A hiring manager's question bank for entry-level Java developers. Use these to find candidates who have solid fundamentals and the attitude to grow — not the ones who can recite the most syntax.
Interviewing a junior Java developer is a different job from interviewing a senior. You are not trying to find someone who already knows everything — you are trying to find someone with sound fundamentals, clear thinking, and the coachability to become great on your team. That means the questions should stay grounded: object-oriented basics, how the common collections differ, how exceptions and `null` are handled, and whether they can talk through a small problem out loud without panicking. The goal is to see how they think, not to trip them up with edge cases a junior has no business knowing. A great junior often beats a mediocre mid-level hire because they bring energy, ask good questions, and absorb feedback fast — so weight attitude and reasoning as heavily as raw knowledge. When a candidate gets stuck, that is a feature: watch whether they freeze, guess wildly, or calmly reason toward an answer and say "I'm not sure, but here's how I'd find out." That last response is gold. The questions below are intentionally approachable, with a mix of core-language fundamentals, collections and exceptions, a light problem-solving prompt or two, and behavioral questions that reveal how they learn. Keep the tone warm; a nervous junior who would thrive on the job can look weak in a hostile interview. You are screening for trajectory, not for a finished engineer.
Pick five or six questions and keep the room friendly — nerves hide real ability in juniors. When someone gets stuck, give a small hint and watch how they recover; how they handle not knowing tells you more than the answer itself.
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