A bean definition can contain a lot of configuration information, including constructor arguments, property values, and container-specific information such as initialization method, static factory method name, and so on.

A child bean definition inherits configuration data from a parent definition. The child definition can override some values, or add others, as needed.

Spring Bean definition inheritance has nothing to do with Java class inheritance but the inheritance concept is same. You can define a parent bean definition as a template and other child beans can inherit the required configuration from the parent bean.

When you use XML-based configuration metadata, you indicate a child bean definition by using the parent attribute, specifying the parent bean as the value of this attribute.

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns = "http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
   xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
   http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

   <bean id = "beanTeamplate" abstract = "true">
      <property name = "message1" value = "Hello World!"/>
      <property name = "message2" value = "Hello Second World!"/>
      <property name = "message3" value = "Namaste India!"/>
   </bean>

   <bean id = "helloIndia" class = "com.tutorialspoint.HelloIndia" parent = "beanTeamplate">
      <property name = "message1" value = "Hello India!"/>
      <property name = "message3" value = "Namaste India!"/>
   </bean>
   
</beans>

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Spring - Bean Definition Inheritance