What is Lazy Initialization in Hibernate ?

Hibernate

Ans. It's a feature to lazily initialize dependencies , relationship and associations from the Database. Any related references marked as @OneToMany or @ManyToMany are loaded lazily i.e when they are accessed and not when the parent is loaded.

Sample Code for Lazy Initialization

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Q25. What are the ways to avoid LazyInitializationException ?

Hibernate

Ans. 1. Set lazy=false in the hibernate config file.

2. Set @Basic(fetch=FetchType.EAGER) at the mapping.

3. Make sure that we are accessing the dependent objects before closing the session.

4. Force initialization using Hibernate.initialize

5. Using Fetch Join in HQL.

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Frequently asked these days as there are major changes in Java 8.

Q26. What are new features introduced with Java 8 ?

Core Java

Ans. Lambda Expressions , Interface Default and Static Methods , Method Reference , Parameters Name , Optional , Streams, Concurrency.

Sample Code for Lambda

Sample Code for interface default

Sample Code for Optional

Sample Code for Streams

Sample Code for java.time

Sample Code for Predicate

Sample Code for Consumer

Sample Code for MapMerge

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Q27. What things you would care about to improve the performance of Application if its identified that its DB communication that needs to be improved ?

Solution

Ans. 1. Query Optimization ( Query Rewriting , Prepared Statements )

2. Restructuring Indexes.

3. DB Caching Tuning ( if using ORM )

4. Identifying the problems ( if any ) with the ORM Strategy ( If using ORM )

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Q28. What is Criteria in Hibernate ?

Hibernate

Ans. Criteria is a simplified API for retrieving entities by composing Criterion objects.

For example - session.createCriteria(Employee.class).add( Restrictions.like("name", "A%") ).list();

will return all employee objects having name starting with A.

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Q29. Which Software Development methodology is being used in your current Job ?

General

Ans. We are using Agile methodology. I attend daily stand up where the development leads takes the status of assigned stories, achievements, any bottlenecks or challenges. We follow iteration of 2 weeks.

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Very Frequently asked. Have been asked in HCL Technologies very frequently ( based on 3 feedback ). Among first few questions in many interviews.

Q30. Differences between abstract class and interface ?

Core Java

Ans. Abstract classes can have both abstract methods ( method declarations ) as well as concrete methods ( inherited to the derived classes ) whereas Interfaces can only have abstract methods ( method declarations ).

A class can extend single abstract class whereas it can implement multiple interfaces.

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