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Thursday, December 18, 2025

Spring Boot - Bean LifeCycle

 Here is a clear, step-by-step lifecycle of a Spring Boot application, explained in a simple + interview-ready way.


๐Ÿ”„ Spring Boot Application Lifecycle

1️⃣ Application Start (Bootstrap Phase)

public static void main(String[] args) {
    SpringApplication.run(MyApp.class, args);
}

What happens internally:

  1. SpringApplication object created

  2. Application type detected

    • Servlet (Tomcat)

    • Reactive (Netty)

  3. Environment prepared

    • application.properties / yml

    • Profiles (dev, test, prod)

  4. Banner printed

  5. ApplicationContext created


2️⃣ ApplicationContext Initialization

Spring creates the IoC container.

Key steps:

  • Classpath scanning

  • Load @Configuration classes

  • Process @EnableAutoConfiguration

  • Apply @ComponentScan

๐Ÿ“Œ Beans are defined, not created yet.


3️⃣ Bean Creation Phase (Core Lifecycle)

For each bean, Spring follows this order:

1. Instantiate Bean
2. Populate Properties (@Autowired)
3. Aware Interfaces
4. BeanPostProcessor (Before Init)
5. @PostConstruct / init-method
6. BeanPostProcessor (After Init)

Detailed Order:

๐Ÿ”น 1. Bean Instantiation

  • Object is created using constructor

๐Ÿ”น 2. Dependency Injection

  • @Autowired

  • @Value

๐Ÿ”น 3. Aware Interfaces (Optional)

BeanNameAware
ApplicationContextAware
EnvironmentAware

๐Ÿ”น 4. BeanPostProcessor (Before Init)

postProcessBeforeInitialization()

๐Ÿ”น 5. Initialization

  • @PostConstruct

  • InitializingBean.afterPropertiesSet()

  • init-method

๐Ÿ”น 6. BeanPostProcessor (After Init)

postProcessAfterInitialization()

๐Ÿ“Œ Bean is now ready to use


4️⃣ Embedded Server Startup

  • Embedded Tomcat / Jetty / Netty starts

  • DispatcherServlet initialized

  • Application is ready to serve requests

Log example:

Started MyApp in 4.5 seconds

5️⃣ Application Ready Events

Spring fires lifecycle events:

EventPurpose
ApplicationStartingEventApp starting
ApplicationEnvironmentPreparedEventEnv ready
ApplicationContextInitializedEventContext created
ApplicationPreparedEventBeans loaded
ApplicationReadyEventApp ready

Example:

@EventListener(ApplicationReadyEvent.class)
public void onReady() {
    System.out.println("App is ready");
}

6️⃣ Request Processing Lifecycle (Runtime)

Client Request
   ↓
Filter
   ↓
Interceptor (preHandle)
   ↓
Controller
   ↓
Service
   ↓
Repository
   ↓
Response

7️⃣ Graceful Shutdown (End of Lifecycle)

Triggered by:

  • Ctrl+C

  • SIGTERM

  • Kubernetes pod termination

Steps:

  1. ContextClosedEvent

  2. @PreDestroy

  3. DisposableBean.destroy()

  4. destroy-method

  5. Embedded server stops

Example:

@PreDestroy
public void cleanup() {
    System.out.println("App shutting down");
}

๐Ÿง  Complete Lifecycle Diagram (Text)

main()
 ↓
SpringApplication.run()
 ↓
Prepare Environment
 ↓
Create ApplicationContext
 ↓
Bean Definition Load
 ↓
Bean Creation & Initialization
 ↓
Embedded Server Start
 ↓
ApplicationReadyEvent
 ↓
Application Running
 ↓
Shutdown Trigger
 ↓
Bean Destruction
 ↓
Context Closed

๐ŸŽฏ Interview One-Liner Answer

“Spring Boot lifecycle starts with SpringApplication.run, prepares the environment, initializes the ApplicationContext, creates and initializes beans, starts the embedded server, handles requests, and finally performs graceful shutdown by destroying beans.”


⚠️ Common Interview Follow-Ups

Q. Difference between @PostConstruct and @Bean init-method?
๐Ÿ‘‰ @PostConstruct is JSR-250, init-method is Spring-specific.

