Which of these pieces of code is faster in Java?

Question

a) for(int i = 100000; i > 0; i--) {}

b) for(int i = 1; i < 100001; i++) {}

The answer is t

Answer 1

Are you sure that the interviewer who asks such a question expects a straight answer ("number one is faster" or "number two is faster"), or if this question is asked to provoke a discussion, as is happening in the answers people are giving here?

In general, it's impossible to say which one is faster, because it heavily depends on the Java compiler, JRE, CPU and other factors. Using one or the other in your program just because you think that one of the two is faster without understanding the details to the lowest level is superstitious programming. And even if one version is faster than the other on your particular environment, then the difference is most likely so small that it's irrelevant.

Write clear code instead of trying to be clever.