diff --git a/.github/workflows/backwards_compatibility_tests_workflow.yml b/.github/workflows/backwards_compatibility_tests_workflow.yml
index 699cfcec0..200f08501 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/backwards_compatibility_tests_workflow.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/backwards_compatibility_tests_workflow.yml
@@ -32,18 +32,10 @@ jobs:
         with:
           java-version: ${{ matrix.java }}
 
-      - if: startsWith(matrix.os,'windows')
-        name: Run NeuralSearch Restart-Upgrade BWC Tests from BWCVersion-${{ matrix.bwc_version }} to OpenSearch Version-${{ matrix.opensearch_version }} on Windows
+      - name: Run NeuralSearch Restart-Upgrade BWC Tests from BWCVersion-$BWC_VERSION_RESTART_UPGRADE to OpenSearch Version-${{ matrix.opensearch_version }} on ${{matrix.os}}
         run: |
           echo "Running restart-upgrade backwards compatibility tests ..."
-          ./gradlew :qa:restart-upgrade:testAgainstNewCluster -D'tests.bwc.version=${{ matrix.bwc_version }}'
-
-      - if: startsWith(matrix.os,'ubuntu')
-        name: Run NeuralSearch Restart-Upgrade BWC Tests from BWCVersion-${{ matrix.bwc_version }} to OpenSearch Version-${{ matrix.opensearch_version }} on Ubuntu
-        run: |
-          echo "Running restart-upgrade backwards compatibility tests ..."
-          ./gradlew :qa:restart-upgrade:testAgainstNewCluster -Dtests.bwc.version=$BWC_VERSION_RESTART_UPGRADE
-
+          ./gradlew :qa:restart-upgrade:testAgainstNewCluster -D'tests.bwc.version=$BWC_VERSION_RESTART_UPGRADE'
 
   Rolling-Upgrade-BWCTests-NeuralSearch:
     strategy:
@@ -67,14 +59,7 @@ jobs:
         with:
           java-version: ${{ matrix.java }}
 
-      - if: startsWith(matrix.os,'windows')
-        name: Run NeuralSearch Rolling-Upgrade BWC Tests from BWCVersion-${{ matrix.bwc_version }} to OpenSearch Version-${{ matrix.opensearch_version }} on Windows
-        run: |
-          echo "Running rolling-upgrade backwards compatibility tests ..."
-          ./gradlew :qa:rolling-upgrade:testRollingUpgrade -D'tests.bwc.version=${{ matrix.bwc_version }}'
-
-      - if: startsWith(matrix.os,'ubuntu')
-        name: Run NeuralSearch Rolling-Upgrade BWC Tests from BWCVersion-${{ matrix.bwc_version }} to OpenSearch Version-${{ matrix.opensearch_version }} on Ubuntu
+      - name: Run NeuralSearch Rolling-Upgrade BWC Tests from BWCVersion-$BWC_VERSION_ROLLING_UPGRADE to OpenSearch Version-${{ matrix.opensearch_version }} on ${{matrix.os}}
         run: |
           echo "Running rolling-upgrade backwards compatibility tests ..."
-          ./gradlew :qa:rolling-upgrade:testRollingUpgrade -Dtests.bwc.version=$BWC_VERSION_ROLLING_UPGRADE
+          ./gradlew :qa:rolling-upgrade:testRollingUpgrade -D'tests.bwc.version=$BWC_VERSION_ROLLING_UPGRADE'
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f6862064f..3ae6baab7 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -26,3 +26,4 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/),
 ### Documentation
 ### Maintenance
 ### Refactoring
+- Added spotless check in the build ([#515](https://github.com/opensearch-project/neural-search/pull/515))
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 4b1b8e340..ac0ebaa9d 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ allprojects {
         project.dependencyLicenses.enabled = false
         project.thirdPartyAudit.enabled = false
         project.loggerUsageCheck.enabled = false
-        project.forbiddenApis.ignoreFailures = true
+        project.forbiddenApis.ignoreFailures = false
         project.forbiddenPatterns {
             setEnabled(false)
         }
@@ -143,7 +143,6 @@ allprojects {
         project.validateNebulaPom.enabled = false
         project.licenseFile = rootProject.file('LICENSE.txt')
         project.noticeFile = rootProject.file('NOTICE.txt')
-        project.forbiddenApis.ignoreFailures = true
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/gradle.properties b/gradle.properties
index b4dc3433d..98663c787 100644
--- a/gradle.properties
+++ b/gradle.properties
@@ -3,6 +3,10 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 #
 
+# The BWC version here should always be the latest opensearch version set in
+# https://github.com/opensearch-project/OpenSearch/blob/main/libs/core/src/main/java/org/opensearch/Version.java .
+# Wired compatibility of OpenSearch works like 3.x version is compatible with 2.(latest-major) version.
+# Therefore, to run rolling-upgrade BWC Test on local machine the BWC version here should be set 2.(latest-major).
 systemProp.bwc.version=2.12.0-SNAPSHOT
 
 # For fixing Spotless check with Java 17
diff --git a/gradle/formatting.gradle b/gradle/formatting.gradle
index 60cace641..197b848c9 100644
--- a/gradle/formatting.gradle
+++ b/gradle/formatting.gradle
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ allprojects {
         }
         format("license", {
             licenseHeaderFile("${rootProject.file("formatter/license-header.txt")}", "package ");
-            target("src/*/java/**/*.java")
+            target("src/*/java/**/*.java","qa/*/java/**/*.java")
         })
     }
 }
diff --git a/qa/restart-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/AbstractRestartUpgradeRestTestCase.java b/qa/restart-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/AbstractRestartUpgradeRestTestCase.java
index d82f523ed..cf985d759 100644
--- a/qa/restart-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/AbstractRestartUpgradeRestTestCase.java
+++ b/qa/restart-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/AbstractRestartUpgradeRestTestCase.java
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
 import org.opensearch.test.rest.OpenSearchRestTestCase;
 
 public abstract class AbstractRestartUpgradeRestTestCase extends BaseNeuralSearchIT {
-    // protected static String testIndex;
 
     @Before
     protected String getIndexNameForTest() {
diff --git a/qa/restart-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/SemanticSearchIT.java b/qa/restart-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/SemanticSearchIT.java
index f2b6088ee..10abdb7f5 100644
--- a/qa/restart-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/SemanticSearchIT.java
+++ b/qa/restart-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/SemanticSearchIT.java
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ private String registerModelGroupAndGetModelId(String requestBody) throws Except
         String modelGroupId = registerModelGroup(
             String.format(LOCALE, modelGroupRegisterRequestBody, "public_model_" + RandomizedTest.randomAsciiAlphanumOfLength(8))
         );
-        return uploadModelId(String.format(LOCALE, requestBody, modelGroupId));
+        return uploadModel(String.format(LOCALE, requestBody, modelGroupId));
     }
 
     protected void createPipelineProcessor(String modelId, String pipelineName, ProcessorType processorType) throws Exception {
diff --git a/qa/restart-upgrade/src/test/resources/processor/IndexMappings.json b/qa/restart-upgrade/src/test/resources/processor/IndexMappings.json
index cf8a5c317..fc4c13646 100644
--- a/qa/restart-upgrade/src/test/resources/processor/IndexMappings.json
+++ b/qa/restart-upgrade/src/test/resources/processor/IndexMappings.json
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
       "refresh_interval": "30s",
       "default_pipeline": "%s"
     },
-    "number_of_shards": 6,
-    "number_of_replicas": 0
+    "number_of_shards": 3,
+    "number_of_replicas": 1
   },
   "mappings": {
     "properties": {
diff --git a/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/AbstractRollingUpgradeTestCase.java b/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/AbstractRollingUpgradeTestCase.java
index 314b73433..98ce95b72 100644
--- a/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/AbstractRollingUpgradeTestCase.java
+++ b/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/AbstractRollingUpgradeTestCase.java
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@
 import static org.opensearch.neuralsearch.TestUtils.NEURAL_SEARCH_BWC_PREFIX;
 
 public abstract class AbstractRollingUpgradeTestCase extends BaseNeuralSearchIT {
-    // protected String testIndex;
 
