What is the purpose of the @Bean annotation?

@Bean is applied to a method inside a @Configuration (or @Component) class to tell Spring that the method's return value should be registered and managed as a bean. It's typically used when you need to wire a third-party class you don't own, or when bean creation needs custom logic that a simple @Component can't express.

@Bean
public ObjectMapper objectMapper() {
    ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
    mapper.registerModule(new JavaTimeModule());
    return mapper;
}

By default, the bean's name matches the method name (objectMapper here), though it can be overridden with @Bean(name = "..."). Unlike @Component, @Bean doesn't rely on classpath scanning - it's an explicit, imperative registration.

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