Must-have Java concept list (no excuses)
1. Core Basics
Variables, Data Types
Operators
Control Statements (if, switch, loops)
2. OOP (very important)
Class & Object
Inheritance (all types)
Polymorphism (compile + runtime)
Abstraction
Encapsulation
3. Advanced Core Java
Strings (String vs StringBuilder vs StringBuffer)
Arrays
Wrapper Classes
Enum
4. Exception Handling
try-catch-finally
throw vs throws
Custom Exception
5. Collections (CRITICAL for interviews)
List (ArrayList, LinkedList)
Set (HashSet, TreeSet)
Map (HashMap, TreeMap)
Comparable vs Comparator
6. Multithreading (DON’T skip)
Thread class vs Runnable
Synchronization
Deadlock
ExecutorService
7. Java 8+ Features (HIGH PRIORITY)
Lambda Expressions
Functional Interfaces
Streams API
Optional
8. File Handling
File, FileReader, BufferedReader
Serialization
9. JVM Internals (basic level)
JDK vs JRE vs JVM
Garbage Collection
Memory (Heap, Stack)
10. JDBC (Database)
Connection
Statement vs PreparedStatement
ResultSet
11. Spring Boot (you NEED this)
Annotations (@Component, @Service, @Repository)
REST API
Dependency Injection
Spring Data JPA
12. API Concepts
HTTP Methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH)
Status Codes