Fun path to Java 11 Developer Certifications
Speaker: Mala Gupta – @emalagupta
For more blog posts, see The Oracle Code One table of contents
Why cert
- Highlights important topics
- Suggests a path to learn
- Bare minimum of what every Java programmer must know to get started
- Don’t plan to fail. Ok if do so. But don’t plan for it
- Good coding practices [I think the exam tries. But not always. For example, the Java 8 JDBC topics were an example of how not to write JDBC. This got better with the java 11 exam where PreparedStatement was finally covered]
- Industry standardizes IT skills
- Good for students, professionals, those transitioning from other languages
Other ways to learn [not mutually exclusive. Mala wrote a book for the cert. As did Scott and I]
- Books
- Courses – Mala had a bad experience. Course oversold.
- Hackathons – deep dive on select topics
- Learn on job – would you go to a surgeon where it was his first surgery.
Changes with Java 11 cert
- No more OCA exam
- Still two exams – Programmer I and Programmer II.
- But no longer earn interim OCA cert.
- Oracle felt people were stopping at OCA level
- Can take part 1 and part 2 in any order, but makes sense to take level 1 first.
- Level 1 covers basics; level 2 covers exam topics.
8 types of questions
- sample code and question about output
- text only – simpler to answer – conceptual
- fill in the blank
- select options that are true about code
- select incorrect options (that are false about code)
- answers are blocks of code
- diagram
- [I missed one type]
How to make studying for a cert fun
- Images – emotional connection. Also fun to draw images. Point embedded in mind.
- Try catch block concept with a tiger and two doors. Animals only and Tigers only. Very cute!
- Cartoon showing finally block with coffee
- Highlighted code block
- throw vs throws with the keywords highlighted with a rectangle surrounding
- nested circles to show access control
- Diagrams
- people
- array with cars/shapes/grid for multi dimensional array
- Cartoon dialog
- Code on left. Image on right is two people in love (or not)
- Discussion about equals
- Write own questions and have others do that
- Twist in the tale – change code and see what happened
- A-ha moments – write them down as study
Q&A
- How long to study for cert? 1-3 months [I think upper bound is longer]
- 6 months cadence? Probably LTS versions but can’t confirm [Oracle hasn’t said, but I agree]
- Books? Will have MEAP out soon. [Also, Scott and my book publishes this year]
My take: I like that Mala had characters introducing her presentation. It reminded me of the book. Mala speaks a lot like she writes which is good. I felt like there was a lot up front selling the cert. I would think people who chose this cert talk would be interested in the cert. I was happy to see 2/3 of the presentation was on making studying fun. I like the 8 types of questions and samples. It was a good organization system. The types were a little hard to read. I like the interaction by having everyone write a question.