Given: public class TestFinal { final int 1 = 5; static void modify (TestFinal test) { test.1 = 99; } public static void main (String [] args) { final TestFinal tf = new TestFinal (); modify (tf)…

Question

Options

• AA compilation error occurs in the modify method.
• B99
• C5
• DA compilation error occurs in the main method.

• B
  3% (1)
• C
  3% (1)
• D
  94% (29)

Explanation

Note: There appears to be a formatting issue in this question - the variable named 1 (digit) is almost certainly i (letter), a common OCR/font rendering error in exam transcriptions. The analysis below uses i.

Why the answer is questionable: Based on the code as shown, A is actually the more defensible answer. The line test.i = 99 inside modify attempts to reassign a final instance field, which the Java compiler rejects at that exact line - inside modify, not main.

For D to be correct, main would need to try to reassign the final reference itself, e.g., tf = new TestFinal(). The final keyword on a reference variable (final TestFinal tf) only prevents the reference from pointing to a new object - it does not prevent the object's own fields from being changed. So calling modify(tf) is syntactically legal from main's perspective; the error is inside modify.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• B (99) and C (5) are impossible - the code doesn't compile, so no output is produced.
• A is where the logical compile error lives (test.i = 99 modifies a final field), but the provided answer key marks it wrong - likely because the original question included a reassignment of tf in main that didn't survive transcription.

Memory tip: Think of final on a reference as a locked steering wheel (you can't turn toward a new object), but the engine inside the object can still run. final on a field locks the value itself. When you see final on a local variable in main, ask: is the reference being reassigned? That's what triggers a compile error there.

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