First line: System.out.println("Result: " + 2 + 3 + 5); String concatenation is produced. Second line: System.out.println("Result: " + 2 + 3 * 5); 3*5 is calculated to 15 and is appended to string 2. Result 215. The output is: Result: 235 Result: 215 Note #1: To produce an arithmetic result, the following code would have to be used: System.out.println("Result: " + (2 + 3 + 5)); System.out.println("Result: " + (2 + 1 * 5)); run: Result: 10 Result: 7 Note #2: If the code was as follows: System.out.println("Result: " + 2 + 3 + 5"); System.out.println("Result: " + 2 + 1 * 5"); The compilation would fail. There is an unclosed string literal, 5", on each line.