Most Java Builders Are Useless : Here’s Why

Stop Using Builders for No Reason

Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash

The builder pattern is everywhere in Java codebases but most of the time, it’s misused. Developers slap on a builder just to avoid a long constructor, without adding any real value.

In this article, let’s cut the noise and break down:

• What a builder should do
• What most builders actually do (wrongly)
• When builders are truly useful
• And what to use instead when they’re not

What the Builder Pattern Should Do

The builder pattern is meant to help construct complex objects cleanly, especially when:

• You have many fields (some required, some optional)
• You want to avoid constructor overload hell
• You want immutability, validation, and readability

Without Builder

Report report = new Report(
    "Q1 Financials",    // title
    "John",             // author
    "Numbers go up ",   // content
    null,               // createdAt
    true                // confidential
);

As you can see this is hard to read, too many nulls and order-sensitive, error-prone