Scala Interview Questions and Answers

Scala, is a general purpose, hybrid functional programming language. Integrating the features of other technical and object-oriented languages, Scala is designed to run on JVM. Scala provides lightweight syntax that helps developers define anonymous functions. Scala allows developers to write general programming patterns efficiently by reducing the number of lines. This language also empowers the developers to write immutable codes, thus making it easy to apply parallelism and concurrency.

The unique feature that makes Scala standout from the rest is its ability to scale and expand. It has almost eliminated the common problems associated with other popular languages.

Why it is used?

Scala can be used in many ways, including in android apps, desktop apps, data processing, front-end and back-ends of web applications, Hadoop programs, big data, and data analysis, data streaming, etc.

Latest version of Scala is 2.12.11, which was released in March 16, 2020.

Here are some of the points here Scala scores over other programming languages:

• Functional Plus OOP language.
• Allows developers to write reactive apps.
• Runs on JVM.
• Cross compatible with Java
• Cleaner, elegant and more concise code

These are key features:

• Type inference
• Singleton object
• Immutability
• Lazy computation
• Case classes and Pattern matching
• Concurrency control
• String interpolation
• Higher order function
• Traits
• Rich collection set

Scala Map is a collection of elements in pairs of key and values, where values can be retrieved using keys. Values are not unique, but the keys are unique. Scala supports two types of maps - mutable and immutable. By default, the language supports the immutable map. You can create a Scala map in two ways – by using comma separated pairs or by rocket operator.

Akka is a runtime and toolkit for building concurrent, fault-tolerant and distributed applications on Java Virtual Machine. Though Akka is written in Scala, it contains language bindings for both Scala and Java. Its approach to handling concurrency is built on Actor Model.

Here are some of the limitations of Scala:

• Online community support is limited.
• Difficult to learn.
• Challenge to find professionals for real Scala development.
• Backward compatibility is limited.

Type Interface is one of the unique features in Scala that help reduce the amount of coding for developers. Type Interface may be defined as the process used by the compiler to determine the type of value, variable, or return value of a function - based on the statement in which they are found.

Option in Scala is a container that holds zero or one element of a specific type. It represents values that either exist or do not exist. The Option is used to wrap missing values and is a replacement to return null values. This question has the most likelihood of being asked in Scala interview questions for experienced professionals.

REPL in Scala, or Read-Evaluate-Print Loop, is pronounced as ‘ripple.’ It acts as an Interpreter for executing code from the command prompt. This is the reason REPL is called as Scala Command Line Interface (CLI).

The key use of REPL is to develop and test snippets of code for practice purposes. It is useful for Beginner developers to practice low-level programs.

It is a programming language and it is also an object-oriented programming language like PHP, Java, Python, Ruby, Smalltalk, and others.

A bitset is a collection of non-negative integers that are depicted as arrays in Scala. Variable in size, these arrays are packed into 64-bit words. In a bitset, the most significant number determines the memory footprint.

A trait in Scala is a unique kind of Class that enables developers to use multiple inheritances. Although a trait can extend to only one class, a class can have many traits. However, unlike classes in Scala, you cannot instantiate traits.

Traits are often used when the user requires dependency injection (DI). In Scala, you do not have annotations or special packages for import. You must initialize the class with trait and dependency gets injected.

There are times when programmers have to write functions that are recursive, where the critical problem that such functions eat up the entire allocated stack space. To overcome this challenge, Scala provides a “tail recursion” mechanism.

This mechanism optimizes recursive functions so that they do not create new stack space and use the existing stack space.

It is a method in Scala that allows the developers to create multi-dimensional arrays. We can prepare you for Scala Interview Questions and Answers by informing you of the latest developments.

Streams are the type of lazy collections, or lazy lists, that get created when starting an element and then generate recursively using the same parts. This feature enhances program performance. Streams are similar to Lists, except that in Streams, the items get added only after being accessed.

A Monad can be described as an object that wraps another object. In Scala, a class object is covered with a monad. Monads wrap objects and offer two operations - Identity through units, and bind through flatMap.

A Monad determines the best way to apply the program to underlying objects. A lot of recent Scala interview questions were based on this information.

There are four types of identifiers:

• Alphanumeric Identifiers: Contain letters, digits, and underscores. Example - myVal.
• Operator Identifiers: Contain operator characters. Example - +
• Mixed Identifiers: Contains underscore and an operator identifier. Example - myVar
• Literal Identifiers: Contain arbitrary string in backticks(`). Example `class.`

A lambda in Scala is an expression that does not reference value or a variable. Instead, it references an anonymous function. Scala supports lambda expressions in different forms. Developers use lambda expressions because of the convenience, decoupling, and reusability that it provides.

Functions in Scala are first-class values. This means that a function can be passed as a parameter or returned as a result. The Higher-order functions in Scala take other purposes as parameters and return a role as a result. This functionality provides flexibility in composing programs.

In Scala, Closure is a function in which the return value of a service is based on the amount of variables, which have been declared outside that function.

Currying is a way to transform a role with multiple arguments into a series of different tasks with a single discussion each. This feature helps the developers when they are working with higher-order functions.

A data type in Scala instructs the compiler about kind of value that needs to be stored in a specific location. In Scala, there are no primitive data types because everything in Scala is treated as an object.

Here are the data types:

• Byte
• Short
• Int
• Long
• Float
• Double
• Char
• String
• Boolean
• AnyRef
• Nothing
• Null
• Unit
• Any

Operators in Scala are symbols that operate on values. These values are called operands. Operators are essential elements of any programming language, as they allow the developers to perform various types of activities on operands.

This is one of the frequently asked Scala interview questions.

Scala has the following operators:

• Arithmetic Operators
• Relational Operators
• Logical Operators
• Assignment Operators
• Bitwise Operators

The foldLeft method in Scala is a member of the TraversableOnce trait. Using this method is essential in a recursive function and helps the developers prevent stack-overflow exceptions. This method also allows the developers to specify an initial value.

The problem of Multiple inheritances in Scala is referred to as the diamond problem. This problem occurs when a Class extends more than one Traits of the same method definition. The inability to decide on the best implementation method to choose leads to Diamond Problem. In Scala, the diamond problem gets resolved through the mechanism of Traits and the class linearization rules.