Spring Boot Search Bug Fix

My product-search endpoint is supposed to return only items that belong to the requested category, yet it keeps leaking products from other categories. That “incorrect categories in results” behaviour is the single biggest pain point I need solved.

You’ll get the relevant Spring Boot project (Java 17, Spring Data JPA, PostgreSQL). Your job is to reproduce the bug, trace the root cause—whether it sits in the JPQL query, a CriteriaBuilder clause, or an overlooked join—and patch it without disturbing existing pagination or sorting logic.

Once the fix is in place, I expect:

• All category filters to work consistently, including cases that return zero rows
• Existing page/size and sort parameters to remain fully functional
• A concise regression test proving the fix (JUnit + Spring Test)
• A short comment or doc block summarising what was wrong and how you corrected it

This is a small, self-contained task—no new features, just the repair and a test. Let me know about similar filtering issues you’ve handled, plus your estimated cost and turnaround time, and I’ll share the repository link so you can dive straight in.