Virtual Threads landed in Java 21 as a stable feature, and Spring Boot 3.2 added first-class support with a single property. The promise: write simple blocking code and get WebFlux-level throughput. The reality is mostly true — with some important exceptions. This article covers what Virtual Threads actually are, how to enable them in Spring Boot, real benchmark numbers, the three pitfalls that will silently destroy your performance, and a decision framework for when to use them (and when not to).

Every year, someone asks: “Should we use Spring Boot or Quarkus?” In 2026, both frameworks are mature, both run natively, and both work well on Kubernetes. The differences come down to developer experience, ecosystem size, and specific performance characteristics. This is an honest comparison with real numbers, not marketing claims. The Frameworks at a Glance Spring Boot 4 (November 2025): Built on Spring Framework 7. The de-facto standard for enterprise Java.

PostgreSQL offers powerful features beyond basic SQL — JSONB, arrays, full-text search, advisory locks. This article shows how to use them from Spring Boot and how to tune HikariCP for production. Project Setup <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.postgresql</groupId> <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId> <scope>runtime</scope> </dependency> spring: datasource: url: jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/orderdb username: app password: ${DB_PASSWORD} driver-class-name: org.postgresql.Driver jpa: database-platform: org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQLDialect hibernate: ddl-auto: validate HikariCP — Connection Pool Tuning Spring Boot uses HikariCP by default — the fastest JDBC connection pool.

Every Spring Boot application is built on one idea: the framework creates and wires your objects, not you. This article explains how that works and how to use it effectively. Inversion of Control In traditional Java, you create objects yourself: // You control the dependencies public class OrderService { private final OrderRepository repository = new JpaOrderRepository(); private final EmailService email = new SmtpEmailService("smtp.gmail.com"); } Problems: OrderService is tightly coupled to specific implementations You can’t swap JpaOrderRepository for a mock in tests without editing OrderService If SmtpEmailService needs its own dependencies, you must construct those too Inversion of Control (IoC) flips this: instead of creating your dependencies, you declare what you need and let a container provide them.

Microservices solve real problems: independent deployability, team autonomy, technology flexibility. They also create real problems: distributed transactions, network latency, operational complexity. Many teams split into microservices too early, before they understand their domain well enough to draw stable boundaries. Spring Modulith gives you module boundaries, enforced isolation, and event-driven decoupling inside a single deployable JAR. It’s the pragmatic middle ground. The Modular Monolith Problem It Solves A typical Spring Boot monolith looks like this after a year:

Spring Security is powerful but famously hard to understand. This article demystifies the core: the filter chain, how requests are processed, and how authentication and authorization work before writing a line of security config. Setup <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-security</artifactId> </dependency> The moment you add this dependency, Spring Boot’s auto-configuration secures all endpoints with HTTP Basic authentication. A random password is printed at startup. This is the starting point — you’ll replace the defaults.

Introduction Not every step in a batch job reads-processes-writes a stream of items. Sometimes you need to: Delete yesterday’s temp files before reading today’s data Truncate a staging table before loading new data Call a stored procedure to aggregate results Send an email or Slack notification after processing Execute a DDL statement to add an index These operations do not have items — they are single units of work. Spring Batch handles them with the Tasklet interface.

The CI pipeline from Article 19 validates migrations against a MySQL service container. But that’s not the same as testing that your application code works correctly after the migration runs. This article covers how to structure Spring Boot tests that validate both the migration and the application behaviour — and makes the case for replacing H2 with Testcontainers as your primary testing database. Three Testing Strategies Strategy Database Speed Fidelity Use For H2 in-memory H2 (in-memory) Fastest Low — MySQL-specific SQL fails Unit tests that mock repositories H2 with MySQL mode H2 (MySQL compat) Fast Medium — most SQL works, some quirks Basic integration tests on simple schemas Testcontainers Real MySQL 8.

Security tests verify that your endpoints behave correctly for different users, roles, and authentication states. This article covers the full toolkit — from simple annotations to custom security contexts. Setup <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId> <artifactId>spring-security-test</artifactId> <scope>test</scope> </dependency> spring-boot-starter-test includes this automatically. @WithMockUser — Simple Role-Based Tests The simplest way to run a test as an authenticated user: @WebMvcTest(OrderController.class) class OrderControllerSecurityTest { @Autowired MockMvc mockMvc; @MockBean OrderService orderService; // No authentication @Test void unauthenticatedUserIsRejected() throws Exception { mockMvc.

Introduction Spring Batch jobs are code — they need tests. Without tests you will catch errors in production. With tests you catch them in CI. Spring Batch has a dedicated testing module that provides @SpringBatchTest, JobLauncherTestUtils, and JobRepositoryTestUtils. These tools let you: Run a complete job in a test and assert on its BatchStatus Launch individual steps and inspect StepExecution counters Test readers, processors, and writers in complete isolation This article covers all three levels: unit, integration, and database integration with Testcontainers.