How to Become an Oracle Certified Professional Java SE 8 Programmer

This article will again focus on certification. Not so long ago, I talked about the process of obtaining a certificate from Google for Android developers. You can read about it here. In the article, I periodically compared with the process of obtaining certificates from Oracle. After a little thought, I decided to disclose this topic in more detail, since I received a certificate from Oracle six months ago and have not forgotten everything. Naturally, on a habr already more than once described this process. For example, fairly detailed descriptions can be found here and here.However, these articles were written several years ago, and affect Java SE 7. I will try to focus on the features of the Java SE 8 exam and, in principle, update the information on the process of obtaining a certificate. Those who are still interested, please, under cat.

Varieties of certificates

So, for some reason, you decided to become not just a Java developer, but a certified Java developer. We will naturally go to Oracle for the certificate. Already something, but they have enough of this good. But we are only interested in Java certificates, in particular Java SE 8. What options do we have? You can see them here.

At the time of writing, there are the following options:



As you can see, there are 3 levels of certificates:

• Associate
• Professional
• Master

If this is your first Java certificate, then your path will definitely lead you to the Java SE 8 Oracle Certified Associate (OCA) certification. This is the easiest exam, but without it (or similar, about which a little later) you can’t get the rest. To obtain this certificate you just need to pass the exam number 1Z0-808. I did not have a chance to pass it, so we will move on.

If you have already received one of the certificates, then you can move towards the Oracle Certified Professional Java SE 8 Programmer, about which this article itself. And here there are already the following options:

• you have Associate Java SE 8 certificate
• you have Programmer Java SE 7 certificate
• you have a Programmer Java SE 6 or below certificate

I want to pay closer attention to this moment. The choice of exam that you need to pass depends on what kind of certificate you have. And on what exam will be chosen, questions on this exam will depend.




And finally, the crown of everything, Oracle Certified Master, Java SE 6 Developer. Why 6, you ask, because we are talking about Java SE 8. What is the reason I do not know, but Oracle is not going to graduate from the Master level exam for the 8th Java. At least in support, they answered me that way. This is probably the content of the exam. Associate and Programmer levels test knowledge of SDK of the corresponding version. In the case of Master, you need to write an application. And in this case, it is probably not so important which Java it is written in. Master is also the most expensive exam - its cost is inexorably creeping up to $ 1000, since to get it you must pass any of the Oracle training courses.

It just so happened that the third option came up to me, since I had a certificate in my hands on Java SE 6, and I missed the seven, because there were not many changes there. Everything that will be written further will relate specifically to obtaining an Oracle Certified Professional Java SE 8 Programmer certificate by upgrading it from a certificate for 6th Java.

Training

So, you have decided which exam you need to take and are ready to rush into battle. But I do not advise you to rush. Even if you are a Java guru, certification can bring you many surprises, mostly unpleasant ones.

What do you need to keep in mind? Certification tests your knowledge of the SDK in many ways. Somewhere they ask to evaluate a piece of code and point out errors. Somewhere you need to mentally run the program and determine its output. Somewhere you need to complete the code. In general, there are many options, but all hide one main catch. More precisely, there are two of them. It is necessary to determine whether the given piece of code compiles. In a large number of questions, there is an answer option that assumes that the code does not compile. If you use the IDE in your work, then there may be difficulties, since it is usually the IDE that takes on this task. It will take some time to start doing this yourself. And here the second trick comes into play - the authors of the tests expect unconditional knowledge of method signatures from candidates. In many matters, compilation will not happen precisely because

All of the above can be circumvented in a fairly simple way - spend some time preparing for certification. Not learning Java, but preparing for certification. And just now I’ll write how I prepared with the test.

Having experience in preparing for certification and knowing what I will face, I divided the preparation for myself into 3 parts:

• reading books and solving mock problems
• examining Oracle recommendations
• free arts

When preparing for certification on Java 8, the main attention should be paid to the Stream API and lambdas. This will be a lot. There will also be many questions about the date, time, and related things. NIO2 will also be many. If you are upgrading from an old version of Java, there will also be a number of specific questions about things that were not present in these old versions. This is especially true for Java 6 and earlier.

The first part is quite simple. We need to find a booklet that describes the process of preparing for certification with all the details. And such a book exists. They are for different versions of Java and different levels of certification. In my case, I needed a book called “Java OCP 8 Programmer II Study Guide”authored by Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff. It has a very detailed and well-written preparation process. The content is divided into parts, each of which 10-20 test tasks are attached. Also on a special site, a link to which is at the end of the book, you can pass 3 test exams.

