Spring Boot Interview Quiz: What Happens to the Transaction?

Consider the following service:

The application throws:

java.io.IOException: Inventory service unavailable

The API returns an error.

A. The order insert is rolled back because an exception occurred.

B. The order insert is committed because IOException is a checked exception.

C. Spring automatically retries the transaction.

D. The transaction remains open until the application restarts.

📢 Get actionable Java and Spring Boot insights every week, including practical code tips and real-world, use-case-based interview questions, to help you level up your backend skills—join 8100+ subscribers for hand-crafted, no-fluff content.

Founding Member Offer: Lock in founding member price at $50/year (~$4/month) for life. Limited spot left

So far we have covered 70+ real world based interview questions and will add up to 100 by end of this year.

Testimonials

B. The order insert is committed because IOException is a checked exception.

A common misconception is:

“Any exception causes a transaction rollback.”

That’s not how Spring works.

By default, Spring rolls back transactions only for:

• RuntimeException

• Error

Checked exceptions (such as IOException, SQLException, or any class extending Exception) do not trigger an automatic rollback.

Even though the API fails, the database transaction is committed.