     @Before
     protected String getIndexNameForTest() {
diff --git a/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/SemanticSearchIT.java b/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/SemanticSearchIT.java
index 3a9c6a9a6..87fde97cf 100644
--- a/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/SemanticSearchIT.java
+++ b/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/bwc/SemanticSearchIT.java
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ private String registerModelGroupAndGetModelId(String requestBody) throws Except
         String modelGroupId = registerModelGroup(
             String.format(LOCALE, modelGroupRegisterRequestBody, "public_model_" + RandomizedTest.randomAsciiAlphanumOfLength(8))
         );
-        return uploadModelId(String.format(LOCALE, requestBody, modelGroupId));
+        return uploadModel(String.format(LOCALE, requestBody, modelGroupId));
     }
 
     protected void createPipelineProcessor(String modelId, String pipelineName, ProcessorType processorType) throws Exception {
diff --git a/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/resources/processor/IndexMappings.json b/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/resources/processor/IndexMappings.json
index cf8a5c317..fc4c13646 100644
--- a/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/resources/processor/IndexMappings.json
+++ b/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/test/resources/processor/IndexMappings.json
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
       "refresh_interval": "30s",
       "default_pipeline": "%s"
     },
-    "number_of_shards": 6,
-    "number_of_replicas": 0
+    "number_of_shards": 3,
+    "number_of_replicas": 1
   },
   "mappings": {
     "properties": {
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/processor/TextEmbeddingProcessorIT.java b/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/processor/TextEmbeddingProcessorIT.java
index cfdb6ebaf..97d1c857c 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/processor/TextEmbeddingProcessorIT.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/processor/TextEmbeddingProcessorIT.java
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ public void testTextEmbeddingProcessor() throws Exception {
 
     private String uploadTextEmbeddingModel() throws Exception {
         String requestBody = Files.readString(Path.of(classLoader.getResource("processor/UploadModelRequestBody.json").toURI()));
-        return uploadModel(requestBody);
+        return registerModelGroupAndUploadModel(requestBody);
     }
 
     private void createTextEmbeddingIndex() throws Exception {
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/processor/TextImageEmbeddingProcessorIT.java b/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/processor/TextImageEmbeddingProcessorIT.java
index fa83ae4e0..f3cd65694 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/processor/TextImageEmbeddingProcessorIT.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/processor/TextImageEmbeddingProcessorIT.java
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ public void testEmbeddingProcessor_whenIngestingDocumentWithSourceWithoutMatchin
 
     private String uploadModel() throws Exception {
         String requestBody = Files.readString(Path.of(classLoader.getResource("processor/UploadModelRequestBody.json").toURI()));
-        return uploadModel(requestBody);
+        return registerModelGroupAndUploadModel(requestBody);
     }
 
