This is unlikely of most candidates, so don't expect too much. If, however, applicants start talking about it, I encourage them. It will show me how much they know about distributed computing, client-server methodologies, and the like. Such questions will help hash out whether or not they know about it, or have simply heard about it and are parroting the information. It helps in speeding up the downloading of class files associated with applets.
Applets frequently contain many class files, image files, and the like.
This allows applets to only open one HTTP connection for the file, instead of the many HTTP connections required before, and it also provides a standard, convenient way to package JavaBeans. It is the adaptation of Microsoft's ODBC Standard for Java. JDBC allows connectivity between Java programs and relational databases such as Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase SQL Server, Oracle, Informix, and the like. In fact, the claim is that any database that conforms to the ODBC Standard should be accessible to Java via JDBC, when the vendor implements the API for their server. I can instead look it up and do it for you from the book.