Research & Evidence-Based Practice Flashcards

Which Spring Boot feature allows developers to observe actual auto-configuration decisions made at startup, providing evidence for why a bean was or was not created?

Answer: ConditionEvaluationReport via /actuator/conditions or --debug flag

The ConditionEvaluationReport, accessible via the /actuator/conditions endpoint or the --debug startup flag, documents exactly which auto-configuration conditions matched or failed.

When evaluating Spring Data query performance, which approach provides concrete evidence of the SQL generated by a derived query method?

Answer: Setting spring.jpa.show-sql=true and logging the output

Setting spring.jpa.show-sql=true (or enabling Hibernate SQL logging) logs the actual SQL statements, giving direct evidence of what queries Spring Data generates.

A Spring Boot application suffers from slow startup in production. Which evidence-based tool does Spring provide specifically to diagnose startup performance?

Answer: Spring Boot Actuator /startup endpoint with ApplicationStartup

Spring Boot's ApplicationStartup API, combined with the /actuator/startup endpoint, records timestamped steps during context initialization to pinpoint slow startup contributors.

What is the recommended evidence-based approach for verifying that Spring Cache (@Cacheable) is actually caching method results and not calling the underlying method twice?

Answer: Use a spy or mock to count invocations and assert the method was called only once on repeated calls

Using Mockito.spy() or a counter in the real implementation and asserting the method is invoked only once on the second call provides concrete, measurable evidence that caching is working.

Spring's documented 'fail-fast' principle recommends which behavior when required configuration properties are missing at startup?

Answer: Throw a startup exception before the application accepts traffic

The fail-fast principle, implemented via @ConfigurationProperties validation with @NotNull/@NotEmpty, causes Spring Boot to throw a BindException at startup, preventing a misconfigured app from serving traffic.

Researchers studying Spring's transaction propagation use which test scenario to demonstrate that REQUIRES_NEW suspends the outer transaction?

Answer: Roll back the outer transaction and verify the REQUIRES_NEW inner transaction's changes are still committed

Rolling back the outer transaction and confirming the REQUIRES_NEW inner transaction's changes persisted is the definitive empirical test of transaction suspension behavior.

When documenting evidence for a Spring Security vulnerability patch, which Spring resource provides CVE details and recommended remediation versions?

Answer: The official Spring Security CVE page at spring.io/security

The official Spring security advisories page at spring.io/security publishes CVE identifiers, affected versions, and recommended upgrade paths as the authoritative evidence source.