What is the difference between @Controller and @RestController? | Interview Question | TechyTalkWithDev

Spring Boot Interview Questions

254 Questions

What is DispatcherServlet, and what role does it play in Spring MVC?

What is the difference between @Controller and @RestController?

What is the difference between @PathVariable, @RequestParam, and @RequestBody?

How does content negotiation work in Spring MVC?

What is the purpose of ResponseEntity, and when should you use it over a plain return type?

What is a HandlerInterceptor, and how does it differ from a Servlet Filter?

What is the purpose of @RequestMapping's `consumes` and `produces` attributes?

How does Spring Boot's default JSON serialization handle a field that should never appear in the API response, like a password hash?

What is HATEOAS, and how does Spring HATEOAS support it?

How does traditional server-rendered Spring MVC (using a ViewResolver) differ from building a REST API with @RestController?

What is RestClient (introduced in Spring 6.1), and how does it compare to RestTemplate and WebClient?

Interview questions

Question 79 of 254

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What is the difference between @Controller and @RestController?

Spring MVC & REST APIs

@Controller is the base Spring MVC stereotype where method return values are typically interpreted as logical view names to be resolved into a rendered template (e.g., Thymeleaf/JSP), unless a method is separately annotated @ResponseBody. @RestController is a convenience meta-annotation combining @Controller and @ResponseBody at the class level, so every method's return value is automatically serialized directly into the HTTP response body (typically as JSON) instead of being resolved as a view.

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#@Controller#@RestController

What is the difference between @Controller and @RestController?

@RestController = @Controller + @ResponseBody, Nothing More

There's no separate REST-specific routing or dispatch mechanism involved — @RestController is purely a naming and annotation convenience. You could achieve identical behavior by annotating a plain @Controller class's methods individually with @ResponseBody; @RestController just saves repeating that on every method for an API-only controller.

@Controller: return value = view name to render · @RestController: return value = serialized directly into the response body

@RestController Example

java

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/api/users")
class UserController {
    @GetMapping("/{id}")
    User getUser(@PathVariable Long id) {
        return userService.findById(id); // serialized to JSON directly
    }
}