Why do we need to call super.init(config) in the init method of a servlet?

Question

I am opening a single JDBC connection in my init() method. Do I need to synchronize on the Connection or the Statement object?

Answer 1

Because if you don’t, then the config object will get lost. Just extend HttpServlet, use init() (no parameters) and it’ll all work ok.
From the Javadoc: init() – A convenience method which can be overridden so that there’s no need to call super.init(config).