Java Collections API Interview Questions |Java Collections Interview Questions

What is HashMap and Map?
Map is Interface and Hashmap is class that implements this interface.
What is the significance of ListIterator?
Or
What is the difference b/w Iterator and ListIterator?
Iterator : Enables you to cycle through a collection in the forward direction only, for obtaining or removing elements
ListIterator : It extends Iterator, allow bidirectional traversal of list and the modification of elements
Difference between HashMap and HashTable? Can we make hashmap synchronized?
1. The HashMap class is roughly equivalent to Hashtable, except that it is unsynchronized and permits nulls. (HashMap allows null values as key and value whereas Hashtable doesn’t allow nulls).
2. HashMap does not guarantee that the order of the map will remain constant over time.
3. HashMap is non synchronized whereas Hashtable is synchronized.
4. Iterator in the HashMap is fail-safe while the enumerator for the Hashtable isn't.
Note on Some Important Terms
1)Synchronized means only one thread can modify a hash table at one point of time. Basically, it means that any thread before performing an update on a hashtable will have to acquire a lock on the object while others will wait for lock to be released.
2)Fail-safe is relevant from the context of iterators. If an iterator has been created on a collection object and some other thread tries to modify the collection object "structurally”, a concurrent modification exception will be thrown. It is possible for other threads though to invoke "set" method since it doesn’t modify the collection "structurally”. However, if prior to calling "set", the collection has been modified structurally, "IllegalArgumentException" will be thrown.
HashMap can be synchronized by
Map m = Collections.synchronizeMap(hashMap);
What is the difference between set and list?
A Set stores elements in an unordered way and does not contain duplicate elements, whereas a list stores elements in an ordered way but may contain duplicate elements.
Difference between Vector and ArrayList? What is the Vector class?
Vector is synchronized whereas ArrayList is not. The Vector class provides the capability to implement a growable array of objects. ArrayList and Vector class both implement the List interface. Both classes are implemented using dynamically resizable arrays, providing fast random access and fast traversal. In vector the data is retrieved using the elementAt() method while in ArrayList, it is done using the get() method. ArrayList has no default size while vector has a default size of 10. when you want programs to run in multithreading environment then use concept of vector because it is synchronized. But ArrayList is not synchronized so, avoid use of it in a multithreading environment.

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