Anton Liauchuk ▮

Cheat Sheet: The New Java Best Practices

At Devoxx, there was an excellent talk on Java best practices since Java 8. Here are some key takeaways:

  • Use the latest Java version

  • Use multi-line strings

  • Prefer immutable classes and collections

  • Prefer composition over inheritance

  • Use Optional instead of null for public return types

  • Use var where appropriate

  • Use arrow expressions in switch statements

  • Use instanceof pattern matching for variable definitions

  • Differentiate between beans and records; they have different semantics

  • Use pattern matching and gain a deep understanding of how it works

As a summary, there was a great talk by Stephen that emphasized data-oriented programming: where language and frameworks give you the possibility to model data as data and write logic as logic.

This list highlights the most interesting points, but the full talk provides the reasoning behind each practice — worth a watch for any Java developer.

Watch the talk on YouTube

October 16, 2025 ∙