Is it possible to have empty RequestParam values use the defaultValue?

You could change the @RequestParam type to an Integer and make it not required. This would allow your request to succeed, but it would then be null. You could explicitly set it to your default value in the controller method:

@RequestMapping(value = "/test", method = RequestMethod.POST)
@ResponseBody
public void test(@RequestParam(value = "i", required=false) Integer i) {
    if(i == null) {
        i = 10;
    }
    // ...
}

I have removed the defaultValue from the example above, but you may want to include it if you expect to receive requests where it isn't set at all:

http://example.com/test

You can keep primitive type by setting default value, in the your case just add "required = false" property:

@RequestParam(value = "i", required = false, defaultValue = "10") int i

P.S. This page from Spring documentation might be useful: Annotation Type RequestParam

You can use @Nullable with default value.

@Nullable @RequestParam(value = "i", defaultValue = "10") Integer i

You can set RequestParam, using generic class Integer instead of int, it will resolve your issue.

   @RequestParam(value= "i", defaultValue = "20") Integer i