5 Essential difference between Callable and Runnable interface in Java?

The difference between Callable and Runnable is one of the most frequently asked multi-threading and concurrency interview question in Java world. I remember, it was 2007 when I first heard about Callable interface and that too on a telephonic interview. Till then, I was happy using Runnable to implement threads and just started paying attention to Java 1.5, as most of the application by then using Java 1.4. That one interview question encouraged me to learn more about several other useful features introduced in Java 5 concurrency library e.g. CountDownLatch, CyclicBarrier, Semaphore, Atomic variables, and Thread pool. This is one of the reasons I always encourage Java developer to give/take regular interviews, just to update your knowledge.

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