How to Control Validation Execution Order with @GroupSequence in Spring Boot - Redefining the Default Group and @GroupSequenceProvider
A guide to ordering group validation in Spring Boot 3.x so that heavy constraints such as DB existence checks run only after format checks pass. Covers the pitfalls of redefining the Default group with @GroupSequence on DTO classes (HV000053/HV000054), implementing Hibernate Validator's @GroupSequenceProvider to switch groups based on object state, staged error responses in a REST API, and MockMvc tests that guarantee later-stage constraints are never invoked, all with working code.