SCJP Topics

In the previous posting, I've been writing about SCJP (Sun Certified Java Programmer) which is a certification test to verify a programmer's capability in understanding Java Programming Language.

Within the test, there are 10 chapters covered, covering from as simple as declaration up to painstaking Generics and Collections. To give you general understanding of SCJP, here is the list of Chapters tested in SCJP. I chose a sample of Exam 310-055 which examines the Java 5 Platform.

Chapter 1: Declarations and Access Control.
This chapter test the fundamental programming skill of the programmer. The subject of test including Identifiers & JavaBeans, how to declare Classes in Java as well as Interfaces. Chapter 1 also evaluates on Class Members Declarations.

Chapter 2: Object Orientation.
Chapter 2 focus on Java as OOP (Object-Oriented Programming) language, and therefore programmer will face question regarding on relation among classes. This chapter covers Inheritance, Polymorphism, Overriding & Overloading, Reference Variable Casting, Interface Implementation, Return Types, Constructors & Instantiation, Statics, and Cohesion within the code.


Chapter 3: Assignments.
In this chapter, programmer should understand how to assign values to a specific Class members. Firstly, he needs to know about Literals, Assignments, and Variables, then how to pass variable into methods. Moreover, Array declaration, construction, and initialization is also covered in this chapter as well as using Wrapper Class and Boxing. Overloading and Garbage Collection are also under this discussion.

Chapter 4: Operators.
To successfully complete test problems regarding to operator, a test-taker should understand various operators in Java, including assignment operators, arithmetic operators, relational operators, instanceof operator, logical operators, and conditional operators.

Chapter 5: Flow Control, Exceptions, and Assertions.
As a programmer needs to control the flow within his program, the use of flow control is inevitable, and therefore Sun really tests programmer's skill on it. Understanding "if" and "switch" statements and loops are compulsory. Then a programmer should also be capable of handling exceptions and of working with Assertion Mechanism.

Chapter 6: Strings, I/O, Formatting, and Parsing.
Almost every program require interaction to access a file, and that's why Sun has chapter 6 which focuses on File Navigation and I/O and tests Serialization mechanism. The concept of Dates, Numbers, and Currency are also discussed here, added with Parsing, Tokenizing, and Formating.

Chapter 7: Generics and Collections.
As the use of Generics and Collections is getting more common now, Sun needs every of its programmer to understand the concept of Collections and then to be capable of using Collections within his programs. Moreover, it also tests the Generic Types.

Chapter 8: Inner Classes.
A very special topic in SCJP Exam that covers Inner Class. In this part, a programmer should understand the Method-Local Inner Classes, Anonymous Inner Class, and the concept of Static Nested Classes.

Chapter 9: Threads.
Thread is very powerful in multi-tasking purpose and every programmer should be aware of it. In this chapter, we will discuss Thread States and Transitions, then Synchronizing Code, and Thread Interactions.

Chapter 10: Development.
As Java is not a stand alone program, it will need to use other resources from outside or to let others use his package, that's the content of Development chapter. In this chapter, a programmer needs to know about managing JAR Files, and to use Static Imports.

That's a general overview of SCJP Test. Wish you'll get more used to it. I'll come back later with more details information about it. Good Luck for your test.