Question 1

What is @Component / @Service / @Repository in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Functionally similar; semantic intent differs. @Repository also adds Spring data-access exception translation.

Question 2

What is @Transactional in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Defaults: rollback on RuntimeException, propagation=REQUIRED. Only works on public methods called from outside the class (proxy).

Question 3

What is Profile in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Annotate beans with @Profile("dev"); activate with `spring.profiles.active=dev`. Used for env-specific config.

Question 4

What is Application Properties in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Lives in application.yml or .properties. Override via env vars (`SPRING_DATASOURCE_URL`) or `--spring.config.location`.

Question 5

What is Spring Boot Starter in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

spring-boot-starter-web pulls Spring MVC, Tomcat, Jackson. Versions managed by the BOM.

Question 6

What is Auto-configuration in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

@EnableAutoConfiguration scans META-INF/spring.factories; beans created only if conditions (@ConditionalOnClass, etc.) match.

Question 7

What is @RestController in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Methods return values are serialized to JSON via Jackson. Combine with @RequestMapping/@GetMapping etc.

Question 8

What is @ConfigurationProperties in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Type-safe config; supports validation via @Validated and JSR-303 annotations.

Question 9

What is Spring Data JPA in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Declare an interface extending JpaRepository<Entity, Id>; method names become queries. @Query for custom JPQL/SQL.

Question 10

What is Actuator in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

/actuator/health, /metrics, /env. Expose deliberately and secure with Spring Security.

Question 11

What is WebClient in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Replaces RestTemplate (in maintenance). Use even in MVC apps for backpressure-friendly outbound calls.

Question 12

What is ApplicationContext in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Manages beans, lifecycle, events. Inject it directly only as a last resort.

Question 13

What is Bean Scope in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Scope mismatch (singleton holding prototype) needs lookup-method or ObjectProvider injection.

Question 14

What is @Async in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Requires @EnableAsync. Method must be public and called via the proxy (not self-invocation).

Question 15

What is @SpringBootTest in ServiceNow?

Accepted Answer

Slow; prefer slice annotations (@WebMvcTest, @DataJpaTest) for unit-scope tests.

🌱 SPRING & DI

Term Glossary