During a single Spring MVC request, DispatcherServlet coordinates several components in sequence — finding a controller, letting it process the request, and then rendering a view — so that each part only handles its own responsibility. This separation is what makes the MVC pattern maintainable.
Key Points: • DispatcherServlet first consults HandlerMapping to find which controller method should handle the incoming request. • The controller executes business logic, populates a Model, and returns a logical view name. • DispatcherServlet passes that view name to a ViewResolver, which maps it to an actual View implementation. • The View renders the Model's data into the final response format, such as HTML. • DispatcherServlet writes the rendered output back to the client, completing the request-response cycle.
Example: For a request to /products/5, DispatcherServlet routes to ProductController, which loads the product into the Model and returns "productDetail"; ViewResolver maps that to /WEB-INF/views/productDetail.jsp, which is rendered and returned as the HTML response.
Interview Tip: A concise interview answer is:
"DispatcherServlet orchestrates the whole flow: it uses HandlerMapping to find the right controller, lets that controller populate a Model and return a view name, then hands that name to ViewResolver to get an actual View, which renders the final response. Each component only knows its own job, which keeps the layers decoupled."