Authors Note : This article is intended to give basic idea about J2ee for beginners in the interview point of view.Others please ignore.

Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) - a version of Java for developing and deploying enterprise applications.

A platform-independent, Java-centric environment from Sun for developing, building and deploying Web-based enterprise applications online. The J2EE platform consists of a set of services, APIs, and protocols that provide the functionality for developing multitiered, Web-based applications.

The J2EE platform provides a component-based approach to the design, development, assembly, and deployment of enterprise applications. The J2EE platform gives you a multitiered distributed application model, the ability to reuse components, a unified security model, and flexible transaction control.

J2EE includes several API specifications, for example JDBC, client-side applets, RPC, CORBA, and defines how to coordinate them. J2EE features some specifications unique to J2EE for components. These include Enterprise Java Beans, Servlets, Java Server Pages and several Web Services technologies. This allows the developer to create an enterprise application that is portable between platforms and scalable, while integrating with several legacy technologies.

J2EE vs. .NET

Arguments abound about the merits of J2EE vs. Microsoft's .NET. One "consensus" is that J2EE is best for multiplatform architectures, whereas .NET should be used for a strictly Microsoft platform (and not to be migrated to for non-Microsoft platform integration).