What is Class Loader ? What are the Types (Hierarchy) of Java Class Loaders

Class Loader is used to load classes and interfaces.

Types of class loader

• Bootstrap class loader : This class loader is responsible for loading core java API classes like rt.jar . Bootstrap class loader is native implementation and so they may differ across different JVMs. Location :- jdk/jre/lib/rt.jar 

           This location called bootstrap classpath. Bootstrap class loader is by default available with                  JVM. It is implemented in native language like c and c++ .

• Extensions class loader: It is the child of bootstrap class loader. The class loader is responsible to load classes from extension class path.

          Location: jdk/jre/ext

         Its corresponding class name is sun.misc.Launches$ExtClassLoader.class

• Application Class Loader: This class loader is responsible to load classes from application class path. It internally uses environment variable classpath.

        Corresponding class file name is sun.misc.Launches$AppClassLoader.class