<Does an ? operator on a non-null property prevent...

# stackoverflow

[user]

Does an ? operator on a non-null property prevent any NullPointerException in the chain?
I'm having trouble understanding the following change to a piece of Kotlin code:
package org.example.kotlin.nulll.resolution

import java.util.*

object UtilResources {

private var properties: Properties? = null

fun loadProperties() {
properties = Properties()
properties?.load(UtilResources.javaClass.getResourceAsStream("/config.properties"))
}

fun getProperties(properties: String): String {
loadProperties()...