     private void createTextImageEmbeddingIndex() throws Exception {
diff --git a/src/test/resources/processor/CreateModelGroupRequestBody.json b/src/test/resources/processor/CreateModelGroupRequestBody.json
index 51511222c..2dd0852a4 100644
--- a/src/test/resources/processor/CreateModelGroupRequestBody.json
+++ b/src/test/resources/processor/CreateModelGroupRequestBody.json
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 {
-  "name": "<MODEL_GROUP_NAME>",
+  "name": "%s",
   "description": "This is a public model group"
 }
diff --git a/src/test/resources/processor/UploadModelRequestBody.json b/src/test/resources/processor/UploadModelRequestBody.json
index 95f9c9cb5..17fab7588 100644
--- a/src/test/resources/processor/UploadModelRequestBody.json
+++ b/src/test/resources/processor/UploadModelRequestBody.json
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
   "model_format": "TORCH_SCRIPT",
   "model_task_type": "text_embedding",
   "model_content_hash_value": "e13b74006290a9d0f58c1376f9629d4ebc05a0f9385f40db837452b167ae9021",
-  "model_group_id": "<MODEL_GROUP_ID>",
+  "model_group_id": "%s",
   "model_config": {
     "model_type": "bert",
     "embedding_dimension": 768,
diff --git a/src/testFixtures/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/BaseNeuralSearchIT.java b/src/testFixtures/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/BaseNeuralSearchIT.java
index 8580c5d64..680d90b65 100644
--- a/src/testFixtures/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/BaseNeuralSearchIT.java
+++ b/src/testFixtures/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/BaseNeuralSearchIT.java
@@ -134,14 +134,13 @@ protected void updateClusterSettings(String settingKey, Object value) {
         assertEquals(RestStatus.OK, RestStatus.fromCode(response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode()));
     }
 
-    protected String uploadModel(String requestBody) throws Exception {
-        String modelGroupId = registerModelGroup();
+    protected String registerModelGroupAndUploadModel(String requestBody) throws Exception {
+        String modelGroupId = getModelGroupId();
         // model group id is dynamically generated, we need to update model update request body after group is registered
-        requestBody = requestBody.replace("<MODEL_GROUP_ID>", modelGroupId);
-        return uploadModelId(requestBody);
+        return uploadModel(String.format(LOCALE, requestBody, modelGroupId));
     }
 
-    protected String uploadModelId(String requestBody) throws Exception {
+    protected String uploadModel(String requestBody) throws Exception {
         Response uploadResponse = makeRequest(
             client(),
             "POST",
@@ -204,7 +203,7 @@ protected void loadModel(String modelId) throws Exception {
     @SneakyThrows
     protected String prepareModel() {
         String requestBody = Files.readString(Path.of(classLoader.getResource("processor/UploadModelRequestBody.json").toURI()));
-        String modelId = uploadModel(requestBody);
+        String modelId = registerModelGroupAndUploadModel(requestBody);
         loadModel(modelId);
         return modelId;
     }
@@ -791,11 +790,13 @@ protected String getDeployedModelId() {
     }
 
     @SneakyThrows
-    private String registerModelGroup() {
+    private String getModelGroupId() {
         String modelGroupRegisterRequestBody = Files.readString(
             Path.of(classLoader.getResource("processor/CreateModelGroupRequestBody.json").toURI())
-        ).replace("<MODEL_GROUP_NAME>", "public_model_" + RandomizedTest.randomAsciiAlphanumOfLength(8));
-        return registerModelGroup(modelGroupRegisterRequestBody);
+        );
+        return registerModelGroup(
+            String.format(LOCALE, modelGroupRegisterRequestBody, "public_model_" + RandomizedTest.randomAsciiAlphanumOfLength(8))
+        );
     }
 
     protected String registerModelGroup(String modelGroupRegisterRequestBody) throws IOException, ParseException {
diff --git a/src/testFixtures/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/BaseSparseEncodingIT.java b/src/testFixtures/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/BaseSparseEncodingIT.java
index 4e547e090..3072bc767 100644
--- a/src/testFixtures/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/BaseSparseEncodingIT.java
+++ b/src/testFixtures/java/org/opensearch/neuralsearch/BaseSparseEncodingIT.java
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ protected String prepareModel() {
         String requestBody = Files.readString(
             Path.of(classLoader.getResource("processor/UploadSparseEncodingModelRequestBody.json").toURI())
         );
-        String modelId = uploadModel(requestBody);
+        String modelId = registerModelGroupAndUploadModel(requestBody);
         loadModel(modelId);
         return modelId;
     }