Update (11/05/2020): Read The 1Z0-819 Exam page to learn how you can easily our Java 11 Study Guides to prepare for Oracle’s 1Z0-819 Exam, as well as the 1Z0-817 Upgrade Exam.

In May, I took part 1 of the OCP 11 certification (1Z0-815). Today I took part 2. The objectives indicated it was a mix of topics from the OCP 8 and new ones. I passed with 80%. You might be thinking this is low for a cert book author. Do keep in mind that I had to take the exam without a study guide :). And also, that some topics are Scott so he is an expert on those!

How I studied

• I read the relevant chapters from our OCP 8 book.
• Did the official practice questions. (It would have been better if these were split between part 1 and part 2). There are only a few
• Read the secure coding guide from Oracle
• Read the annotations trail from Oracle
• Re-read chapters 9 and 10 from Manning’s Java Module System book (I was the Technical Development Editor on this book)
• Read the java.boot.by guide for the 1Z0–817 exam. (Different exam, but it was a perspective on the new topics)
• I did some of the practice questions from that book as well. I didn’t do well on these because I did it late at night (I’m a morning person) and I don’t think I retained much.

The morning of the exam, I came across Enthuware’s tips. They also recommended the secure coding guide and annotations trail. They had alternate recommendations for modules and the other topics.

My take on the exam

In some ways, this exam was easier than part 1 (1Z0-815) and in some ways it was harder.

The easier part is because part1 covers a lot of topics like constructors and inheritance that can show up in any question. So you have to constantly be on alert for things that don’t compile for reasons unrelated to the original question. By contrast, part 2 (1Z0-816) is more topic based. So if you see a question on lambdas and streams, it is likely to be about lambda and streams. If you see a question on autoboxing, it is likely to be about autoboxing.

The harder part is because there are a lot of APIs and concepts to memorize. Additionally, you are likely to be unfamiliar with some of them. Most Java developers don’t use the concurrency APIs *and* JDBC * and modules * and … every day.

It took me about 70 minutes to get through all the questions on the first pass which was about the same as part 1.

How I would recommend studying

I still recommend waiting for a study guide to be out. It’s faster to study when you have more easily digestible material. That said, if you need to take this exam before our study guide is out, I recommend:

1. Buy our OCP 8 book.
2. Read the secure coding guide from Oracle
3. Read the annotations trail from Oracle
4. Read the java.boot.by guide for the 1Z0–817 exam. (Different exam, but it gives another perspective on the new topics)
5. Read chapters 9 and 10 from Manning’s Java Module System book. Note that Manning allows you to read 5 minutes a day for free. They also have micropurchases so you can just buy the one chapter. You start on the book page and click on the chapter you want to read. After 5 minutes, you are prompted to pay if you want to continue. You get 500 tokens for free.
6. Do the official practice questions. There are only a few.
7. Do the Enthuware tests fo more practice questions.