Outdated Java Backend Technologies You Can Stop Learning

Recently I received many private messages from readers asking whether certain technologies are worth learning, and some overseas students expressed interest in Java graphics and related jobs. I was busy and could not answer, so I share insights gathered from a senior’s response.

Having worked with Java for nearly 20 years, I have witnessed many shifts, including JavaEE frameworks moving from a chaotic landscape to Spring dominance, web development evolving from SSH to Spring MVC + MyBatis, and IDEs progressing from JBuilder to Eclipse and finally IDEA.

In this article I focus on Java knowledge that is already outdated and no longer necessary to study, serving as a supplement to a previous piece.

The criteria for deeming a technology outdated are:

Can it be used in actual development?

Does it deepen understanding of the technology?

Is it useful for interviews?

JSP

JSP serves as the View layer in the MVC model, alongside alternatives like FreeMarker and Velocity. It renders HTML on the server and sends it to the client, representing a "non‑separated" front‑back architecture.

Most companies have abandoned or are abandoning this model in favor of full front‑back separation, where the backend provides REST services and the frontend (e.g., HTML5) consumes JSON data.

Consequently, learning JSP is no longer necessary; you can completely drop it.

Struts

Struts remains a solid MVC framework, but Spring has become the dominant "one‑stop" solution, especially Spring MVC, which inherits the best practices of older frameworks like Struts.

While many legacy projects still maintain Struts, new projects overwhelmingly adopt Spring MVC. New Java learners should start with Spring MVC instead of Struts.

Hibernate

Hibernate is a powerful ORM framework, but its extensive features bring high learning cost, complex configuration, and difficult tuning.

It abstracts SQL completely, which can cause performance loss and makes fine‑grained optimization hard. For performance‑critical applications, MyBatis offers a lighter, more flexible alternative.

Thus, learning MyBatis is sufficient; Hibernate can be ignored.

Servlet (must master)

Although no company builds an entire web app solely with raw Servlets today, the claim that Servlets are obsolete is wrong.

Servlets remain the foundational infrastructure for Java web containers and underlie all MVC frameworks, including Spring MVC. Mastering the Servlet lifecycle enables deep understanding and advanced capabilities such as request interception and response manipulation.

Therefore, Java learners should not only study Servlets but master them thoroughly.

Other Technologies

In China, Java is primarily used for web backend development, making some technologies less relevant:

Applet : A deprecated browser plugin, eclipsed by modern web technologies.

Swing : Desktop UI framework; most desktop apps use C++ (MFC) or C# (WinForms/WPF) instead.

JDBC : Low‑level database API; while useful, many frameworks (e.g., MyBatis) abstract it, so it can be deprioritized if time is limited.

XML : Still used, but JSON is becoming the preferred data format for web services; deep XML APIs like XPath can be learned on demand.

Conclusion

The above reflects my personal view and may be subjective; apologies for any over‑generalization.

Wishing you smooth learning progress.