intermediate~2h

Authentication with JWT

The single most requested Spring Boot topic, and the one most often implemented with a vague understanding of what's actually inside the token. This module fixes that.

Learning objectives

  • Beginner: A single service issuing and validating its own HS256 tokens, with a hardcoded (but externalized, per Module 05) secret.
  • Intermediate: Proper claim design (subject, role, expiry) with a short token lifetime, paired with centralized exception handling (Module 16) for expired/invalid tokens.
  • Advanced: RS256 with a dedicated auth service holding the private key, and every other microservice (Module 18) verifying independently with only the public key — no shared secret to rotate across services.

This is a Pro chapter

Sign in, then upgrade to Pro or Power to unlock this and the full Spring Ecosystem Mastery library.

Authentication with JWT

Next Step

Continue to Authorization & Role-Based Access Control← Back to all Spring Boot chapters