I made an ArrayList of the course entries and put it in application scope:

getServletContext().setAttribute("courseEntries", courses);

When I retrieve it in the same servlet:

ArrayList<CourseEntry> entries = (ArrayList<CourseEntry>) getServletContext().getAttribute(

                "courseEntries" );    

It works fine, but when I use getAttribute from a different servlet (ex.AddCourse), the app can't find the ArrayList "courseEntries"

PS: The classes are all under the class folder, I don't know if that would make a difference

Or, maybe you don't have loadOnStartup in the WebServlet annotation in the servlet where you have the init method,

and ran AddCourse first after the server restarted.