# How we improved APM Java startup by encoding a prefix trie as a JVM constant

DevFeed: [How we improved APM Java startup by encoding a prefix trie as a JVM constant](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/how-we-improved-apm-java-startup-by-encoding-a-prefix-trie-as-a-jvm-constant-2271.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.datadoghq.com/blog/engineering/improving-apm-java-startup-with-a-prefix-trie/>)

Author: Stuart McCulloch

Published: 2026-08-11T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Datadog | The Monitor blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/datadog-the-monitor-blog.md>)

Topics: [telemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/telemetry.md>)

Tags: [apm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apm.md>), [instrumentation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/instrumentation.md>), [java](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/java.md>), [jit](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/jit.md>), [observability](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/observability.md>), [open-source](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source.md>), [optimization](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/optimization.md>), [performance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performance.md>), [startup](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/startup.md>)

## AI overview

Datadog explains how it reduced Java APM startup overhead by encoding multiple class-name prefix matches as a JVM string constant. The approach improves class matching while preserving targeted instrumentation for observability.

## Source excerpt

Learn how the Datadog APM team improved Java startup performance by encoding a prefix trie as a JVM string constant.