The default nature of an object's clone() function automatically provides a shallow copy. So to need a deep copy the classes have to be edited or adjusted.

Shallow copy: If a shallow copy is operated on obj-1 as shown in fig then it is copied but its contained objects are not copied. The contained objects Obj-2 and Obj-1 are affected by modifies to cloned Obj-2. Java use shallow cloning of objects by default when a class implements the java.lang.Cloneable interface.

Deep copy: If a deep copy is operated on obj-1 as shown in fig then not only obj-1 has been copied but the objects properties also copied as well. Serialization may be used to achieve deep cloning. Deep cloning through serialization is faster to deploy and easier to maintain but carries a performance overhead.