Sun Java Certification

1
Sun Java Certification

• by
• Wyndham Ackroyd

2
Overview

• Part I
• What is certification, FAQs and types of
  certification
• Part II
• Sun Certified Java Programmer Objectives and
  resources
• Part III
• Sample Questions
• Summary
• Questions

3
Part I

• What is certification,
• FAQs and
• types of certification

4
Where do I start?

• Do I want to be certified (am I mad enough to be
  certified)?
• Certification is tough but rewarding. You will be
  more confident and capable using Java after
  certification
• What is java certification?
• It is an industry recognised certification
• A way of proving that you understand java and can
  use java technology
• Recognised by employers and peers alike
• How do I get certified?
• You have to choose a certification option
• Study the material
• Book, sit and pass the corresponding exam

5
How do I get certified?

• Choose a certification option (exam)
• There are 8 certification options
• Study the material
• Create a plan of attack
• Buy books and/or courses
• Drag-net the web
• Meet up with like minded people and set targets
  and goals
• Book, sit and pass the corresponding exam
• Buy an exam voucher
• Book the exam online from the Sun site. A third
  party actually hosts the exam (called a Prometric
  Testing Centre) not Sun
• Turn up for a couple of hours and answer the
  minimum number of multi choice questions in the
  allotted time

6
Java Certification Roadmap
Shamelessly plagiarised directly from
http//www.sun.com/training/certification/java/
7
Sun Professional Certifications

• Sun Certified Associate for the Java Platform,
  Standard Edition - New!
• Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform,
  Standard Edition - J2SE 5.0 now available!
• Sun Certified Developer for the Java 2 Platform,
  Standard Edition
• Sun Certified Web Component Developer for the
  Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition
• Sun Certified Business Component Developer for
  the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition
• Sun Certified Developer for Java Web Services
• Sun Certified Enterprise Architect for the Java 2
  Platform, Enterprise Edition
• Sun Certified Mobile Application Developer for
  the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition
• An assignment needs to be completed

Shamelessly plagiarised directly from
http//www.sun.com/training/certification/java/
8
TLAs and Acronyms

• SCJP Sun Certified Java Programmer
• SCJD Sun Certified Java Developer
• SCWCD Sun Certified Web Component Developer
• SCBCD Sun Certified Business Component
  Developer
• SCDJWS Sun Certified Developer for Java Web
  Services
• SMAD Sun Certified Mobile Application Developer
• J2SE Java 2 Standard Edition
• J2EE Java 2 Enterprise Edition
• J2ME Java 2 Micro Edition
• CX-310-035 an apparently random number for SCJP
  1.4
• CX-310-055 an apparently random number for SCJP
  1.5

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Other Certification Questions

• Q. How long does my certification last?
• A. This has changed a lot over the years. The
  current policy is that any certification gained
  after August the 1st, 2003 is valid forever! See
  http//www.sun.com/training/certification/faq/
• Q. How do I choose which certification exam to
  study for?
• A. Talk to somebody who has already certified and
  visit the following site http//www.sun.com/train
  ing/certification/objectives/index.xml
• Q. Ive decided to do the programmer
  certification, which one should I do? 4.0 or 5.0?
• A. Version 5 is new, therefore it is harder to
  find resources (books and sites etc). As it
  becomes more established more resources will be
  available.
• Q. How long will it take me to study enough to
  sit the exam?
• A. It depends on your experience, but I suggest
  you should earmark 3 months of committed part
  time study, which at times can get quite
  intensive.
• Q. Do I have to keep my certifications
  up-to-date?
• A. Most people sit a certification exam and move
  onto a specialist exam rather than keeping their
  certification versions current. However, there
  are Platform Upgrade exams and Sun recommend you
  keep your certification up-to-date. See
  http//www.sun.com/training/certification/faq/

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Part II

• Sun Certified Java Programmer Objectives and
  resources

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SCJP - Facts and Figures
12
Exam Objectives
13
Resources

• Books
• Online Resources
• Colleagues
• Practice exams (beware, some might be worse than
  useless)
• There are free ones
• You can buy one from Sun
• Books often come with a sample exam

14
Online resources

• www.lanw.com/java/javacert/default.htm
• www.aniyog.com/java/certification.htm
• www.javaranch.com/mock.jsp
• www.javaranch.com/maha/_Mock_Exams/_mock_exams.htm
  l
• http//www.javaranch.com/mock.html
• certification.about.com/od/freequestions/
• www.michael-thomas.com/tech/java/java_info.htm
• www.jchq.net/mockexams/exam2.htm
• www.jchq.net/mockexams/exam1.htm
• www.levteck.com/
• www.sap-img.com/java/java-programmer-certification
  -mock-exam-no-answers.htm
• www.akgupta.com/Java/mock_exam.htm
• www.javaprepare.com/faq.html
• http//www.jdiscuss.com/
• http//bobcat.webappcabaret.net/javachina/faq/05.h
  tm
• http//java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/second_edition/
  html/j.title.doc.html

15
Books

• The Good.
• The certification book Java 2 Sun Certified
  Programmer Developer. Osborne ISBN
  0-07-222684-6. It costs 114.99 so it's a bit
  expensive! I've found it brilliant! The writing
  style is conversational and at times funny!
• The Bad
• The other book I've tried is Exam Cram 2 - Java 2
  Programmer. Que ISBN 0-7897-2861-3. It costs
  76.99. I think it is hopeless, if anybody else
  is struggling with it, try the book above.
• The Ugly
• Ugly isn't as bad as bad! Java in a Nutshell
  O'Reilly ISBN 0-596-00283-1. Costs 135.00. It
  isn't a certification book, but it is really
  concise if heavy going (that's why I called it
  ugly). A great reference book and excellent for a
  through, in-depth description of stuff that is
  relevant for the exam.

