Is it common for Java devs to wait 30s+ for a recompile after making any change?

I seems like the Java/Kotlin world largely might be sort of used to waiting 30+ seconds for a recompile after making even a 1 line code change.

I've asked around, and I've heard that yes there are ways to speed it up if you setup everything correctly and have a good strategy in place for using cache.

However, I'm getting the sense that most of the Java projects out there might have a horrific dev experience where the devs might just accept that its Java and that's how it is, in which case, there must be a lot of miserable Java devs who waste most of their day waiting.

Please someone say it isn't so..

If you're just re-building on the command line every time you make a change, and your build takes 30 seconds, then yeah you wait.

If you're working in an IDE, running your project out of the IDE, then you might have more options. For example, in IntelliJ IDEA, you can often reload changed classes and hot update the running program.

You have problem with your setup; you're doing something wrong. Incremental compilation is near instant on hardware produced in the last 8+ years. The JVMTI interface moves it into the JVM nearly instantly.