The Repository Pattern with Spring Data JPA

When I first started using Spring Data JPA, I was amazed that I could just create an interface extending `JpaRepository` and get CRUD methods for free. But I quickly learned that the Repository pattern is about more than just saving entities. It’s about creating an abstraction over data access that makes your service layer independent of the underlying database. I use `@Query` annotations to define custom JPQL queries, keeping them close to the method definition. But one pitfall is the temptation to put complex business logic in the repository. I keep repositories strictly for data access. If I have a complex aggregation, I create a separate service class that orchestrates multiple repository calls. Also, for complex queries that require joins across multiple tables, sometimes it’s okay to fall back to native SQL if JPQL is too slow.