Hibernate configuration file: This file CONTAINS a set of configuration settings related to the database and other related parameters which is required by Hibernate for connecting to the database. This file is placed in the root directory of the application’s classpath. Some properties that are configured in this file are: 

• hibernate.connection.driver_class: which is the JDBC driver class for database connection 
• hibernate.connection.URL: which is the url to the database instance 
• hibernate.connection.username: is the username to the database instance 
• hibernate.connection.password: is the password to the database instance 
• hibernate.connection.autocommit: is to allow autocommit mode to the JDBC connection 

Hibernate Mapping file: This file contains the mapping of a POJO class to the table. Giving the POJO class the same name as the table and having class properties corresponding to the column names helps in avoiding confusions while mapping the class properties to the table columns.An object normally contains 3 properties - identity, state and behavior. The identity and behavior of the object has to be avoided when storing the object state (value) in the database. This is TAKEN care of by mapping. A Hibernate application can have multiple mapping files for mapping the classes to the tables.Mapping can be done using XML or Annotations. Syntax for creating a mapping file in XML is as below: