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Study Guide for Spring

A study guide to master the Spring Framework fundamentals and advanced topics.

Vincent VAUBAN

Master Spring the smart way with a theory-first guide organized around real-world Spring Framework competencies. Clear explanations, annotated code, and simple diagrams build strong mental models—so you learn faster and feel confident when validating your knowledge (no practice questions, just the essentials).

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About

About

About the Book

Disclaimer: This book is an independent resource and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Broadcom Inc., VMware, or their affiliates. Spring® is a trademark of Broadcom Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. The author has endeavored to use the Spring Marks in a manner that does not imply Broadcom's affiliation with or endorsement, sponsorship, or support of any product or service.


HANDS-ON THEORY GUIDE FOR THE SPRING FRAMEWORK
This hands-on, theory-first guide helps you master the Spring Framework fundamentals and advanced topics, and prepare for Spring-related professional assessments. Each section turns dense documentation into plain language with diagrams, annotated code, and “gotcha” notes—so you can study efficiently and apply the concepts in real projects.


WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
• Spring Core: configuration styles, component scanning, bean lifecycle, AOP
• Data: JDBC, transactions demystified, Spring Data with Spring Boot
• Web: building RESTful services with Spring MVC
• Testing: unit, slice, integration, MockMvc concepts and when to use them
• Security: authentication/authorization flows, method security
• Spring Boot: auto-configuration, properties & profiles, actuator


WHAT’S INSIDE
• Objective-by-objective theory with concise explanations
• Production-minded code snippets and architecture diagrams
• Tip callouts for common pitfalls and tricky questions
• Quick-reference tables and end-of-chapter summaries
• Links to companion resources for deeper study


WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR
Java developers who want a rigorous, no-fluff, theory-first path to mastering Spring—and who also want to rehearse with exam-style objectives while strengthening real-world Spring skills.


LIVING BOOK
Leanpub readers receive free updates as the Spring ecosystem evolves.

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Author

About the Author

Vincent VAUBAN

Vincent Vauban is a senior Java full-stack consultant at Zenika Lille, VMware vExpert, and Spring Professional certified. For 15+ years, he has built and operated production systems with Spring Boot, Kafka, and Kubernetes, with a focus on observability (Datadog), event interoperability (CloudEvents), and secure, cost-efficient delivery. Vincent teaches thousands of developers on Udemy and writes the Java Fullstack Newsletter, sharing practical guidance on Spring and modern Java. An active member of the French Java community, he regularly gives talks and workshops. This theory-first guide maps the certification objectives to real-world understanding—clear, concise, and production-minded. (Independent work; not affiliated with VMware or the Spring Team.)

Contents

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

  1. Disclaimer:

Objective 1.1 — Introduction to the Spring Framework

  1. What is the Spring Framework?
  2. The Dependency Injection (DI) Container
  3. Spring Framework History (high-level)
  4. What Spring is used for (quick map)
  5. Core exam takeaways
  6. Mini-glossary (ESL friendly)

Objective 1.2 — Java Configuration

  1. Quick Start
  2. The ApplicationContext
  3. Handling Multiple Configurations
  4. Bean Scope
  5. Spring Expression Language (SpEL)
  6. Using the context in tests (system test style)
  7. Conclusion (why Java configuration matters)

Objective 1.3 — Properties and Profiles

  1. Use External Properties
  2. Spring Profiles
  3. Spring Expression Language (SpEL)
  4. Recap

Objective 1.4 — Annotation-Based Configuration and Component Scanning

  1. Annotation-Based Configuration
  2. Using @Autowired
  3. Autowiring and Disambiguation
  4. Using @Value for simple values
  5. Lazy Initialization
  6. Component Scanning Best Practices
  7. Configuration Choices
  8. Stereotype and Meta-Annotations
  9. Lifecycle hooks
  10. Summary

Objective 1.5 — Spring Bean Lifecycle

  1. Initialization Phase — Part 1
  2. Use Phase
  3. Destruction Phase
  4. Bean Creation Order and Injection Issues
  5. Summary

Objective 1.6 — Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP)

  1. What Problems Does AOP Solve?
  2. Core AOP Concepts and Quick Start
  3. Defining Pointcut Expressions (AspectJ syntax)
  4. Advice Types
  5. Limitations of Spring AOP
  6. Summary

Objective 2.1 — Introduction to Spring JDBC

  1. Problems with Traditional JDBC
  2. Into JdbcTemplate
  3. Creating a JdbcTemplate
  4. JdbcTemplate Basic Usage
  5. Working with ResultSets Using Callbacks
  6. Exception Handling
  7. Putting it together: a clean repository
  8. Exam Tips & Gotchas

Objective 2.2 — Transaction Management with Spring

  1. Why Transactions (and Java Support)
  2. Spring Transaction Management
  3. Configure Transaction Propagation
  4. Setup Rollback Rules and Testing Support
  5. Programmatic Transactions (for completeness)
  6. Summary

Objective 2.3 — Spring Boot and Spring Data for Backing Stores

  1. Spring Boot & Spring Data JPA
  2. 1 Spring Boot “Starter” Dependencies
  3. 2 Spring Boot and JPA
  4. 3 Spring Data — Instant Repositories
  5. 4 Packaging & Integration Testing (Data)
  6. Summary

