What is the difference between @Repository and @Component annotations in Spring?

The @Component annotation is a basic stereotype annotation in Spring that indicates that a class is a component and should be registered in the Spring context as a bean.

@Repository is a specialized annotation that extends @Component and is intended to denote the data access layer (DAO). It adds additional semantics and can influence exception handling, for example, converting database-specific exceptions into Spring DataAccessException.

In summary:

• @Component — a general component.
• @Repository — a data access layer component with additional exception handling.

Example:

@Repository
public class UserRepository {
    // database access methods
}

@Component
public class UserService {
    // business logic
}