SCJA Guide

I am a Sun Certified Java associate and would like to share my knowledge and recommendations with you. I think the exam evaluates your IT and Java knowledge. The Sun Certified Associate (SCJA) for the Java Platform provides an ideal entry into an application development or a software project management career using Java technologies. Thats why it is a good certificate to have. After I used the resources, pointed out below, I was quite ready for the real exam and I got 90 % success.

 Since I am a computer engineer and has several years programming experience, becoming a SCJA was not that hectic for me. But I recommend you to practice a lot and solve sample tests.  I think, Sun Microsystems’ certificate exams are prestigious enough in the market and help professionals to find better positions.

Never the less, lets come to my recommendations:
1- Write codes as much as possible by using NetBeans IDE (I have used NB and it was quite cool).
2- Study through Sun SAI courses web site (online learning services)
3- Solve lots of mock up exams and questions (You can find examples from the links below)
4- Be careful about the details during the real exam

SCJA Resource 1
SCJA Resource 2
SCJA Resource 3
SCJA Resource 4
SCJA Resource 5
SCJA Resource 6
SCJA Resource 7
SCJA Resource 8
SCJA Resource 9

Exam Objectives
Section 1: Fundamental Object-Oriented Concepts
For this part, write lots of codes by NetBeans IDE and learn the OO principles.

Section 2: UML Representation of Object-Oriented Concepts
For this section read only this UML document and it will be more than enough

Section 3: Java Implementation of Object-Oriented Concepts
Study by using links above

Section 4: Algorithm Design and Implementation
Write codes and try to be careful even about the small details like “string or String” and ” ; ”

Section 5: Java Development Fundamentals
Use link above

Section 6: Java Platforms and Integration Technologies
SAI is enough and read documents to learn a bit more

Section 7: Client Technologies
SAI is enough and read documents to learn a bit more

Section 8: Server Technologies
SAI is enough and read documents to learn a bit more

Try to memorize these notes. Some of them will be the answer of real SCJA exam.

* By definition an enumerated type is a finite set of symbolic literals

* In Java an enumerated type is represented as first-class object.

* Enumerated type literals are allowed in case statements.

* The literals of an enumerated type may be of any valid Java identifier

* An interface may NOT contain any concrete method implementations

* An interface is NOT a class of any style.

* An interface defines a set of abstract methods that may have many implementations.

* An interface is NOT a member of a class.

* Both class associations and class compositions relationship may be of any multiplicity.

* Compositions may also have navigation methods, but these methods must NOT pass references to the owned objects. This is usually achieved by passing back a copy of the object rather than the owned object itself. Composition implies that the owning object controls the life cycle of the owned bject.

* Dependency : one object uses another object during computations.

* The portability of a Java application is NOT dependent

* Upon whether information hiding was used. the class cannot protect bad assignments. For example, setting a negative value for an account balance.

* Classes that do NOT support information hiding are NOT treated specially in Java

* Disadvantages of information hiding: Access to object

* Attributes incur a runtime penalty. However, the Sun hotspot JVM usually can eliminate the added overhead by “inlining” the methods where they are called.

* It is time consuming to use methods to access object attributes rather than direct access.

* Information hiding does NOT restrict the reusability of a superclass.

* Interfaces are only contracts (declarations of public methods) and a program needs classes for actual behavior.

* NOT every class will have behavior that requires an explicit contract (interface).

* It is the reference variables to objects that need to be as generic as possible. This is the essence of the “program to an interface” principle.

* An interface cannot be instantiated using the new operator

* The minus symbol in a uml class diagram signifies private visibility

* The + symbol in a uml class diagram signifies public visibility

* Encapsulation: all of its attributes be private and it provides appropriate public accessor and mutator methods.

* UML: attribute representation: – attr : int

* UML

o ? is NOT a valid multiplicity indicator.

o 0..* indicates zero or more multiplicity.

o 0..1 indicates zero or one multiplicity, which is how you can represent an optional association.

o ?..1 is NOT a valid multiplicity indicator.

o ? is NOT a valid multiplicity indicator.

o * is an abbreviation for 0..*.

o M is NOT a valid multiplicity indicator.

o ? is NOT a valid multiplicity indicator.

o 0..* is exactly how to indicate zero or more.

o M is NOT a valid multiplicity indicator.