My training scheme was as follows. I read the book from beginning to end, simultaneously solving problems at the end of each part. After that, the first of three exams passed, gaining exactly 63% passing score. Very dissatisfied with the result, I read the book again, focusing on those parts in which I scored the least points. I also solved the problems at the end of each part again. The second exam was better, in my opinion something about 70%. After that I proceeded to the second part of the preparation.

We go to the page of the selected exam.


There we go to the Exam Topics tab and see a long list of what will be asked on the exam. We take each item and carefully prepare. After reading and comprehending this list, you should know the Tao to be aware of almost any trick from the developers.

The second part flows smoothly into the third. Armed with knowledge from the book and knowledge of what they will ask, we try to write small pieces of code on the list. During this process, I discovered heels of interesting things, two of which I met on the exam. Those. they have not been directly mentioned anywhere before. Having played enough with writing code, I passed the third exam and got something about 75%. It should be noted that test questions are usually more difficult than real ones. Therefore, I found the result satisfactory and went to sign up for the exam.

Registration for certification

As before, Oracle collaborates with certification centers that do all the dirty work of organizing the test for them . Deciding not to look for good from good, I went to the sitethe center where he received the first certificate. If you have not been there, you will need to register. After which, most likely, you will need to fill out a profile. I did this 4 years ago, so I don’t remember the details. But with the profile you need to be careful. When I created it, I was in Russia, and I indicated the name and surname in the first transliteration that came to mind. Since during the first certification I presented my Russian passport, this did not raise any special issues. Going into the profile this time, I found that the data does not match the data in my passport, which I use because of being in another country. In order not to have problems on the day of certification, I decided to update the data. To do this, I had to talk with technical support, send them a scan of the passport and make a number of body movements. It took all a few days.

After filling out the profile, you can actually proceed to the appointment of the date and place of the test. We are looking for a list of authorized centers in your city and select the one you like. It’s worthwhile to approach the choice thoughtfully, maybe even go see it. In some centers it can be cold, or hot, or noisy, or crowded, or whatever. In my case, there is only one center in the city, and I was lazy to go 70 km to another city.

We select the available date and time and proceed to payment. On the official Oracle website, the exam cost is listed as $ 245, but in fact the price may vary slightly from country to country. In my case, it amounted to 250 euros.

After payment, a handful of letters will have to come, telling different information. I did not find anything particularly valuable there. You can exhale and relax, or continue training.

Passing test

On the appointed day, we leave for the change center. It is better to come in advance, as it will be necessary to fill out a number of documents and hand over things. In my case, the webcam for some reason refused to recognize my face. 15 minutes it took only to take a photo. You can’t take anything for the exam, from the word at all. Everything that will be discovered with you can be used against you. I was lucky both times that I was in the room alone and no one bothered me. But in principle, you can have neighbors who will also take something.

The test takes about 2 hours, depending on the version of the exam. Usually manage to manage faster. All questions in the multiple choice test. If there are several answers, then how many are said. During the test, questions can be skipped and answered later. You can immediately cross out the wrong answers so that later it is easier to choose. If you don’t know the answer at all, choose at least something. Chances to guess are not so small. After all the questions are answered, we complete the test. Previously, the result was immediately shown, now we have to wait. We take our things and leave. If the test fails, you will have to pay the full amount for a new attempt.

Upon arrival home, a letter was already waiting for me, in which it was reported that I had passed the test and scored 86%. Not so bad, considering that 4 years ago I scored 80% and in general I am not a great specialist in Java, especially in the 8th part, since I write under Android. Passing score, as I mentioned, 63%. The letter also stated that the certificate would be ready in a few days. Indeed, a few days later a new certificate appeared in the personal account on the Orcale website.


Also attached to the certificate icon (badge) on some third-party site. It looks like this. If you wish, you can order yourself a paper copy, which I did. It looks exactly the same. I arrived in the mail within 2-3 weeks.

After some time, a letter arrived suggesting that I get a Java message for free. I think that attentive readers have already noticed it in the previous screenshots. Who will refuse a free t-shirt? They also sent in 2-3 weeks.

Summary

On this, the certification process can be considered completed. To summarize what we need and what we get.

You will need:

• some previous Java certificate from Oracle
• training book
• time to prepare
• about 250 $ for passing the test
• time to take the test
• a lot of patience to feel like a compiler :)

We get:

• digital certificate in your account
• paper certificate
• digital icon
• T-shirt (hurry, limited offer)
• sacred knowledge of Java SE 8

I wish patience and good luck to everyone who decides on this event.