JBridge: Certification Question Of The Day

Given the following servlet code, identify what will happen when a HEAD request is made to the servlet's URL. (1 correct answer)

11 public class TestHeadRequest extends HttpServlet {	
12   protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse  
13                       response) throws ServletException, IOException {
14     System.out.println("In TestHeadRequest");
15     PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
16     out.write("Method Executed");
17   }
18 }

The Answer

The correct answer is A, "In TestHeadRequest" is returned to the console. When the doHead() method from the parent servlet is not overridden, and the servlet receives a HEAD request, the doGet() method is executed.
No response body is returned when a HEAD request is made, hence answer B is wrong.
Since the doGet() method is executed, there is output to the console, so ruling out answer C.
A response code of 405 sounds plausible: after all, there is no overriding doHead() method to match the HEAD request. In fact, you DO get a 405 error if the servlet only contains a doPost() method and nothing else. Under these circumstances, the doHead() of the parent servlet attempts to forward to the doGet() method - and there isn't one. Anyway, for the code as written, no 405 error results so answer D is wrong.
And although no response body is returned, the code generating the response body (including line 16) still executes. So answer E is wrong.