I can guess that this was another tricky interview question!
Now, as Paul said, one must think why we would want to do that. The init(), destroy() etc are the life-cycle methods, callback methods for the servlet container to invoke as and when the situation warrants in the Servlet's life-cycle. But they are afterall methods, like any other
Java methods, sp you may very well invoke them directly. Question is, why would you like to do it using methods meant for the container to invoke, why not write a custom method and call them at "an appropriate time". This appropriate time would be known to you only if you are able to understand the life-cyle of the Servlet well, and probably this was what the interviewer was
testing you on.
Debashish
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SCJP2, SCWCD 1.4, PMP, ITIL Foundation, Cloud Foundry Certified Developer, AWS SA Associate