Thread: when servlet get destroyed ?

Hai ,
I have faced a question in an interview. In an application like ebay there will be always lot of requests . When the servlet get destroyed in such sort of applications (taking any servlet which is providing service) ? I assume that the servlet never gets destroyed still the application is up . Kindly clarify.

The server calls a servlet's destroy() method when the servlet is about to be unloaded. In the destroy() method, a servlet should free any resources it has acquired that will not be garbage collected. The destroy() method also gives a servlet a chance to write out its unsaved cached information or any persistent information that should be read during the next call to init().

Thank you very much Raghunath.ek. It was informative .My doubt is when that destroy is called as the application is always runnning ? Meaning when the application is always up it needs the service of a servlet.So ,is it like when the application is down the servlet gets destroyed? I am not talking about the instance of it. I am talking about the Servlet itself.

I think servlet will destroy only when server(application or web server) shutdown