Q. When are BeanPostProcessors executed?
๐Ÿ‘‰ Before and after bean initialization.

Q. When does embedded Tomcat start?
๐Ÿ‘‰ After ApplicationContext is refreshed.


If you want:

  • ๐Ÿ“Œ Lifecycle diagram image

  • ๐Ÿ“Œ Lifecycle vs Spring Framework comparison

  • ๐Ÿ“Œ Real production troubleshooting examples

  • ๐Ÿ“Œ Bean lifecycle coding question

Just tell me ๐Ÿ‘

Microservices - Event Driven Architecture (EDA)

 Here is a clear, practical, and interview-ready explanation of Microservices with Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) ๐Ÿ‘‡


๐ŸŒ Microservices – Event-Driven Architecture (EDA)

๐Ÿ”น What is Event-Driven Architecture?

In EDA, microservices communicate by publishing and consuming events instead of calling each other directly.

๐Ÿ‘‰ An event = “Something important happened”

Example:
OrderPlaced, PaymentCompleted, InventoryReserved


๐Ÿค” Why EDA with Microservices?

Problems with REST-only microservices ❌

  • Tight coupling

  • Service dependencies

  • Cascade failures

  • Poor scalability

EDA Benefits ✅

  • Loose coupling

  • High scalability

  • Better fault tolerance

  • Async communication

  • Easy extensibility


๐Ÿงฉ Core Components of EDA

1️⃣ Event Producer

  • Service that publishes an event

Order Service → OrderPlacedEvent

2️⃣ Event Broker

Message system:

  • Kafka

  • RabbitMQ

  • AWS SNS/SQS

  • Azure Event Hub

Acts as:

  • Buffer

  • Router

  • Durable storage


3️⃣ Event Consumer

  • Services that react to events

Inventory Service
Payment Service
Notification Service

๐Ÿ”„ Event Flow (Example)

Order Service
   |
   | OrderPlacedEvent
   v
Kafka Topic
   |
   |------------------|
Inventory Service   Payment Service

๐Ÿ›’ Real-World Example: E-Commerce

Scenario: Place Order

  1. User places order

  2. Order Service saves order

  3. Publishes OrderPlacedEvent

  4. Inventory Service reserves stock

  5. Payment Service charges payment

  6. Notification Service sends email

๐Ÿ‘‰ No service calls another directly


๐Ÿง  Event Types

๐Ÿ”น Domain Events (Most Common ⭐)

  • Represent business facts

  • Immutable

Example:

{
  "eventType": "OrderPlaced",
  "orderId": "123",
  "amount": 5000
}

๐Ÿ”น Integration Events

  • For cross-service communication


⚠️ Key Design Challenges (Very Important)

1️⃣ Eventual Consistency

  • No immediate consistency

  • Data sync happens over time

๐Ÿ‘‰ Use Saga Pattern


2️⃣ Idempotency

  • Same event processed multiple times

  • Consumer must handle duplicates


3️⃣ Message Ordering

  • Important for financial flows

  • Use partitioning (Kafka)


4️⃣ Schema Evolution

  • Backward compatible changes

  • Use schema registry (Avro / Protobuf)


๐Ÿ” Saga Pattern (Brief)

๐Ÿ”น Choreography-based Saga (Common ⭐)

  • Services react to events

  • No central controller

OrderPlaced → Payment → Inventory → OrderConfirmed

๐Ÿ”น Orchestration-based Saga

  • Central Saga manager controls flow


๐Ÿงช Failure Handling

  • Dead Letter Queue (DLQ)

  • Retry mechanism

  • Circuit breaker (for sync parts)


๐Ÿ” Best Practices ⭐

  • One event = one business fact

  • Don’t share databases

  • Use async wherever possible

  • Keep events immutable

  • Version events carefully


๐ŸŽฏ Interview One-Liners

Q: Why Event-Driven Microservices?
๐Ÿ‘‰ To achieve loose coupling, scalability, and fault tolerance.

Q: Difference between REST and EDA?
๐Ÿ‘‰ REST is synchronous; EDA is asynchronous and decoupled.

Q: What is eventual consistency?
๐Ÿ‘‰ Data becomes consistent over time via events.

Q: Kafka vs RabbitMQ?
๐Ÿ‘‰ Kafka = high-throughput event streaming
RabbitMQ = message-oriented queue


๐Ÿ› ️ Tech Stack Example

  • Spring Boot

  • Kafka

  • Schema Registry

  • Docker

  • Kubernetes

  • OpenTelemetry


If you want, I can:

  • Draw EDA architecture diagram

  • Show Spring Boot + Kafka example

  • Explain Saga with code

  • Share real interview Q&A PDF

Just tell me ๐Ÿ‘

Spring Boot - Bean LifeCycle

 Here is a clear, step-by-step lifecycle of a Spring Boot application , explained in a simple + interview-ready way. ๐Ÿ”„ Spring Boot Applica...

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