I am working on a Java application using Spring Boot, and I have a UserEntity class where users can follow each other. However, when two users follow each other, I encounter a java.lang.StackOverflowError. Here is my current UserEntity class:

import lombok.AllArgsConstructor;
import lombok.Builder;
import lombok.Data;
import lombok.NoArgsConstructor;

import javax.persistence.*;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.Set;

@Entity
@Table(name = "user")
@Builder
@Data
@AllArgsConstructor
@NoArgsConstructor
public class UserEntity {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    private Long id;
    private String userName;
    private String password;

    @ManyToMany(fetch = FetchType.EAGER)
    @JoinTable(
            name = "user_followings",
            joinColumns = @JoinColumn(name = "user_id"),
            inverseJoinColumns = @JoinColumn(name = "following_id")
    )
    @JsonIgnoreProperties({"followers", "followings"})
    @Builder.Default
    private Set<UserEntity> followings = new HashSet<>();

    @ManyToMany(mappedBy = "followings", fetch = FetchType.EAGER)
    @JsonIgnoreProperties({"followers", "followings"})
    @Builder.Default
    private Set<UserEntity> followers = new HashSet<>();
}

Whenever two users follow each other, the application throws a java.lang.StackOverflowError. How can I prevent this error while maintaining the relationship between user and followings and followers?

What I’ve Tried:

1. Using @JsonIgnoreProperties on the followings and followers fields to prevent infinite recursion.

Expected Behavior:

When I retrieve a user, I should be able to see their followers and the users they are following.

Actual Behavior:

When two users follow each other, the application crashes with a java.lang.StackOverflowError. And Also when i get all the users, i can see the followings of the each user but when i get user by username, it doesnt fetch the followings