This document provides an overview of design patterns in Java. It defines design patterns as solutions to common programming problems that have proven successful in practice. The Gang of Four (GoF) published a seminal book on design patterns in 1994. Design patterns promote reusability and maintainability. There are three main categories of design patterns: creational, structural, and behavioral. Creational patterns deal with object creation mechanisms while structural patterns focus on relationships between entities. Behavioral patterns address communication between objects. Common examples like singleton, factory method, observer, and iterator patterns are described.