How Does the Scope Prototype Work?

Question

Accepted Answer

Prototype scope in Spring creates a new bean instance every time the bean is requested from the Spring IoC container. Unlike Singleton scope, where the same object is shared, Prototype scope ensures that each request receives a completely separate object.

Key Points:
• A new bean instance is created for every request to the container.
• Prototype beans are not shared across the application.
• It is suitable for stateful objects that maintain request-specific data.
• Spring manages bean creation but does not manage the complete lifecycle of prototype beans after initialization.
• Prototype scope helps avoid issues that can occur when multiple users share the same object instance.

Example:
A ReportGenerator bean that stores report-specific data should use Prototype scope so that each report request receives a fresh object.

Code Example:

```
@Component
@Scope("prototype")
public class ReportGenerator {
}
```
Interview Tip:
A concise interview answer is:

"In Prototype scope, Spring creates a new bean instance every time the bean is requested from the container. It is typically used for stateful components where each request requires an independent object."

Quick Comparison:

Singleton Scope:
• One shared instance
• Default scope
• Suitable for stateless beans

Prototype Scope:
• New instance per request
• Suitable for stateful beans
• No object sharing