< Agenda

From Zero to Container: A Java Quarkus Deep Dive

13:45 (30 minutes) · Hall 1B · Talk · Introductory · Engineering

Java has a reputation problem in the cloud-native world: slow startup, heavy memory footprints, and an inner development loop that hasn't changed in a decade. Quarkus was built to fix all three and in this session, we prove it live. In twenty minutes we go from an empty directory to a running Docker container, using nothing but the Quarkus CLI and the tooling the framework generates for you. We scaffold an application with quarkus create app, explore a dev mode that makes Java feel like a scripting language, and finish by building and running a production-ready container image and no hand-written Dockerfile in sight. But this is a deep dive, not a demo reel. Along the way we unpack the single idea that makes Quarkus different: moving framework work, classpath scanning, dependency injection, configuration parsing, from runtime to build time. Attendees see how that one decision explains Quarkus's startup speed, its memory footprint, its live-coding dev mode, and its path to GraalVM native images. Key learning areas: - Bootstrapping a production-shaped project with the Quarkus CLI and its extension ecosystem - The modern inner loop: live coding, the Dev UI, continuous testing, and Dev Services (zero-config databases via Testcontainers) - Build-time processing: what actually happens under the hood and why it matters - JVM vs. native packaging: honest trade-offs and a clear decision framework for each - Containerising Quarkus applications: the generated Dockerfiles, layered fast-jar packaging, and daemonless image builds What attendees take away: The exact commands, the mental model, and the reference material to go from quarkus create app to a deployed container the same day plus a grounded sense of where Quarkus fits in their stack, and where it doesn't. WHO SHOULD ATTEND Java developers curious about Quarkus or re-evaluating Java for cloud-native workloads. No prior Quarkus experience needed; basic familiarity with Maven and Docker is helpful but certainly not required.