As of September 2026 · Spring Boot 4.1.1 · Spring Framework 7 · Java 25
Spring Boot 4,
You Can’t Put It Off Any Longer
Free support for Spring Boot 3.5 ended in June 2026.
It’s time to start new projects with version 4 and upgrade existing 3.x projects to 4.
Prepare for both with this one course.
Are you in this situation?
✔️ I know that 4.0 has been released, but I’m not quite sure what exactly has changed.
✔️ I followed a blog example, only to find that it was milestone-era code and doesn’t work in the official release.
✔️ We need to upgrade the company's service to 4, but we don't know where to start.
✔️ You can’t decide when to use new features like virtual threads or API versioning
This course began with exactly those concerns. Instead of listing scattered changes one by one, it is designed to help you naturally master Spring Boot 4 by building a real project from start to finish.
We will develop a single project all the way to completion.
Complete the book shelf API (shelf) over 26 lessons, then cover practical application in the final two lessons. Each time you finish a section, the project grows by one step.
SECTION 0 · 1
Getting Started and First Steps
Set up the development environment and understand the modular starter system and the principles of auto-configuration. You’ll also experiment firsthand with Java 25 syntax and virtual threads.
SECTION 2
Practical REST APIs
We cover record DTOs, JPA and Hibernate 7, RFC 9457 ProblemDetail, Jackson 3, as well as the newly introduced API versioning and deprecation notice headers.
SECTION 3
External Integrations and Resilience
Call external APIs with RestClient and HTTP Service Client, and build resilient services with @Retryable and @ConcurrencyLimit.
SECTION 4
Null Safety and Testing
Catch null-related mistakes at compile time with JSpecify and NullAway, and rebuild your testing foundation with JUnit 6, MockMvcTester, and Testcontainers 2.
SECTION 5
Production Readiness
We inspect service health with health probes and OpenTelemetry, and prepare for deployment with container images and AOT caches.
SECTION 6
From 3.x to 4: A Practical Migration
We upgrade a real 3.5 project to 4.1. Along the way, we’ll cover the three causes behind the 20 compilation errors we encountered, as well as the subtle configuration changes that the tools don’t tell you about.
SECTION 7
Practical application — How to handle our company project
Security 7 and other libraries that are upgraded alongside Boot are reviewed, and a plan is created for the order, task allocation, schedule, and rollback criteria of real-world projects with multiple modules.
Recommended for those who:
👉 For those who have built an API with Spring Boot 3 and want a thorough overview of what has changed in version 4
👉 Those who need to upgrade a Spring Boot 3.x service currently in operation to version 4
👉 Those who want to start a new project properly from scratch using the latest version
👉 Those who want to adopt new features based on evidence rather than trends
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of Java syntax and Spring (beans, DI, and controllers) is sufficient. If you have used Spring Boot 3, you’ll be able to follow along more easily.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Is it okay if I have never used Spring Boot 3?
Yes, that’s fine. Since we start from the process of creating a project from scratch, you can follow along as long as you know the basics of Spring. For the parts comparing it with 3.x, just listen with the understanding that “so this is how it has changed.”
Q. I just want to quickly look at the migration.
You can understand the overall flow by listening to just Sections 6 and 7 first. Section 6 covers the actual upgrade process, while Section 7 covers checking related areas such as Security and planning for a production-scale project. However, since the causes of errors are often related to changes covered in earlier sections, I recommend going back to the relevant lecture when you get stuck.
Q. Is the hands-on practice based on Gradle?
Yes, it is based on Gradle. Since the dependency names and configurations are the same in Maven, it is also easy to apply them to a Maven project.
Use new features properly, and upgrade safely
8 sections, 28 lessons, approximately 7 hours and 58 minutes.
We will walk with you along the surest path to Spring Boot 4.