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Java Certification
Java Enterprise Architect Certification (Part I)
Java 2 Developers Certification
Java 2 Programmers Certification
JavaEnterprise Architect Certification (Part I)
I passed my Java Enterprise Archiect Certification Part I on the 15th of June 2001, I passed with 87%.
The Java Enterprise Archiect Certification consists for 3 Parts
Break of the marks
| Topics | % |
| Concepts | 100 |
| Common Architectures | 83 |
| Legacy Connectivity | 100 |
| EJB | 66 |
| EJB container model | 100 |
| Protocols | 100 |
| Application of J2EE | 100 |
| Design Patters | 80 |
| Messaging | 100 |
| Internationalization | 50 |
| Security | 100 |
Java 2 Developers Certification
The Developer Certification examination consists of two Parts
I had given the Part II of the Developer Certification on the 8th of Jan 2001, and uploaded the Part I programming Assignment on the 5th of Jan 2001. Date of Passing: 10th Jan 2001.
Passed With: 146 out of 155 marks (marks required for passing 124).
Break of the marks
Topics |
Marks Obtained |
Max Marks |
|
General Considerations |
70 |
72 |
|
Documentation |
10 |
10 |
|
Object-Oriented Design |
6 |
6 |
|
GUI |
18 |
20 |
|
Data conversion program |
7 |
10 |
|
Server |
35 |
37 |
Main Topics (according to me)
According to me the following topics have to be known to succeed and become a Sun Certified Java Developer
Swing API - the user interface for the programming assignment has to be developed using Swing API, you do not have a choice here.
RMI and / or Socket Programming - The assignment generally consists of writing a client server application, and the communication between the client and the server has to be developed using either RMI or by using Raw Sockets. You are allowed only two use any one of these methods, it is necessary that you know both the methods of programming since you will have to make a decision as to which method to use, and you should also give the reason for your choice.
Threading - The Server that is developed as the part of the programming assignment should be thread safe, hence you should know the in and out of threading. The exact requirements of the Server will depend on the type of assignment that you get.
Coding Style - The code submitted to the Sun as a part of the programming assignment should be clean code with proper documentation. There are certain rules given by sun about the Java coding standards - available at the sun site. Some of them are Class Names should start with a Capital letter, all variables should start with lower case etc. This is very important since the format of your code will be the first thing that the code evaluator will see.
GUI Design - There are certain guide lines about how the GUI is to be designed, these guidelines are not provided as a part of Sun, but these are some general information about Human Computer Interaction get some information about this before designing your GUI. Start by designing your GUI using a pencil and paper, initially do not worry about the type of layout manager that you are going to use, just design the GUI without keeping those constrains in mind. Once the design is final you should decide on the type of Layout manager that you should use for each screen, generally using GridBagLayout you can practically design any type of UI, (make sure that you know how to use GridBagLayout). Incase you are not using any Layout Manager (setting Layout Manager to null) you have to give a very good reason for that, my suggestion is to use a layout manager and design you system.
Books Used
Java Threads - This an excellent book on Java Threads, I really loved reading this book and it helped me a lot in designing a thread safe server application.
Java RMI - This is the only book that I could get on RMI, and the book is nice, well not that good since the edition that I got did not talk anything about Activation. The Java Docs has a real nice tutorial that will help you get started with RMI. Another real good RMI tutorial is available on the Sun Site, the application designed in this tutorial is really interesting and it actually shows you the benefits of Distributed Computing.
Design Patterns (GoF) - This book is a real must for all OOP, When I read this book for the first time I liked it a lot. This book will help you design different parts of the entire system. This book will not only be useful for this assignment but will also be used later whenever you are designing any system. This is one book that you will be using a lot. The code examples given in this book are written in C++, so incase you have some knowledge of C++ it may help you understand the source code - this is book is still useful even if you do not know C++
Java Design Patterns - This book explains the various design patters (above book) using Java Language. This book can be read with out reading the above book, but I suggest that this book should be read along with the above-mentioned book. I generally use this book along with the above book. My father brought this book after I had finished with the Programming Assignment.
Java Distributed Objects - I have this book since April 2000, and this is the book that introduced me to a lot of topics that are necessary for Developer Certification, like RMI , Socket Programming, Security (not required for Certification), Servlets (not required for Certification) etc. The book's title suggests this book contain all the information about Distributed computing using Java. The Second Part of this book is dedicated to CORBA, I have still not read the second part of this book so I don’t know much about it.
Graphic Java (Vol 2) Mastering Swing (Sun Press) - This is the only book that I used for Swing programming. You should read the initial chapters of this book before diving into the details of the specific Swing Components that you want to use. The first few chapters gives talks about the Swing MVC architecture, whose understanding is necessary for the using the Swing Components, a few other Design Patters specific to the Swing architecture are also described in the first few chapters. Read the corresponding Design Patterns from the Design Patterns GoF book this will give you a better understanding of the Design Patterns and where to use them. It is not a rule to read through the initial chapters of this book you can directly jump to any Swing Component that you like and you will probably understand it, but at a later stage when you want to achieve something particular using that Swing Component, you will have no idea where to look for that information, since do not know about the Swing architecture.
Note : - All the above mentioned books are use full for the Developer Certification but none of these books can replace Java API Documentation. Use the Java API Docs to the fullest. Don’t even thing about writing a line of code if you do not have the Java API Docs installed on your system.
Tutorial Available at Sun - Parts of this tutorial was helpful.
My Notes
Some of the notes that I made, for the follow up exam (Part II). These notes are based on the decisions that I made while designing my Assignment, so they should not be used in the same context of the Assignment that you will receive.
Things that you should NOT ask me
Java 2 Programmers Certification
I got my Java Programmer Certification in Feb 2000 and obtained 86%. Here are some of the resources that I used to prepare for the Certification Exam. All the stuff that I have over here is downloaded from the net, rather nothing is written by me.
Mock Exam
Java Tester
Here is a set of Java Testing s/w written in Java. You need jre on u'r machine to run the Tester
Tips
Some Tips and Resources that may uses full for last minute reading....