Question

Possible Duplicates:
What is so bad about Singletons
Problems with Singleton Pattern

Are there any downsides to the singleton pattern? I heard this was an interview question and i am coming up short on what was meant.

imho, it’s about the usage and nothing in the pattern itself is problematic

Answer 1

From Wikipedia:

Some consider it an anti-pattern,
judging that it is overused,
introduces unnecessary limitations in
situations where a sole instance of a
class is not actually required, and
introduces global state into an
application.

Personally, since I’ve started using Spring to auto-wire my application I’ve never had the need to write a singleton.