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Tricks and tips for study

• Try to get a group together to study with, it
  makes it easier.
• As you progress through your study you will begin
  to get a feeling for what the question is
  asking.
• Read, practice, sit practice exams and discuss
  with colleagues over and over again.
• If you buy a certification book (recommended) be
  prepared to read your chosen study book 3 times.
• Ask your employer to pay for the exam. They may
  pay or refund you if you pass the exam?

17
Tricks and tips for the Exam

• All questions are weighted equally
• So, answer all the easy questions first
• You could spend 10 minutes on a difficult
  question and get 2 marks.
• Or you could spend 10 minutes on 5 questions and
  get 10 marks.
• Mark questions for review if you have spent too
  long on them and go back to them at the end if
  you still have time.

18
Exam format

• The questions may include a code snippet or it
  may be text question.
• The questions are multi-choice.
• But dont be fooled! Its harder than Who wants
  to be a Millionaire!
• You are in a strange room with no windows, youre
  not allowed to talk to anybody and there are
  cameras watching you all the time!
• The exam is computer based
• The computer is locked down
• There is no internet access
• There is a timer (so you know how much time you
  have left)

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Example Question

• This is a typical easy question.
• Which two are equal? (Choose two)
• 32 / 4
• (8 gtgt 2) ltlt 4
• 2 5
• 128 gtgtgt 2
• (2 ltlt 1) (32 gtgt 3)
• 2 gtgt 5

Reproduced without permission from the brilliant
Java 2 Sun Certified Programmer Developer
Osborne
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Example Solution

• Its harder than Who wants to be a Millionaire,
  cos
• there are more than 4 answers to choose from
• you have to know all the answers to get the
  question right
• you dont get a score of 25 if you just make up
  any old answers

• Which two are equal? (Choose two)
• 32 / 4 // 8
• (8 gtgt 2) ltlt 4 // 32
• 2 5 // 7
• 128 gtgtgt 2 // 32
• (2 ltlt 1) (32 gtgt 3) // 16
• 2 gtgt 5 // 0

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Part III

• Sample Questions

22
Literals

• What's going on with this?
• byte b 7
• byte c b 7 // gives a compile error
• byte c 7 // this is OK

23
Literals

• The difference is between literals and variables.
  
• Number literals (1, 2, 3, to 9999 etc) can be
  implicitly cast to bytes and the numeric
  operators (, - / etc) always return an int
• And you can't automatically assign int variable
  into a smaller primitive without casting (whereas
  you can with a literal if it is small enough -
  the compiler knows)

24
Literals

• byte b 7
• byte c b 7 // gives a compile error
• byte c 7 // this is OK
• So

25
Logical Operators

• What do you expect the output to be?
• if (1gt2 2gt1 true)System.out.print("elephant
  tusk")
• elseSystem.out.print("rhino")

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Logical Operators

• I expected the result to be derived like this
• 1 is not greater than 2, so don't bother to check
  2 gt 1.
• Then do the OR, which returns true.
• So we have "false or true".
• Which gives true! So the answer should be
  elephant tusk.

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Logical Operators

• The answer is not elephant tusk! The result is
  rhino! (Normally we'd avoid this confusion by
  writing with brackets)
• Before explaining the code lets check out this
• if (1gt2 2gt1 true) System.out.print("elephan
  t tusk")
• else System.out.print("rhino")
• The above returns elephant tusk (which is the
  intuitive result), which roughly evaluates as
• 1 is not greater than 2, so don't bother to check
  2 gt 1.
• Then do the OR, which returns true.
• So we evaluate "false or true".
• Which gives true!" as expected.

28
Logical Operators

• Question What is the difference between
• (1gt2 2gt1 true)
• and
• (1gt2 2gt1 true)

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Logical Operators

• Question What is the difference between
• (1gt2 2gt1 true)
• and
• (1gt2 2gt1 true)
• Answer "Order of precedence". The relevant order
  of precedence is

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Logical Operators

• With (1gt2 2gt1 true) the compiler does (what
  I call) a 'none evaluating pass through the
  code' and puts in imaginary brackets like this
  ((1gt2) (2gt1 true)).
• It does this because the compiler knows that the
  OR '' keeps 2gt1 and the true together. The
  compiler will then evaluate the first half of the
  short circuit operator (i.e. the 1gt2) and
  decides seeing that it is false, that there is no
  more work to do (see short circuit operators) and
  drops out of the condition and evaluates the
  expression in the else block.
• However for the expression (1gt2 2gt1 true)
  the compiler again does the 'none evaluating pass
  through the code' puts imaginary brackets like
  this ((1gt2 2gt1) true).
• This is because the compiler knows that has a
  higher binding or precedent (call it what you
  will). So it again checks the first half of the
  short circuit operator (i.e. 1gt2) and again
  decides to short circuit the second half of the
  . But the second half is now only 2gt1. It still
  has to do the or '', which will make the whole
  expression true.

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Summary

• Certification Paradox some people say the Java
  Certified Programmer Certification is easy.
  Others say it is one of the hardest industry
  certifications
• My view is that SJCP is not rocket science, but
  it is difficult and there is a lot of it (thats
  what makes it hard). It seems to become easy when
  you start to learn the basics and learn them
  well.
• There is no substitute for practice and
  experience
• For most people certification is tough but
  enormously rewarding

32
Any Questions

• Wyndham Ackroyd