OCAJP 7 and OCPJP 7 certifications

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S G [email protected]

Introducing OCAJP7 & OCPJP7 certifications

Outline Why get certified? Oracle’s Java certifications Getting familiar with exam questions Preparing for the exam Registering and taking the exam

Why get certified?

How do I get my first job? Hundreds of thousands of freshers try for jobs every year How do you get noticed by recruiters? Why should the recruiter select you and not someone else?

How do I get a pay raise and promotion? I work hard and do what I’m expected to do in my work Still, every year my manager says he expected more!

Do you have provable expertise or skills that

are relevant for the job?

Are you a key player? Are you a star as seen by others (particularly

management?)

Have you gone extra mile for the project and exceeded expectations?

Differentiate yourself Key to get a job, hike or promotion is to show you

deserve it One of the ways to demonstrate that you have relevant skills

and knowledge is to get certified

Benefits of getting certified

To show you’ve some document proof that you’ve relevant skills or knowledge

To show that you are different from others and have some specialized skills or knowledge

Preparing and passing the exam gives you focus on mastering the topic

Gives you confidence for getting a job or asking for a promotion/raise

Oracle’s Java certifications

Why Oracle Java certification? Java programmer certifications (SCJA/SCJP) were very

popular, and are now replaced with OCPJA/OCPJP7 certifications Java continues to be very popular The figure shows widely referred TIOBE (www.tiobe.com) language

popularity index (as on Sept ‘12)

Oracle’s certification path Five levels of certifications Associate, Professional, Master (for general technologies) Expert and Specialist (for narrow domains or technologies)

Oracle Certified Associate

Oracle Certified Professional

Oracle Certified Master

Advanced levels of skills and knowledge

Professional skills and technical expertise to develop enterprise

software

Fundamental skills, provides strong foundations for further exams

Note on exam details

When creating this presentation in Sept 2012, OCPJP7 exam is in Beta. The actual exam is scheduled to be released in November, and these details may change in the actual exam. The exam details and discussion here is based on information available as on Sept 2012

OCAJP 7 exam overview

Expertise level Beginner

Pre-requisite certification None

Exam Number 1Z0-803

Exam Name Java SE 7 Programmer I

Associated CertificationOracle Certified Associate, Java SE 7 Programmer (OCAJP 7)

Exam duration 2 hrs 20 minutes (140 mins)

Number of questions 90 Questions

Pass percentage 77%

Cost Approx. USD 300

Exam release status BetaCosts lesser in India –

Approx. Rs. 8500!

OCAJP 7 exam topics

Java Basics

Working With Java Data Types

Using Operators and Decision Constructs

Creating and Using Arrays

Using Loop Constructs

Working with Methods and Encapsulation

Working with Inheritance

Handling Exceptions

This table shows only top-level

topics – for detailed sub-topics, see Oracle website

OCPJP 7 exam overview

Expertise level Intermediate

Pre-requisite certification OCAJP7

Exam Number 1Z0-804

Exam Name Java SE 7 Programmer II

Associated CertificationOracle Certified Professional, Java SE 7 Programmer (OCPJP 7)



Pass percentage 65%



Approx. Rs. 8500!

OCPJP 7 exam topics

Java Class Design

Advanced Class Design

Object-Oriented Design Principles

Generics and Collections

String Processing

Exceptions and Assertions

Java I/O Fundamentals

Java File I/O (NIO.2)

Building Database Applications with JDBC

Threads

Concurrency

Localization



Upgrade to OCPJP 7 exam overview

Expertise level Intermediate

Pre-requisite certification Any older OCPJP version or any version of SCJP

Exam Number 1Z0-805

Exam Name Upgrade to Java SE 7 Programmer

Associated CertificationOracle Certified Professional, Java SE 7 Programmer (OCPJP 7)



Pass percentage 60%



Approx. Rs. 8500!

Upgrade to OCPJP 7 exam topics

Language Enhancements

Design Patterns

Java File I/O (NIO.2)

Database Applications with JDBC

Concurrency

Localization



Getting familiar with exam questions

What kind of exam is it? It’s a multiple-choice questions exam The number of options would be based on the questions Can be from 4 to 7 options (typically four options)

Many questions will have more than one answer to be selected! The question will clearly tell you how many options you need

to select

What does the questions test? Questions intend to test your ability to solve

real-world problems Most questions would be programming questions Given a program or code segment, predict the behavior

Also few conceptual questions These questions will test your knowledge and will not

have any programs in it. Examples: .What are different kinds of drivers in JDBC.What are different kinds of liveness problems with

threads

Example: Conceptual question Which one of the following relationship describes the OO design concept of "composition"?

a) is-ab) is-a-kind-ofc) has-ad) is-implemented-in-terms-ofe) composed-as

Answer: c) has-a

Composition is a design concept that refers to has-a relationship.

