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What is the ScheduledExecutorService in Java and How to Use It? — IT Interview Guide

Aditya Bhuyan
4 min readJan 31, 2025

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Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

The ScheduledExecutorService in Java is a part of the java.util.concurrent package and is designed for scheduling tasks with fixed-rate or fixed-delay execution. It is an extension of the ExecutorService, which manages threads for executing tasks asynchronously, but it adds the capability to schedule tasks with delays or periodic executions.

In this guide, we’ll explore the ScheduledExecutorService, its methods, and how it helps in scheduling and managing recurring tasks. We’ll also cover several use cases and provide practical examples that will enhance your understanding of this powerful feature in Java.

Introduction to ScheduledExecutorService

In many real-world applications, you need to run certain tasks at specific intervals or after a particular delay. For instance, periodic maintenance tasks, automatic cleanup, scheduled logging, etc. The ScheduledExecutorService is designed to help with such use cases.

The ScheduledExecutorService provides a higher-level replacement for Timer and TimerTask in Java, allowing for more flexible and robust scheduling capabilities.

Key Methods in ScheduledExecutorService

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Aditya Bhuyan
Aditya Bhuyan

Written by Aditya Bhuyan

I am Aditya. I work as a cloud native specialist and consultant. In addition to being an architect and SRE specialist, I work as a cloud engineer and developer.

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