What is Java SE, Java EE, Java ME and Java FX?

Author:

📘 Premium Read: Access my best content on Medium member-only articles — deep dives into Java, Spring Boot, Microservices, backend architecture, interview preparation, career advice, and industry-standard best practices.

✅ Some premium posts are free to read — no account needed. Follow me on Medium to stay updated and support my writing.

🎓 Top 10 Udemy Courses (Huge Discount): Explore My Udemy Courses — Learn through real-time, project-based development.

▶️ Subscribe to My YouTube Channel (172K+ subscribers): Java Guides on YouTube


In this short article, I would like to briefly explain what is Java SE, Java EE, Java ME, and Java FX?
As we all know, Java technology is both a programming language and a platform. The Java programming language is a high-level object-oriented language that has a particular syntax and style. A Java platform is a particular environment in which Java programming language applications run.

The Java Programming Language Platforms

There are four platforms of the Java programming language:
  • Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE)
  • Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE)
  • Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME)
  • JavaFX
Let's discuss each of the above platforms of the Java programming language.
It's clear that all Java platforms consist of a Java Virtual Machine (VM) and an application programming interface (API). The Java Virtual Machine is a program, for a particular hardware and software platform, that runs Java technology applications.

You can read more about JVM, JRE, and JDK at Java JVM, JRE and JDK Explained with Diagrams.

Java SE 

Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) consists of APIs that provides the core functionality of the Java programming language. It defines everything from the basic types and objects of the Java programming language to high-level classes that are used for networking, security, database access, graphical user interface (GUI) development, and XML parsing.

In addition to the core API, the Java SE platform consists of a virtual machine, development tools, deployment technologies, and other class libraries and toolkits commonly used in Java technology applications.
Check out more about JavaSE at Java Tutorial | Learn Java Programming with Examples.

Java EE

The Java EE platform is built on top of the Java SE platform. The Java EE platform provides an API and runtime environment for developing and running large-scale, multi-tiered, scalable, reliable, and secure network applications.

Check out complete Java EE tutorial at The Java EE Tutorial.

Refer the Java EE 7 API specification at http://docs.oracle.com/javaee/7/api.

Java ME

The Java ME platform provides an API and a small-footprint virtual machine for running Java programming language applications on small devices, like mobile phones. The API is a subset of the Java SE API, along with special class libraries useful for small device application development. Java ME applications are often clients of Java EE platform services.

Check out more about Java ME at https://docs.oracle.com/javame/8.0/

JavaFX

JavaFX is a platform for creating rich internet applications using a lightweight user-interface API. JavaFX applications use hardware-accelerated graphics and media engines to take advantage of higher-performance clients and a modern look-and-feel as well as high-level APIs for connecting to networked data sources. JavaFX applications may be clients of Java EE platform services.

Related Java Interview Guides:

Java Career Roadmap: How to Level Up from Junior to Senior Developer How to Crack Java Developer Interviews Like a Pro Spring vs Spring MVC vs Spring Boot Java Spring Boot vs. Go (Golang) for Backend Development in 2025 Is Java Compiled or Interpreted? Let’s Clear the Confusion! Java JIT Compiler: Explained in Simple Words What is JVM, JDK, and JRE? Why Java is the Platform Independent? (Interview Question and Answer) Is Java a Pure Object-Oriented Language? (Java Interview Question and Answer)🤔 Is Java Case Sensitive? (Java Interview Question and Answer) Why is Java Secure? (Java Interview Question and Answer) 💪 Why is Java Robust? (Java Interview Question and Answer) Why is Java Architecture Neutral? (Java Interview Question and Answer) Why is Java Called Portable? Why Java Does Not Support Multiple Inheritance? Why Java Does Not Support Pointers? Is Java Pass-by-Value or Pass-by-Reference? Why is main() Method Public Static in Java? (Here’s the Real Truth!) Can We Overload the main() Method in Java? (Java Interview Question and Answe Can We Make the main() Method Final in Java? (Java Interview Question and Answer) What is String Constant Pool in Java? | Explained with Examples Why Choose Spring Boot Over Spring Framework? | Key Differences and Benefits How to Run a Spring Boot Application | 5 Easy Ways for Developers What is AutoConfiguration in Spring Boot? | Explained with Example Chapter 12: Understanding SpringApplication.run() Method Internals | Spring Boot Course What is CommandLineRunner in Spring Boot? Why is String Immutable in Java? Can You Override Private or Static Methods in Java? Why Map Doesn’t Extend Collection Interface in Java? Java main() Method Interview Questions with Answers How Does Exception Handling Work in Java? JPA vs. Hibernate — Key Differences Explained with Examples Top 10 Hibernate Interview Questions and Answers (2025 Edition) Top 10 JPA Interview Questions and Answers (2025 Edition) Frequently Asked Java String Interview Questions and Answers Top 25 Spring Boot Interview Questions and Answers for Beginners Top 25 Java OOP Interview Questions and Answers Main Features of Java (Explained with Examples) Class Variables vs Instance Variables in Java (With Examples) What Is Constructor Overloading in Java? (Java Interview QA) Constructor vs Method in Java (Java Interview QA) Static vs. Non-Static Methods in Java (Java Interview QA) Tight Coupling vs Loose Coupling in Java (with Examples) OOP Concepts in Java 🔒 How to Make an Immutable Class in Java (Step-by-Step Guide) Top Design Patterns Used in the Hibernate Framework Why Hibernate is Better Than JDBC — Key Advantages and Examples Top 15 Java Stream API Interview Questions and Answers Top 10 Java Lambda Interview Questions and Answers Java Stream API Intermediate vs Terminal Operations Java Stream map() vs flatMap() Java wait() vs sleep() with Examples Java StackOverflowError vs OutOfMemoryError with Examples Java Shallow Copy vs Deep Copy with Examples Difference Between Error and Exception in Java Difference Between Fail-Fast and Fail-Safe Iterators in Java Difference Between final, finally and finalize() in Java ClassNotFoundException vs NoClassDefFoundError in Java Difference Between start() and run() in Java throw vs throws vs Throwable In Java – Explained with Examples User Threads vs Daemon Threads in Java — Explained with Examples notify() vs notifyAll() in Java – A Complete Guide with Examples Difference Between Runnable and Thread in Java Collections vs Streams in Java — Key Differences with Examples Difference Between Method Overloading and Method Overriding in Java Spring Cloud Interview Questions and Answers Top 10 Spring Data JPA Interview Questions and Answers [Download Notes in PDF] Core Java Interview Questions and Answers Top 25 Spring Security Interview Questions and Answers Apache Kafka Interview Questions and Answers

Comments

Post a Comment

Leave Comment

Spring Boot 3 Paid Course Published for Free
on my Java Guides YouTube Channel

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel (165K+ subscribers):
Java Guides Channel

Top 10 My Udemy Courses with Huge Discount:
Udemy Courses - Ramesh Fadatare