Spring / Spring7 basics Interview questions
What is the purpose of ResponseEntity?
ResponseEntity<T> represents a complete HTTP response - status code, headers, and body - giving a controller method full control over what's sent back, rather than just returning a body and letting Spring pick a default 200 OK status.
@GetMapping("/{id}") public ResponseEntity<Product> getProduct(@PathVariable Long id) { Product product = productService.findById(id); if (product == null) { return ResponseEntity.notFound().build(); } return ResponseEntity.ok(product); }
This is especially useful for returning 404 Not Found, 201 Created with a Location header after a POST, or custom headers like caching directives. Returning a plain Product object instead always yields 200 OK, so ResponseEntity is the standard tool whenever the status code itself needs to vary.
What three things does ResponseEntity let a controller fully control?
If a method returns a plain Product object instead of ResponseEntity, what status code is always used?
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