* Enums and arrays make use of object references

* A source file can have zero package statements or one package statement.

* A source file automatically imports all classes of its package.

* java -version com.example.MyProgram: The Java interpreter prints the version information and exits.

* The Collections APIs contain interfaces for lists and sets.

* The Collections APIs are in the java.util package.

* the classes for TCP and UDP communication are contained in the java.net package.

* cell phone side of an application requires the micro edition and the server side with EJB requires the enterprise edition

* the J2SE platform has rich GUI capabilities, as well as IP communication capabilities allowing multiple, Internet-wide applications to exchange data.

* TCP/IP sockets are the basis of RMI.

* RMI may create new threads for each request.

* JMS is used to communicate with messaging services asynchronously.

* HTML does NOT provide interactive capabilities.

* HTML does NOT provide a rich set of UI components.

* HTML does provide navigation capabilities, such as hyperlinks.

* HTML does provide rich text formatting capabilities, such as tables and cascading style sheets.

* J2me includes APIs for playing audio media.

* J2ME provides limited user interface components.

* J2ME applications usually execute on small devices with small screen resolution, which cannot support rich UI components.

* an Applet executes within a security sandbox that, by default, prohibits access to the user’s filesystem.

* an Applet might fail to execute correctly (or at all) if the web browser does NOT have the appropriate JRE installed.

* an Applet does NOT have access to the web browser’s cookie information.

* the default security sandbox does permit communication with the originating enterprise server.

* Applets execute in a security sandbox that does NOT permit access to files on the client system.

* Applets can be used to create animated games. However, Applets do NOT have access to gaming-specific APIs like J2ME applications do.

* Applets cannot connect to arbitrary Internet servers.

* Applets may connect to the server that delivered the Applet to access media files on that server.

* Applets can access other Applets on the same web page.

* Applets can access other Applets on the page through the AppletContext object supplied by the web browser.

* Swing (Richest GUI components in j2SE) has a broader GUI component set than AWT.

* MIDP is a J2ME (not J2SE) profile.

* JSF is a J2EE web-based UI component framework with only a limited component set.

* AWT has a more limited GUI component set than Swing

* SWT is NOT a standard J2SE technology.

* JSP is used to create dynamic HTML content. It does NOT handle business logic.

* JMS is the technology that handles asynchronous requests and performs the business logic of these requests.

* JDBC is a database communication technology and does NOT handle business logic.

* JNDI is a naming and directory service interface. It does NOT handle business logic.

* JNDI and JDBC support completely independent purposes in an application. JNDI is an interface to directory servers and JDBC is an interface to database servers.

* Servlets and SQL support completely independent purposes in an application. Servlets respond to HTTP requests and SQL is used to communicate with relational databases.

* JavaMail uses SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol), which is used to send email from an application to users.

* JavaScript and EJB support completely independent purposes in an application. JavaScript provides interactivity to web pages and Enterprise JavaBeans provide business logic.

* JSP technology simplifies the creation of dynamic web pages.

* JSP technology is a server-side technology.

* JSP technology is NOT intended to be used to create business components.

* JSP technology is ideal for web designers who are NOT familiar with Java programming.

* JSP technology is NOT an integration technology.

* JSP is NOT an EJB technology

* servlets are NOT an EJB technology

* MDBs do NOT record client conversational state

* stateful session beans are used to record client conversational state

* stateless session beans do NOT record client conversational state

* entity beans are used to represent persistent data.

* message-driven beans handle asynchronous events.

* Session beans only handle synchronous events.

* session beans represent business processes and

* stateless session beans are client-independent. That is, they do NOT store conversational state.

* session beans do NOT exist in the web container

* stateless session beans are used to represent client-independent business processes.

* J2EE provides a rich and flexible programming model, but it is NOT simple

* J2EE infrastructure provides rich concurrency support in both the web and EJB tiers, which supports highly scalable application development.

* clustering is NOT directly supported by the J2EE specification. However, most vendor implementations of J2EE do support clustering.

* J2EE provides declarative transaction management.

* declarative transaction management is a required feature of the EJB container

* declarative user interface construction – is NOT part of the J2EE specification.

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