Mala Gupta - OCA Java SE 8 Programmer I Certification Guide

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Development editor: Cynthia KaneTechnical development editor: Francesco BianchiCopy editor: Linda RecktenwaldProofreader: Katie TennantTechnical proofreader: Jean-Franois MorinTypesetter: Dennis DalinnikCover designer: Marija Tudor

ISBN: 9781617293252

Printed in the United States of America

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To Dheeraj, my pillar of strength

Java programmer certifications are designed to tell would-be employers whether you really know your stuff, and cracking the OCA Java SE 8 Programmer Certification is not an easy task. Thorough preparation is crucial if you want to pass the exam the first time with a score that you can be proud of. You need to know Java inside-out, and you need to understand the certification process so that youre ready for the challenging questions youll face in the exam.

This book is a comprehensive guide to the 1Z0-808 exam. Youll explore a wide range of important Java topics as you systematically learn how to pass the certification exam. Each chapter starts with a list of the exam objectives covered in that chapter. Throughout the book youll find sample questions and exercises designed to reinforce key concepts and prepare you for what youll see in the real exam, along with numerous tips, notes, and visual aids.

Unlike many other exam guides, this book provides multiple ways to digest important techniques and concepts, including comic conversations, analogies, pictorial representations, flowcharts, UML diagrams, and, naturally, lots of well-commented code. The book also gives insight into common mistakes people make when taking the exam, and guides you in avoiding traps and pitfalls. It provides

• Complete coverage of exam topics, all mapped to chapter and section numbers
• Hands-on coding exercises, including particularly challenging ones that throw in a twist
• Instruction on whats happening behind the scenes using the actual code from the Java API source
• Mastery of both the concepts and the exam

This book is written for developers with a working knowledge of Java. My hope is that the book will deepen your knowledge and prepare you well for the exam and that you will pass it with flying colors!

First and foremost, I thank Dheerajmy pillar of strength, my best friend, and my husband. His constant guidance, encouragement, and love kept me going. He helped me to get started with this book and got me over the goal line.

My sincere gratitude goes to Marjan Bace, publisher at Manning, for giving me the opportunity to author this book. The Manning team has been wonderfulMichael Stephens ensured that it was worth it for Manning to have a book on this subject. Cynthia Kane, my development editor, is like sunshine. Not only did she help me with the organization of individual chapters and the overall book, but she pulled me through whenever the task of writing a book became overwhelming. Its always a pleasure to work with her. Copyeditor Linda Recktenwald not only applied her magic to sentence and language constructions but also supplemented her editing with valuable suggestions on technical content.

Technical development editor Francesco Bianchi suggested multiple additions and modifications, improving the content of this book. Technical proofreader Jean-Franois Morin was outstanding in his review. He not only pointed out existing errors but also suggested multiple improvements to the organization of the contents. Proofreader Katie Tennant was extremely capable and talented. She reviewed the final manuscript with great precision.

The technical reviewers on this book did an awesome job of reviewing the contents and sharing their valuable feedback and comments: Andrea Barisone, Andrea Consentino, Anutosh Ghosh, David Blau, Marty Henderson, Mirsad Vojnikovic, Nicola Pedot, Sanjiv Kumar, Simona Russo, Travis Nelson, and Ursin Stauss. I would also like to thank Nicole Butterfield and Donna Clements, review editors, for managing the whole review process and meticulously funneling the feedback to make this book better.

Dennis Dalinnik did an outstanding job of converting the black-and-white hand-drawn illustrations into glorious images. It was amazing to scrutinize the page proofs. I also thank Dennis for adjusting the images in the final page proofs, which was a lot of work. Janet Vail and Mary Piergies were awesome in their expertise at turning all text, code, and images into publishable form. I am also grateful to Candace Gillhoolley for her efforts in promoting the book.

I thank the MEAP readers for buying the book while it was being developed and for their suggestions, corrections, and encouragement.

I would also like to thank my former colleagues Harry Mantheakis, Paul Rosenthal, and Selvan Rajan, whose names I use in coding examples throughout the book. I have always looked up to them.

I thank my daughters, Shreya and Pavni, who often advised me on the images that I created for the book. I thank my family for their unconditional support. The book would have been not been possible without their love and encouragement.

This book is written for developers with a working knowledge of Java who want to earn the OCA Java SE 8 Programmer Certification. It uses powerful tools and features to make reaching your goal of certification a quick, smooth, and enjoyable experience. This section explains the features used in the book and tells you how to use the book to get the most out of it as you prepare for the certification exam. More information on the exam and on how the book is organized is available in the Introduction.

I strongly recommend a structured approach to preparing for this exam. To help you with this task, I developed a chapter-based exam objective map, as shown in . The full version is in the Introduction (table I.3).