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Explanation

Use ResponseEntity to send custom HTTP status codes along with response body. This is the most flexible and commonly used approach in Spring Boot APIs.

Code:

@GetMapping("/success")
public ResponseEntity<String> 
successExample() {
    return ResponseEntity.status(
HttpStatus.OK).body("Request successful");
}

Explanation

Use ResponseEntity helper methods like ok(), badRequest(), and notFound() for cleaner and shorter syntax while returning standard HTTP status codes.

Code:

@GetMapping("/shortcut")
public ResponseEntity<String> 
shortcutExample() {
    return ResponseEntity.badRequest().
body("Invalid request data");
}

Explanation

Use @ResponseStatus annotation on controller methods to return a fixed HTTP status code automatically without ResponseEntity.

Code:

@ResponseStatus(HttpStatus.CREATED)
@PostMapping("/create")
public String createResource() {
    return "Resource created successfully";
}

Explanation

Use ResponseStatusException when you want to throw an exception with a specific HTTP status dynamically inside a method.

Code:

@GetMapping("/error")
public String errorExample() {
    throw new ResponseStatusException(
HttpStatus.NOT_FOUND, "Resource not found");
}

Explanation

Use @ExceptionHandler inside a controller to handle specific exceptions and return custom status codes.

Code:

@ExceptionHandler(RuntimeException.class)
@ResponseStatus(HttpStatus.
INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR)
public String handleRuntimeException(
RuntimeException ex) {
    return ex.getMessage();
}

Explanation

Use @RestControllerAdvice for global exception handling across the application and return structured responses with custom status codes.

Code:

@RestControllerAdvice
public class GlobalExceptionHandler {

    @ExceptionHandler(Exception.class)
    public ResponseEntity<String> 
handleGlobalException(Exception ex) {
        return ResponseEntity.status(
HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR)
                             .body("
Something went wrong");
    }
}