How does Java’s switch work under the hood?

Neither. it uses the lookupswitch JVM instruction, which is essentially a table lookup. Take a look at the bytecode of the following example:

public static void main(String... args) {
  switch (1) {
  case 1:
    break;
  case 2:
    break;
  }
}

public static void main(java.lang.String[]);
  Code:
   Stack=1, Locals=1, Args_size=1
   0:   iconst_1
   1:   lookupswitch{ //2
                1: 28;
                2: 31;
                default: 31 }
   28:  goto    31
   31:  return