JDBC with VSCode class not found

I am having serious trouble creating a Java Project with VS Code with adding the "mysql-connector-java-8.0.21.jar".
I have done the following steps:

• Creating a fresh Java project with VS Code from the command line
• Adding the mysql connector by doing "Add referenced libraries".

I tried using both jdk 11 and 15 (not 8 since VS Code doesn't support it anymore)

Launching my code result in the error: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.mysql.cj.LocalizedErrorMessages

Here is an extract of my code:

import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.sql.Statement;
public class SimpleJDBCApplication {
static final String DB_URL = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/company";
static final String DB_DRV = "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver";
static final String DB_USER = "root";
static final String DB_PASSWD = "";
public static void main(String[] args) throws InstantiationException, IllegalAccessException, ClassNotFoundException,
IllegalArgumentException, InvocationTargetException, NoSuchMethodException, SecurityException {
Connection connection = null;
Statement statement = null;
ResultSet resultSet = null;
try{
/*To connect with a database using JDBC you need to select get the
driver for the respective database and register the driver.
The forName() method of the class named Class accepts a class name
as a String parameter and loads it into the memory, Soon the is
loaded into the memory it gets registered automatically  */  
//Take new instance
System.setProperty("jdbc.drivers", "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver");
Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver").getDeclaredConstructor().newInstance();
connection=DriverManager.getConnection(DB_URL,DB_USER,DB_PASSWD);
statement=connection.createStatement();
resultSet=statement.executeQuery ("SELECT * FROM dept");
while(resultSet.next()){
System.out.printf("%d\t%s\t%s\n",
resultSet.getInt(1),
resultSet.getString(2),
resultSet.getString(3));

The error occures at the line connection=DriverManager.getConnection(DB_URL,DB_USER,DB_PASSWD);

Thank you for any help

Library added
Error

1.This is applicable to MySQL version below 8.0:
> static final String DB_URL = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/company";

Change it to

static final String DB_URL ="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/company?useSSL=false&allowPublicKeyRetrieval=true&serverTimezone=UTC"

2.Transfer com.mysql.jdbc.Driver to com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver;

3.Class.forName("com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver") is enough, also with this code, System.setProperty("jdbc.drivers", "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver") isn't needed, you can comment or delete it;

This works for me and you can have a try.

According to the documentation the class name should be com.mysql.cj.jdbc.Driver instead of com.mysql.jdbc.Driver. Also the call to getDeclaredConstructor() seems to be unnecessary. Maybe those are the source of your problems.

Click on Java Projects in the explorer tab on the left-hand side in VSCode. Then right-click on your project name and click on Configure Classpath. this will open Classpath Configuration in a new tab. Scroll to the bottom and then click add on the referenced libraries. This will open an explorer pop-up window. Select the java-mysql connector jar file and then it should work.

Step 1) Open java projects from bottom left of VS Code

Step 2) Click on + button on refrenced libraries

Step 3) Browse for the driver i.e. the connector file in this case.

Step 4) Problem solved & connection created