Implementations of Object#hashCode should not incorporate fields which the implementation of Object#equals does not. This violates the contract of hashCode: specifically, equal objects must have equal hashCodes.
class Foo { private final int a; private final int b; Foo(int a, int b) { this.a = a; this.b = b; } @Override public boolean equals(@Nullable Object o) { return o instanceof Foo && ((Foo) o).a == a; } @Override public int hashCode() { return a + 31 * b; } } Foo first = new Foo(10, 20); Foo second = new Foo(10, 40); first.equals(second) // true first.hashCode() == second.hashCode() // false
The fix for this class is either to include a comparison of b in the #equals method, or remove b from #hashCode. The former is more likely to be correct.