Avoid instantiating a class in java

Question

Recently I\'ve faced a question : How to avoid instantiating a Java class?

However, I answered by saying:

1. If you don\'t want to instantiate

Answer 1

I think the most common reason for not wanting to instantiate a class is when you are dealing with a static class, and therefore with its static methods. You don't want someone to try to instantiate that class. Likewise, when you are dealing with Factory classes or in some cases many singleton classes will hide their constructor as to not be instantiated in the normal way.