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Spring Boot Introduction

Spring Boot is the fastest way to build production-grade Java applications. It takes the powerful-but-configuration-heavy Spring Framework and makes it “just run” with sensible defaults.

Spring Framework vs Spring Boot

Spring Framework is the core (dependency injection, web, data). Spring Boot is a layer on top that removes almost all the manual configuration — through auto-configuration, starter dependencies, and an embedded server.

The three big ideas

Feature	What it does
Auto-configuration	configures beans based on what's on the classpath
Starters	one dependency pulls in everything for a feature
Embedded server	Tomcat is built in — no separate deploy step

pom.xml

<!-- one starter brings in Spring MVC, Tomcat, Jackson, etc. -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>

Why teams use it

Minimal setup — sensible defaults instead of endless XML.
Production features built in: health checks, metrics, externalized config.
The dominant Java backend framework, with a massive ecosystem and job market.
Run a whole web app with a single main method.

Note: This course targets Spring Boot 4.x, which runs on Spring Framework 7 and requires Java 17 or newer. Complete the Java course first — Spring Boot assumes you're comfortable with classes, generics, and annotations.

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