Struts Interview Questions and Answers for internship

1. What is Struts?

   • Answer: Struts is a free, open-source framework for creating Java web applications. It follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern, making it easier to develop, maintain, and test applications. It simplifies development by providing reusable components and a structured approach.

2. What are the advantages of using Struts?

   • Answer: Advantages include simplified development due to MVC architecture, improved code organization and reusability, better maintainability, built-in features for security and exception handling, and a large community providing support and resources.

3. Explain the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture in Struts.

   • Answer: In Struts, the Model represents the business logic and data, the View is responsible for presenting data to the user (typically JSPs), and the Controller (Struts' ActionServlet and Actions) manages user requests, interacts with the Model, and selects the appropriate View.

4. What is the role of ActionServlet in Struts?

   • Answer: ActionServlet is the core controller in Struts. It intercepts all incoming requests, determines which Action to invoke based on the configuration in struts-config.xml, and manages the flow of control within the application.

5. What is an Action class in Struts?

   • Answer: An Action class is a Java class that handles user requests. It typically contains methods to process the request, interact with the Model, and return a result that determines which view to display.

6. Explain the role of struts-config.xml.

   • Answer: struts-config.xml is the configuration file for Struts. It maps user requests to Action classes, defines form beans, and specifies the mappings between Actions and Views.

7. What are ActionForms in Struts?

   • Answer: ActionForms are JavaBeans that encapsulate data submitted by HTML forms. They provide a convenient way to access and validate user input.

8. How do you validate data in Struts?

   • Answer: Data validation can be performed using ActionForm's validate() method or through custom validation frameworks integrated with Struts.

9. Explain the use of Tiles in Struts.

   • Answer: Tiles is a templating framework used with Struts to create reusable UI components (like headers, footers, and sidebars). This improves consistency and simplifies page design.

10. What are Interceptors in Struts?

    • Answer: Interceptors are components that are executed before and/or after an Action is invoked. They allow for adding cross-cutting concerns like logging, security checks, and exception handling without modifying the Action classes.

11. How do you handle exceptions in Struts?

    • Answer: Exceptions can be handled using exception handlers defined in struts-config.xml or through custom exception handling mechanisms integrated with Struts.

12. What are the different scopes in Struts?

    • Answer: Struts uses various scopes like application scope (ServletContext), session scope (HttpSession), request scope (HttpServletRequest), and page scope. These determine the lifetime of objects and data.

13. Explain the difference between Struts 1 and Struts 2.

    • Answer: Struts 2 is a significant improvement over Struts 1. It uses a more flexible and powerful architecture based on WebWork, offering features like interceptors, simplified configuration, and improved support for AJAX. Struts 1 is largely outdated.

14. What is a Struts tag library? Give examples.

    • Answer: A Struts tag library provides custom tags for use in JSPs, simplifying the process of accessing and displaying data from ActionForms and other Struts components. Examples include ``, ``, ``, and ``.

15. How does Struts handle file uploads?

    • Answer: Struts provides mechanisms for handling file uploads through specialized ActionForms and configuration. The Commons FileUpload library is often integrated to manage file uploads effectively.

16. Explain the concept of forward and redirect in Struts.

    • Answer: A forward is a server-side redirect within the same application context. A redirect sends a response to the client, causing a new request to be sent to a different URL. Redirects are generally preferred for better URL management and browser caching.

17. Describe your experience with Struts (or similar MVC frameworks).

    • Answer: (This requires a personalized answer based on your experience. Mention specific projects, tasks you performed, and technologies used. Focus on achievements and challenges overcome.)

18. How would you debug a Struts application?

    • Answer: Debugging techniques include using IDE debuggers (like Eclipse or IntelliJ), logging (using log4j or similar), and examining the server logs (Tomcat, etc.) to pinpoint issues related to requests, actions, and data flow.

19. What are some common Struts security vulnerabilities and how would you mitigate them?

    • Answer: Common vulnerabilities include Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), and SQL injection. Mitigation strategies include input validation, output encoding (escaping), using prepared statements (for database interactions), and implementing CSRF protection tokens.

20. How can you improve the performance of a Struts application?

    • Answer: Performance optimization strategies include caching frequently accessed data, using efficient database queries, optimizing JSPs, minimizing the number of HTTP requests, using connection pooling, and employing appropriate server-side resources.

21. What is the purpose of the `execute()` method in a Struts Action class?

    • Answer: The `execute()` method is the main method of an Action class. It's where the core logic of handling a user request is implemented. It receives the request, processes data (often from an ActionForm), interacts with the model, and returns a String indicating the next view to render.

22. Explain the different return types of the `execute()` method.

    • Answer: The `execute()` method typically returns a String which maps to a success, failure, or other predefined result in the struts-config.xml file. These strings determine the next view to display.

23. How can you use Struts with other technologies like Spring or Hibernate?

    • Answer: Struts can be integrated with Spring and Hibernate to create robust applications. Spring can provide dependency injection and IoC (Inversion of Control) for managing Struts components, while Hibernate simplifies database interactions.

24. What is the role of a `DispatchAction` in Struts?

    • Answer: A `DispatchAction` allows a single Action class to handle multiple requests based on a parameter passed in the request. This promotes code reusability.

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