Which Java Technologies Are Worth Learning in 2024? A Practical Guide

The author, with nearly 20 years of Java experience, shares which Java technologies are outdated and unnecessary to learn, using three criteria: practical use in development, contribution to deeper technical understanding, and interview relevance.

Can it be used in real development?

Does it deepen technical understanding?

Is it useful for interviews?

JSP

JSP serves as the View layer in traditional MVC, but most companies have moved to full front‑back separation using technologies like HTML5 and JSON, making JSP learning unnecessary.

Recommendation: "You can completely drop learning JSP."

Struts

Struts was a solid MVC framework, yet Spring MVC has become the dominant, integrated solution within the Spring ecosystem, offering a smoother development experience.

Recommendation: "Don't learn Struts; start with Spring MVC instead."

Hibernate

Hibernate is powerful but brings high learning cost, complex configuration, and difficult performance tuning; for performance‑critical applications, MyBatis provides a lighter, more flexible alternative.

Recommendation: "Stop learning Hibernate; learn MyBatis instead."

Servlet (must master)

Although modern frameworks abstract away direct Servlet usage, Servlet remains the foundational infrastructure of Java web containers and underlies all MVC frameworks; deep mastery enables better understanding and advanced customizations.

Recommendation: "Learn Servlet thoroughly and understand its lifecycle."

Other Technologies

In the Chinese market, Java is primarily a web backend language, so several technologies have limited relevance:

Applet

Obsolete web plugin technology, replaced by modern alternatives.

Swing

Desktop UI framework rarely used in industry; C++ (MFC) or C# (WinForms, WPF) dominate.

JDBC

Low‑level database access layer; many frameworks (e.g., MyBatis) abstract it, so it can be deprioritized if time is limited.

XML

Still widely used but increasingly supplanted by JSON for web data exchange; a basic understanding suffices.

These insights reflect the author's personal perspective and aim to guide Java learners toward the most relevant technologies.