Objective 3.1 — Web Applications with Spring Boot

  1. Spring Web Introduction
  2. Web Layer Support in Spring MVC and Spring Boot
  3. Spring MVC Quick Start (REST)
  4. Message Converters
  5. Configure for WAR or JAR Deployment
  6. Spring MVC Quick Start — Putting It Together
  7. Summary

Objective 3.2 — REST Applications

  1. RESTful applications with Spring Boot
  2. REST in a nutshell
  3. Implementing HTTP GET and PUT
  4. Implementing HTTP POST and DELETE
  5. Client calls with RestTemplate
  6. Summary

Objective 4.1 — Testing Spring Applications

  1. Packaging and Integration Testing
  2. Testing with Spring Boot
  3. Configure Tests with Profiles & Databases
  4. Using the Web Layer in Tests
  5. Summary

Objective 4.2 — Advanced Testing with Spring Boot and MockMVC

  1. Spring Boot Testing
  2. Spring Boot testing framework
  3. Perform MockMVC testing
  4. Perform slice testing
  5. Summary

Objective 5.1 — Explain Basic Security Concepts

  1. Core Concepts
  2. Spring Security — The Big Picture
  3. Spring Security Filter Chain
  4. SecurityContextPersistenceFilter (request lifecycle)
  5. Threats & Principles (High Level)

Objective 5.2 — Use Spring Security for Authentication & Authorization

  1. URL Authorization
  2. Configuring Web Authentication
  3. Securing REST Applications (Stateless)

Objective 5.3 — Define Method-Level Security

  1. Method Security Annotations
  2. Why Method Security?
  3. Enabling Method Security (Spring Security 6+)
  4. How It Works (AOP Proxy)
  5. Common Annotations & When to Use Them
  6. SpEL Cheatsheet for @PreAuthorize / @PostAuthorize
  7. Fine-Grained Filtering
  8. Testing Method Security
  9. Practical Patterns
  10. Quick Reference
  11. Minimal Working Setup

Objective 6.1 — Spring Boot Feature Introduction

  1. Spring Boot Feature Introduction
  2. Spring Boot Getting Started
  3. Packaging and Integration Testing

Spring Boot feature introduction

  1. 1 Objectives
  2. 2 What is Spring Boot?
  3. 3 Why Spring Boot?
  4. 4 How do you manage dependencies?
  5. 5 Spring Boot parent POM
  6. 6 Spring Boot “starter” dependencies
  7. 7 Test “starter” dependency
  8. 8 Many starters are available
  9. 9 Auto-configuration enabled by @EnableAutoConfiguration
  10. 10 Shortcut: @SpringBootApplication
  11. 11 Example of Auto-configuration (DataSource, JdbcTemplate)

Packaging and integration testing

  1. 1 Fat JAR with the Spring Boot plugin
  2. 2 Spring Boot Maven plugin
  3. 3 Packaging result
  4. 4 Test: @SpringBootTest
  5. 5 @SpringBootConfiguration discovery

Spring Boot getting started

  1. 1 Hello World — three files

Objective 6.2 — Spring Boot Properties and Autoconfiguration

  1. Using Auto-Configuration
  2. Override Default Configuration
  3. Externalized Configuration in Boot

Spring Boot — A Closer Look

  1. 1 Objectives
  2. 2 Externalized properties: application.properties
  3. 3 Where Spring Boot looks for application.properties
  4. 4 Profiles and application.properties
  5. 5 YAML support
  6. 6 Profiles with YAML
  7. 7 Property precedence (simplified)
  8. 8 The problem with repeating placeholders
  9. 9 Use @ConfigurationProperties
  10. 10 Enabling @ConfigurationProperties
  11. 11 Relaxed binding

Using Auto-Configuration

  1. 12 Enabling auto-configuration
  2. 13 How auto-configuration works
  3. 14 Auto-config examples: DataSource, JdbcTemplate
  4. 15 Conditional annotations
  5. 16 What are auto-configuration classes?
  6. 17 Where are they listed?

Override Default Configuration

  1. 18 Four common override strategies
  2. 19 (1) Set Boot properties
  3. 20 (2) Define explicit beans
  4. 21 (3) Exclude auto-configuration
  5. 22 (4a) Override dependency versions
  6. 23 (4b) Substitute dependencies
  7. 24 DataSource customization highlights
  8. 25 CommandLineRunner & ApplicationRunner
  9. 26 Summary

Objective 6.3 — Spring Boot Actuator

  1. Actuators, Metrics, and Health Indicators
  2. Setting Up Actuators
  3. Metrics
  4. Health Indicators

Actuators, Metrics, and Health Indicators

  1. 1) What value does Actuator provide?
  2. 2) Key endpoints
  3. 3) Setting up Actuators
  4. 4) Securing endpoints

Metrics

  1. Creating custom metrics

Health Indicators

  1. Prometheus & Datadog quick setup
  2. Handy properties cheat sheet
  3. Final tips

Practice Tests — Spring Framework (6 Full Exams)

  1. What you’ll get
  2. Who it’s for
  3. How to find it on Udemy
  4. Scan to visit

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