You can use unchecked exceptions exactly the same way with as checked exceptions. The difference is that you can ignore them and let them propagate up when it

You can use unchecked exceptions exactly the same way with as checked exceptions. The difference is that you can ignore them and let them propagate up when it makes sense. A real-world example of your use case: The Spring framework repackages all SQLExceptions into a custom data access exception hierarchy. So, if you choose, you could catch a DatabaseConstraintException (or whatever the appropriate exception is, I'm not sure off the top of my head), and throw an application specific exception like InvalidLoginId.