Hibernate Interview Questions For Experienced

Last updated: September 2026 — refreshed with interview Q&A and related reading.

Hibernate is still on demand and very popular ORM framework. In every Java,J2EE interview, you will faced at least 2-3 Hibernate related interview question. So, I thought I have to list popular Hibernate interview questions in my post after completion of Hibernate Tutorial now time has came to list very popular or you can say FAQ Hibernate Questions/answer here. Although I have posted core java specific 20 core java interview question and 10 JSP Servlet interview question

So start with most respected Hibernate Interview question,
What is difference between load() and get() method of Hibernate
This question is just to check your working knowledge on Hibernate and once the interviewer got expected answer from you than start digging into the the deep of Hibernate. The Hibernate load() and get() both methods are used to retrieve the records from the database, I have listed the differences in separately so for complete differences, read the very good explanation at hibernate load vs get
How Second Level Cache works in Hibernate
This is very popular Hibernate interview question just like, in core java every one asked Why String is immutable in java? almost every interviewer asked you this question to see your actual working knowledge of some advance feature of Hibernate and only those candidate gets the complete answer who actually implemented Second Level Cache in Hibernate.
In Hibernate second level cache means, JVM level cache or you can say session factory level cache. The second level cache is used to improve the performance of application by reducing the database hit. By default second level cache is not configured, to use second level cache you have to enable the second level cache with cache providers. Once you enabled the second level cache successfully, It will work for you. After successfully enabling the second level cache, If you request for an entity, It will first search the entity into the first level cache(Session), If not found in the first level cache than It will search in second level cache and return the entity from the second level cache if not found in the second level, than It will hit database and load the entity into second level cache and first level cache and return from there. Must read specific post on How Second level cache works in Hibernate

What are the core classes and interfaces of Hibernate
Another very popular and common Hibernate interview question. If you are realy used Hibernate than you must know the main classes and interfaces of Hibernate, although Hibernate has thousands of classes and interfaces. But interviewer wants to know the core/base classes and interfaces and those are -

1. Configuration (class)
2. ServiceRegistry (interface)
3. SessionFactory (interface)
4. Session (interface)
5. Transaction (interface)
6. Query (interface)
7. Criteria(interface)

Just listing the above classes and interfaces is not enough you must have to know the details of each one because once you list, than interviewer ask you about few of them in details, so be ready, here I have listed in details of each other core classes and interface of Hibernate must read.
What is difference between SessionFactory and Session
The SessionFactory is an interface inside org.hibernate.SessionFactory — a factory of sessions, an immutable cache of compiled mappings for a single database, and thread-safe. Whereas Session is the heart of Hibernate: a single-threaded, short-lived object representing the conversation between application and database, obtained from the SessionFactory.

What are the fetching strategies supported by Hibernate
There are four different types of fetching strategies supported by Hibernate and those are -

1. Join fetching (@Fetch(FetchMode.JOIN))
2. Subselect fetching (@Fetch(FetchMode.SUBSELECT))
3. Batch fetching (@BatchSize(size=x))
4. Select fetching (@Fetch(FetchMode.SELECT))

Hibernate Fetching Strategies — see how they work before your interview.

Can you write a syntax to map One-To-Many association
Author 1 ---------* Books:
Author.java

@OneToMany(mappedBy="author",cascade=CascadeType.ALL)
private Set<Book> books = new HashSet<>();

Book.java

@ManyToOne
@JoinColumn(name = "author_id", nullable=false)
private Author author;

How many object states in Hibernate
Three: transient, persistent, detached. Object states in Hibernate in detail.

How to create custom identifier or generator class in Hibernate
Step 1. Create a class. Step 2. Implement org.hibernate.id.IdentifierGenerator. Step 3. Implement the generate method:

public Serializable generate(SessionImplementor session, Object arg1) throws HibernateException {}

Full example: custom generator class in Hibernate.

What is difference between save and persist method

1. save() returns Serializable (the identifier) and executes the INSERT immediately, even outside a transaction.
2. persist() returns void; the identifier may only be assigned at flush time, and no INSERT runs outside a transaction — safer in long conversations with an extended persistence context.

Full comparison: save vs persist.

How to enable second level cache in Hibernate
Define a cache provider, then:

<property name="hibernate.cache.use_second_level_cache">true</property>

Step-by-step: Second Level Cache implementation.

Hibernate in 2026: a reality check

Hibernate itself is rarely used raw anymore — but its concepts are everywhere. Spring Data JPA sits on top of it, and interviewers still probe the same fundamentals: session states, caching levels, lazy loading, and get() vs load(). The XML configuration shown in older tutorials is legacy; annotations are the standard. If you understand what's above, you understand JPA too.

Related reading: the Hibernate cluster

• Hibernate first-level cache example
• Hibernate second-level cache example
• Difference between load() and get()
• Difference between save() and persist()
• Hibernate named query examples