At CodeRanch, we frequently encounter the question, “should I take the OCA/OCP 8 certification exam or wait for the Java 9 cert to come out. My answer is to take the Java 8 cert. It could be a long wait for Java “9” certs.

Two months ago, I posted a comment that I’d be shocked if the OCP 9 was out by mid-2018:

• March 18, 2014 – Java8 released
• August 31, 2014 – OCA 8 beta opens
• April 28, 2015 – OCP 8 beta opens

Granted the Java 8 exam had a lot more changes than the Java 9 exam will have. Especially on the OCP. So it shouldn’t take AS LONG for Java 9. But I would be shocked if the OCP 9 was out the middle of next year.

That was before the announcement of a 6 month release cycle for Java with a long term release every three years. The roadmap lists Java 9 and Java 18.3 as being non-long term support releases with the first one coming out in September 2018 with Java 18.9.

I imagine Oracle would update the cert with 18.9. It makes sense to do it after the results of a re-branding. It makes sense to do it when things are more stable. I feel like Java 9 is still “figuring out” Jigsaw and there will be changes by then. I also thing they are going to tie the cert to the long term support releases. It’s a lot of work to update the cert and doing that every 6 months seems like something they won’t undertake.

But no worries. The Java 6 cert still exists so it isn’t like the Java 8 one is getting pulled out from under us!

Disclaimer: I do not work for Oracle nor is this post based on anything Oracle has said. It represents my opinion.