How to set session timeout dynamically in Java web applications?

Instead of using a ServletContextListener, use a HttpSessionListener.

In the sessionCreated() method, you can set the session timeout programmatically:

public class MyHttpSessionListener implements HttpSessionListener {

  public void sessionCreated(HttpSessionEvent event){
      event.getSession().setMaxInactiveInterval(15 * 60); // in seconds
  }

  public void sessionDestroyed(HttpSessionEvent event) {}

}

And don’t forget to define the listener in the deployment descriptor:

<webapp>
...      
  <listener>                                  
    <listener-class>com.example.MyHttpSessionListener</listener-class>
  </listener>
</webapp>

(or since Servlet version 3.0 you can use @WebListener annotation instead).

Still, I would recommend creating different web.xml files for each application and defining the session timeout there:

<webapp>
...
  <session-config>
    <session-timeout>15</session-timeout> <!-- in minutes -->
  </session-config>
</webapp>