No, filter does not scan the whole stream. It's an intermediate operation, which returns a lazy stream (actually all intermediate operations return a lazy stream). To convince you, you can simply do the following test:

List<Integer> list = Arrays.asList(1, 10, 3, 7, 5);
int a = list.stream()
            .peek(num -> System.out.println("will filter " + num))
            .filter(x -> x > 5)
            .findFirst()
            .get();
System.out.println(a);

Which outputs:

will filter 1
will filter 10
10

You see that only the two first elements of the stream are actually processed.

So you can go with your approach which is perfectly fine.

Answer from Alexis C. on Stack Overflow
๐ŸŒ
GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org โ€บ java โ€บ find-the-first-element-of-a-stream-in-java
Find the first element of a Stream in Java - GeeksforGeeks
July 12, 2025 - To get the first element, you can use the reduce() method to ignore the second element, repeatedly, till there is no second element. ... This reduces the set of elements in a Stream to a single element, which is first.
๐ŸŒ
Medium
rameshfadatare.medium.com โ€บ java-stream-findfirst-method-with-examples-2988f89becc2
Java Stream findFirst() Method with Examples | by Ramesh Fadatare | Medium
September 27, 2024 - To demonstrate the basic usage of findFirst(), we will create a Stream and use findFirst() to retrieve the first element from the stream. import java.util.Optional; import java.util.stream.Stream; public class FindFirstExample { public static ...
๐ŸŒ
Blogger
javarevisited.blogspot.com โ€บ 2016 โ€บ 03 โ€บ how-to-find-first-element-of-stream-in.html
How to find the first element in Stream in Java 8? findFirst() Example
October 5, 2024 - In Java 8, you can use the Stream.findFirst() method to get the first element of Stream in Java. This is a terminal operation and is often used after applying several intermediate operations e.g. filter, mapping, flattening, etc.
๐ŸŒ
TutorialsPoint
tutorialspoint.com โ€บ find-the-first-element-of-a-stream-in-java
Find the first element of a Stream in Java
July 31, 2023 - Use the limit method to limit the stream to one element. Use the findFirst method to obtain an Optional object with the first element of the limited stream. Check if the Optional object is empty or contains a value.
๐ŸŒ
Java67
java67.com โ€บ 2018 โ€บ 03 โ€บ java-8-stream-find-first-and-filter-example.html
Java 8 Stream filter() + findFirst Example Tutorial | Java67
As the problem statement says, ... to achieve that we'll first get the Stream from the List and then call the filter() method with the predicate number > 7, after that we'll call the findFirst() method....
๐ŸŒ
Dirask
dirask.com โ€บ posts โ€บ Java-8-find-first-element-in-Stream-that-matches-criteria-10QVOD
Java 8 - find first element in Stream that matches criteria
import java.util.*; public class Example { public static void main(String[] args) { // create list of strings List<String> letters = Arrays.asList("A1", "B1", "A2", "B2"); // find first element that matches the criteria String result = letters.stream() .filter(x -> x.startsWith("B")) // <----- example criteria .findFirst() .orElse(null); System.out.println(result); // B1 } }
๐ŸŒ
Blogger
javarevisited.blogspot.com โ€บ 2016 โ€บ 03 โ€บ how-to-find-first-element-of-stream-in.html
Javarevisited: How to find the first element in Stream in Java 8? findFirst() Example
In Java 8, you can use the Stream.findFirst() method to get the first element of Stream in Java. This is a terminal operation and is often used after applying several intermediate operations e.g. filter, mapping, flattening, etc.
๐ŸŒ
GeeksforGeeks
geeksforgeeks.org โ€บ java โ€บ stream-findfirst-java-examples
Stream findFirst() in Java with examples - GeeksforGeeks
December 26, 2025 - Example 1: This code demonstrates using Stream.findFirst() to retrieve the first element of a stream, returning an Optional to safely handle empty streams. ... import java.util.*; class GFG { public static void main(String[] args) { List<Integer> ...
Find elsewhere
๐ŸŒ
Mkyong
mkyong.com โ€บ home โ€บ java8 โ€บ java 8 stream findfirst() and findany()
Java 8 Stream findFirst() and findAny() - Mkyong.com
February 8, 2020 - In Java 8 Stream, the findFirst() returns the first element from a Stream, while findAny() returns any element from a Stream.
๐ŸŒ
HowToDoInJava
howtodoinjava.com โ€บ home โ€บ java 8 โ€บ java stream findfirst() example
Java Stream findFirst() Example
