What value does the equals method return when comparing two objects, one of which is a reference to the other?

The equals method in Java, when comparing an object to itself (i.e., when one reference points to another object, but in reality, it is the same object in memory), returns true. This is because, by contract, equals must be reflexive: an object is always equal to itself.

Example:

String a = "test";
String b = a; // b references the same object as a
System.out.println(a.equals(b)); // true