title: Spring Boot Error: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/springframework/util/Assert
body: <p>I am new to Spring Boot and following some video tutorials to get started. I created a Maven project, added a parent dependency of artifact id <code>spring-boot-starter-parent</code>, added dependency for <code>spring-boot-starter-web</code> and <code>spring-boot-starter-test</code>. This is the <code>Application.java</code>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@RestController
  @EnableAutoConfiguration
  public class Application {
  
      @RequestMapping("/")
      public String home() {
          return "Hello World";
      }
  
      public static void main(String[] args) {
          SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
      }
  
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>Note:</strong></p>
  
  <p><code>src/test/java</code> and <code>src/test/resources</code> packages are empty. This is a Maven Project, I am using STS, performed "Maven -> Update Project..." and cleaned/build the entire project multiple times using STS IDE and I am getting the following error. Also, I tried to create a new project in STS and still I am getting the following error:</p>
  
  <p>I am getting this error when I run this as a <code>Spring Boot App</code>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/springframework/util/Assert
      at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.&lt;init&gt;(SpringApplication.java:263)
      at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.&lt;init&gt;(SpringApplication.java:247)
      at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1246)
      at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1234)
      at com.boot.Application.main(Application.java:18)
  Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.springframework.util.Assert
      at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
      at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
      at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
      at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
      ... 5 more
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Please help me in resolving this issue.</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT:</strong></p>
  
  <p>This is my pom.xml:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd"&gt;
    &lt;modelVersion&gt;4.0.0&lt;/modelVersion&gt;
    &lt;groupId&gt;com.deloitte.boot&lt;/groupId&gt;
    &lt;artifactId&gt;boot-test&lt;/artifactId&gt;
    &lt;version&gt;0.0.1-SNAPSHOT&lt;/version&gt;
    &lt;name&gt;boot-test&lt;/name&gt;
    &lt;parent&gt;
      &lt;groupId&gt;org.springframework.boot&lt;/groupId&gt;
      &lt;artifactId&gt;spring-boot-starter-parent&lt;/artifactId&gt;
      &lt;version&gt;2.0.0.RELEASE&lt;/version&gt;
    &lt;/parent&gt;
    &lt;dependencies&gt;
      &lt;dependency&gt;
          &lt;groupId&gt;org.springframework.boot&lt;/groupId&gt;
          &lt;artifactId&gt;spring-boot-starter-web&lt;/artifactId&gt;
      &lt;/dependency&gt;
    &lt;/dependencies&gt;
  &lt;/project&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This is my project directory stricture:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RRLFM.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RRLFM.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>