Top 20 Maven Interview Questions and Answers

Maven is a popular build automation and software project management tool developed by the Apache Group. Based on the concept of a project object model (POM), Maven is generally used for building and managing Java-based projects. It is an important part of the build phase of the DevOps lifecycle. If you are heading for a Maven-related job interview, this article will help you validate your knowledge and concepts. Here’s the list of the top 20 commonly asked Maven interview questions to help you crack your next interview.

Maven Interview Questions and Answers

Let’s dive deep into all the frequently asked interview questions on Maven for freshers and experienced candidates.

Q1. What is Maven?

Ans. Maven is a software project management and automation tool developed by Apache Software Foundation. It is written in Java and is also used in various applications developed in other programming languages such as C#, Ruby, and Scala. It is the central repository for all the dependencies and helps developers manage a project’s build, dependency, and documentation. Maven provides a complete build lifecycle framework to the developers.

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Q2. Explain the Maven Architecture?

Ans. Maven projects consist of a POM file that defines every aspect of the project essentials. POM details help in deciding different actions and artifact generation. The first step in the Maven architecture is to read the pom.xml file. In the next step, Maven downloads the dependencies defined in pom.xml from the central repository into the local repository. Once the user starts working in Maven, it provides several default settings. After that, it creates a report as per the requirements. Below is the image showing the build architecture for Maven projects.

Q3. What aspects or processes are managed by Maven?

Ans. Maven helps developers manage the following aspects:

• Builds
• Reporting
• Dependencies
• Documentation
• SCMs
• Releases
• Distribution
• Mailing List

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Q4. List the key features of Maven.

Ans. The key features of Maven are as follows:

• Simple and easy project setup
• Follows best principles and practices of development
• Fast
• Easy to learn
• Consistency and uniformity across all projects
• Offer dependency management including automatic updating
• Huge repository of libraries and metadata
• Extensible – allows to easily write plugins in Java or other programming languages
• Allows developers to work on multiple projects simultaneously
• Offers instant access to new features with little or no extra configuration

Q5. How to install Maven on windows?

Ans. Below are the steps to install Maven on windows:

1. Download the Maven’s zip file and extract it to a folder
2. Ensure JDK is installed
3. Add JAVA_HOME and MAVEN_HOME in the environment variable
4. Add Maven Path in environment variable [path of maven should be %maven home%/bin]
5. Verify Maven by checking its version [start a new command prompt, type mvn –version]

Apart from Windows, Maven can also be downloaded and installed on Linux and MAC OS.

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Q6. How will you identify the Maven version in your system?

Ans. We will use the below command to know the Maven version:

mvn –version

Q7. Write the command to perform a force update in Maven.

Ans. We will use the below command to perform a force update in Maven:

mvn clean install –U

Q8. Write the command to create a new project based on an archetype.

Ans. To create a new project based on an archetype, we will use the below command:

mvn archetype: generate

Q9. What is POM? What information does it contain?

Ans. POM stands for Project Object Model. It is a fundamental unit of work in Maven. It is an XML file in the base directory of the project. POM contains information about the project as well as configuration details used by Maven to build the projects. While executing a task, Maven looks for the POM in the current directory. It reads the POM and receives the required configuration information to executes the task. The POM contains the following configuration information:

• project dependencies
• goals
• plugins
• build profiles
• project version
• developers
• mailing list

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Q10. What are the minimum requirements for a POM?

Ans. Below is the list of minimum requirements for a POM:

• project root
• model version
• groupId
• artifactId
• version

Q11. Explain the Maven build lifecycle.

Ans. Maven build lifecycle refers to the series of steps to execute the tasks and goals of a Maven project.

Ans. A Maven build life cycle comprises of certain phases. It defines the sequence in which the Maven goals need to be performed. A Maven build lifecycle goes through a sequence of stages which are called the build phases. A build phase is a collection of goals that represent a specific task that contributed to the build and management of a project.

There are three built-in build lifecycles in Maven:

• default: this phase handles project build and deployment
• clean: this phase involves project cleaning
• site: this phase takes care of the creation of project site documentation

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Q12. What are the different phases of a Clean Lifecycle?

Ans. The phases of a Clean Lifecycle are:

• pre-clean
• clean
• post-clean

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Q13. What is a Maven artifact?

Ans. A Maven artifact is a file that is either created or used by a project. The project’s dependencies are specified as artifacts. A Maven build creates one or more artifacts such as JARs, source and binary distributions, and WARs. Every artifact has a group ID, an artifact ID, and a version string that together uniquely identify the artifact.

Q14. What are the Maven Plugins?

Ans. Maven plugins are a crucial part of the Maven framework. They are important features of Maven that allow us to reuse the common build logic across several projects. Plugins are used to perform a specific goal such as compiling code and creating JAR files. There are 2 types of plugins in Maven

Build Plugins

They are executed during the build and are declared inside the <build> element.

Reporting Plugins

They are executed during site generation and are declared inside the <reporting> element.

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Q15. List the phases in the default build lifecycle in Maven.

Ans. The default build lifecycle in Maven consists of the following phases:

1. validate
2. compile
3. test
4. package
5. verify
6. install
7. deploy

Q16. Which command is used to install JAR files in the local Maven repository?

Ans. mvn install command is used to install JAR files in the local Maven repository.

Plugin to manually install JAR files into a local Maven repository:

mvn install:install-file -Dfile=<path-to-file>

Q17. Which command is used to build a site in Maven?

Ans. – mvn site command is used to build a Maven site.

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Q18. Can you tell the difference between the maven package and the maven install?

Ans. The maven package is responsible for converting the compiled code into a distributable format. On the other hand, the maven install adds the package to the local repository. We can use it as a dependency in other projects.

Q19. Explain the various types of Maven Repositories.

Ans. There are three types of repositories in Maven:

Local Repository: It is placed in your local system and is created when you run any maven command. Maven local repository is %USER_HOME%/.m2 directory, by default.

Central Repository: It is created by the Apache Maven community and is located on the web. It contains the most commonly used libraries. When there are no dependencies in the local repository, Maven connects to a central repository.

Remote Repository: Sometimes some libraries can be missing from the central repository. In such cases, companies develop their custom remote repository on the web consisting of their project artifacts, jars, and libraries.

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Q20. What is the difference between Maven and Ant?

Ans. The differences between Maven and Ant are:

Maven	Ant
Maven is a build automation framework based on POM (Project Object Model) concept.	Ant is a Java library and command-line tool used to compile code and fetch dependencies.
It is primarily a software project management tool.	It is mainly a build tool.
Maven is declarative. Everything is defined in the pom.xml file.	Ant is procedural. All information about what to do and when to do is provided through code.
Maven has a lifecycle.	Ant does not have a lifecycle.
It is a framework.	It is a toolbox.
Maven has reusable plugins.	Ant scripts are not reusable.
Complex and less flexible.	Simple and more flexible.

Conclusion

A lot of companies rely on this tool and seek professionals skilled in Maven to increase their development standards. A good understanding of the Apache Maven tool can offer you great career opportunities.

We hope this article on Maven interview questions will help you test your skills and knowledge as well as enhance your chances of performing well in your next job interview.