May 27, 2024 - The Java 8 Stream.findFirst() is a terminal operation that returns an Optional describing the first element of the given stream if stream is non-empty, or an empty Optional if the stream is empty.
๐ŸŒ
javaspring
javaspring.net โ€บ blog โ€บ java-stream-find-first-match
Mastering Java Stream: Find First Match โ€” javaspring.net
In the world of Java programming, the Stream API introduced in Java 8 revolutionized the way developers handle collections. It provides a powerful and concise way to perform various operations on collections, such as filtering, mapping, and reducing. One particularly useful operation is `findFirst()`, which allows you to find the first element in a stream that matches a certain condition.
๐ŸŒ
Ramesh Fadatare
rameshfadatare.com โ€บ home โ€บ java stream findfirst() method
Java Stream findFirst() Method
September 25, 2024 - The Stream.findFirst() method is used to return an Optional describing the first element of the stream, or an empty Optional if the stream is empty. This method is particularly useful for ordered streams where the order of elements matters. By understanding and using this method, you can ...
๐ŸŒ
Delft Stack
delftstack.com โ€บ home โ€บ howto โ€บ java โ€บ java stream find first
The findFirst() Stream Method in Java | Delft Stack
February 2, 2024 - This method returns a new stream of elements with a value greater than 5. From that stream, we need to get the first element. In our case, the first element with a value greater than 5 in the stream of numbers is only 8. import java.util.List; import java.util.Optional; public class StreamTest { public static void main(String[] args) { List<String> fruits = List.of("Apple", "Grapes", "Orange", "Kiwi"); List<Integer> numbers = List.of(4, 5, 3, 8); Optional<String> first = fruits.stream().findFirst(); if (first.isPresent()) { String string = first.get(); System.out.println("First String is : " + string); } else { System.out.println("No value"); } Optional<Integer> firstN = numbers.stream().filter((x) -> x > 5).findFirst(); if (firstN.isPresent()) { System.out.println("First Number is : " + firstN.get()); } else { System.out.println("No value"); } } }
๐ŸŒ
javaspring
javaspring.net โ€บ blog โ€บ java-stream-find-first
Mastering `java.stream` `findFirst`: A Comprehensive Guide
Let's look at some basic usage examples of the findFirst() method. import java.util.Arrays; import java.util.Optional; public class FindFirstExample { public static void main(String[] args) { Integer[] numbers = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}; Optional<Integer> ...
๐ŸŒ
Baeldung
baeldung.com โ€บ home โ€บ java โ€บ java streams โ€บ java stream findfirst() vs. findany()
Java Stream findFirst() vs. findAny() | Baeldung
January 9, 2024 - ... The article explains how to convert an Iterable to Stream and why the Iterable interface doesn't support it directly. ... As the name suggests, the findAny() method allows us to find any element from a Stream.
๐ŸŒ
Scaler
scaler.com โ€บ topics โ€บ java-stream-findfirst
Java Stream findFirst() - Scaler Topics
Scaler Topics offers free certificate courses for all programming languages like Java, Python, C, C++, DSA etc. Learn from top MAANG experts and level up your skills. Explore now
๐ŸŒ
ZetCode
zetcode.com โ€บ java โ€บ stream-findfirst-findany
Java Stream findFirst/findAny - finding first or any element in Java streams
Both methods help safely extract elements from a stream without causing exceptions when dealing with empty data sets, making them valuable for functional programming approaches in Java. In the next example we use the findFirst method. ... void main() { var words = List.of("war", "cup", "cloud", ...
๐ŸŒ
Ramesh Fadatare
rameshfadatare.com โ€บ home โ€บ java 8 โ€“ find first and any elements in a stream
Java 8 - Find First and Any Elements in a Stream
August 28, 2024 - Use findAny() to Retrieve Any Element: Apply the findAny() method to get any element from the stream. Compare findFirst() and findAny() in Parallel Streams: Observe the behavior of these methods in a parallel stream. The findFirst() method is used to retrieve the first element from a stream.
๐ŸŒ
Baeldung
baeldung.com โ€บ home โ€บ java โ€บ java collections โ€บ get index of first element matching boolean using java streams
Get Index of First Element Matching Boolean Using Java Streams | Baeldung
March 7, 2025 - Learn how to use the Java Stream API and third-party libraries to find the index of the first element in a List that matches a boolean condition.