Tests your Java language knowledge Questions will test your knowledge of language

features and their usage Will test if you understand language features and

can apply them in practical situations Most questions will be on nitty-gritty details or

corner cases, or unusual aspects of the language Example: You don’t just need to understand the generics

feature in Java but also need to understand problems due to type-erasure, mixing legacy containers with generic containers, etc.

Sample question – 1

Sample question – 1 [options]Which one of the following options best describes the behavior of this program?

a) The program prints: in catch -> in finally -> after everythingb) The program prints: after throw -> in catch -> in finally -> after

everythingc) The program prints: in catch -> in finally -> after everythingd) The program prints: in catch -> after everythinge) The program prints: in catch -> in finally ->f) When compiled, the program results in a compiler error in line

marked with comment in LINE A for divide-by-zero

Sample question – 1 [answer] e) The program prints: in catch -> in finally ->

The statement println("after throw -> "); will never be executed since the line marked with comment LINE A throws an exception.

The catch handles ArithmeticException, so println("in catch -> "); will be executed.

Following that there is a return statement, so the function returns. But before the function returns, the finally statement should be

called, and hence the statement println("in finally -> "); will get executed.

So, the statement println("after everything"); will never get executed.

Tests your library knowledge and skills Questions will test your knowledge of library

features and their usage Will test if your familiarity with Java APIs and know

how to use them in practical situations Most questions will be on nitty-gritty details or

corner cases, or unusual aspects of the library Example: What does the remove() method of Deque do? (Answer: It removes

the first element from the underlying deque instance). What will happen if sleep() method is interrupted? (Answer: You'll get

an InterrputedException).

Example: API usage question

Example: API usage question [options]Which one of the following options correctly describes the behavior of this program?

a) This program will result in a compiler error in line marked with comment LINE A b) When executed, the program prints: Brazil Russia India China c) When executed, the program prints: Brazil China India Russiad) When executed, the program prints: Russia India China Brazile) When executed, the program throws a runtime exception NullPointerException when executing the line marked with comment LINE A f) When executed, the program throws a runtime exception InvalidComparatorException when executing the line marked with comment LINE A

Example: API usage question [answer] Answer: c) When executed, the program prints: Brazil China India Russia

When null is passed as second argument to Arrays.sort() method, it means that the default Comparable (i.e., natural ordering for the elements) should be used. The default Compartor results in sorting the elements in ascending order. The program does not result in a NullPointerException or any other exceptions or a compiler error.

Does not test your memorizing skills! The exam tests your understanding of the Java language

and library and your ability to apply it for problem solving It does not test your memory skills However, there are few topics where you may need to

remember key things; examples: Letters used for creating custom date and time formats ("string

patterns") for use with SimpleDateFormat class Characters used for forming pattern strings in regular expressions Format specifiers and their meaning for use in format() method in

String and in printf()

Out-of-syllabus questions? Exam questions need not be exactly from the exam objectives Any topics related to the exam objectives can come in the

exam For example, serialization and use of transient keyword is not

explicitly mentioned in the OCPJP exam topic But this topic come in the actual exam because it is related to reading

and writing streams .one of the streams is ObjectStreams and it relates to serialization!

Preparing for the exam

Code, code, code! The best way to prepare for the exam is to write lots and

lots of small programs and learn from your mistakes! If possible, do some small toy projects in the topics you’re new

or not familiar with. Examples: For localization, you can localize your old programs For JDBC, you can create a simple exam simulator program For I/O fundamentals and NIO.2, you can implement simple DOS or

Unix commands using these Java APIs

Read, read, read! By reading more, you’ll learn more about the language

features and the library. Lots of resources in the internet. Two indispensable ones

are: Oracle’s online Java tutorial: Read the Java tutorial available in the

Oracle website for free; you can access it at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/; tutorial pages to prepare for OCPJP7 are available in http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/extra/certification/javase-7-programmer2.html

Java documentation. The Java API documentation is a rich mine of information. This documentation is available in web (see http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/) as well as shipped as part of the Java SDK.

Focus more on new topics Take a close look at the exam objectives and grade

yourself from say 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest. Prepare all the topics for which you've rated yourself as 8

or below. Focus more on the topics in which you’ve rated yourself

8 or below.

Take mock-exams Attempt mock exams Take the exam as if it were the real exam: Get a quite place where you can take the test without a break Don’t refer to any books, ask others, or check web …

Prepare based on the topics where you score very low And then take another test, and so on …

Registering and taking the exam

How can I register for the exam? You can register and pay at the Pearson VUE website Recommended option

You can buy exam voucher from Oracle and then register yourself in Pearson VUE website

You can register and pay in the Oracle Testing Center (OTC)

That’s it – All the best!

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OCAJP 7 and OCPJP 7 certifications