Repository bean not getting instantiated

I have this repository interface:

public interface ScoreCardRepository extends CrudRepository<ScoreCard, Long> {

    @Query(value = "SELECT SUM(SCORE) FROM SCORE_CARD WHERE USER_ID = :userId", nativeQuery = true)
    Integer getTotalScoreForUser(Long userId);
}

and this controller:

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/gamification")
public class GamificationController {

    private final LeaderBoardServiceImpl leaderBoardService;

    private final GameServiceImpl gameService;

    @Autowired
    public GamificationController(GameServiceImpl gameService, LeaderBoardServiceImpl leaderBoardService){
        this.gameService = gameService;
        this.leaderBoardService = leaderBoardService;
    }

    @GetMapping("/retrieve-stats")
    ResponseEntity<GameStats> getUserStats(@RequestParam("user") String userId){
        return ResponseEntity.ok(gameService.retrieveStatsForUser(Long.parseLong(userId)));
    }

}

Now, when I call the /retrieve-stats and we go inside gameService.retrieveStatsForUser I get a null pointer exception

@Service
public class GameServiceImpl implements GameService {

    private final ScoreCardRepository scoreCardRepository;

    private final BadgeCardRepository badgeCardRepository;

    @Autowired
    public GameServiceImpl(ScoreCardRepository scoreCardRepository, BadgeCardRepository badgeCardRepository) {
        this.scoreCardRepository = scoreCardRepository;
        this.badgeCardRepository = badgeCardRepository;
    }

    @Override
    public GameStats retrieveStatsForUser(Long userId) {
        List<BadgeCard> badgeCardList = badgeCardRepository.findByUserIdOrderByBadgeTimestampDesc(userId);
--->>>  int totalScore = scoreCardRepository.getTotalScoreForUser(userId); //NULL POINTER EXCEPTION
        GameStats gameStats = new GameStats(userId, totalScore,
                badgeCardList.stream().map(BadgeCard::getBadge).collect(Collectors.toList()));
        return gameStats;
    }
}

Does this mean that the scoreCardRepository bean doesn’t get instantiated? That should happen in the @Autowired GamificationserviceImpl constructor right? the badgeCardRepository gets instantiated fine. What’s happening?

>Solution :

I suggest another cause:

Integer getTotalScoreForUser(Long userId);

This method can return in Integer of null which causes a NPE during auto-boxing to primitive datatype int at

int totalScore = scoreCardRepository.getTotalScoreForUser(userId);