Class.forName() vs ClassLoader.loadClass() - which to use for dynamic loading? [duplicate]

Answer 1

Class.forName() uses the caller's classloader and initializes the class (runs static intitializers, etc.)

loadClass is a ClassLoader method, so it uses an explicitly-provided loader, and initializes the class lazily (on first use).

Note that there's a Class.forName() that also takes a ClassLoader.