The LTS where previews landed

Java 25 Course · lesson 1 of 16 · 3 min read

Java 25 is less about new ideas than about a long backlog of features all reaching final.

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Key points

  • Java 25 shipped September 2025 as the LTS successor to 21.
  • Scoped values, module imports, compact source files, flexible constructors and compact object headers all went final.
  • Several had previewed for three or more releases, so their designs arrived well tested.
  • The other theme is startup: ahead-of-time work from Project Leyden began landing.
  • For a team on 21, this is the upgrade that turns preview experiments into supported code.

Java 25 is a consolidation LTS - most of its headline features were designed years earlier.

Compact source files and instance main

This is a reading copy. The full lesson — with the visual explainer, the interactive lab and a Run button for the code — lives in the Java 25 Course course, and every lesson in it is listed on the Java 25 Course contents page.