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Java / Quarkus Interview questions

Explain the lifecycle of a Quarkus application build?

A Quarkus build moves through a defined sequence of phases, each building on the output of the last, whether the final target is a JAR for JVM mode or a binary for native mode.

flowchart TD A[Source compilation - javac] --> B[Augmentation phase begins] B --> C[Extension build steps run in dependency order] C --> D[BuildItems accumulate: beans, config, reflection metadata] D --> E{Target mode?} E -- JVM --> F[Optimized runnable JAR produced] E -- Native --> G[GraalVM native-image AOT compilation] G --> H[Platform-specific native binary produced]

Standard Java compilation happens first, exactly as in any Java project, producing regular .class files. Augmentation then kicks in: Quarkus's build engine executes every active extension's @BuildStep methods in the order dictated by their BuildItem dependencies, progressively accumulating information about the fully-resolved application.

The final step diverges based on target: JVM mode packages the augmented result into a runnable JAR (optionally fast-jar, uber-jar, or a legacy-jar layout), while native mode feeds that same augmented result into GraalVM's native-image tool for ahead-of-time compilation, which is the slowest and most resource-intensive part of the whole pipeline, often taking minutes even for a modest application.

What runs immediately after standard Java compilation in a Quarkus build?
Which part of the native build pipeline is typically the slowest?

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