SCBCD likely to be updated for EJB 3.0

On a post in Javaranch.com, Valentin Crettaz commented that SCBCD is likely to be updated for EJB 3.0 and the new exam will be available by early next year (ie 2007). Of late, many have posted on Javaranch on whether its wise to take the present SCBCD exam (viz aligned to J2EE 1.3 version of EJB Spec 2.0) or wait for the upgrade when the exam aligns with Java EE 5.0 version of EJB Spec 3.0. Now the same question is being asked about the present SCDJWS 1.4 exam (aligned to J2EE 1.4 version of WS specs). Sun has made some major architectural changes to the erstwhile JAX-RPC 1.1 (so much so that the new stack is called JAX-WS 2.0) and also the other standards have evolved in the due course (like SOAP 1.1 obsoleted bySOAP 1.2, WSDL 1.1 obsoleted by WSDL 2.0 etc). But experts at Javaranch feel that an upgrade to the present SCDJWS 1.4 will take some time (it may even be upgraded by Java EE 6.0).
In my opinion, those planning to take SCBCD 1.3 may want to wait for the newer version of the exam as its just around the cornor now. For those who planned to take SCDJWS 1.4, they need to take it now and upgrade whenever the later version becomes available. From my experience, the person taking this exam will definitely benefit from his learnings of even an older version of Spec as the newer specs in general have evolved in a backward compatible manner.

The architecture and design of webservices application has remained unaffected. And even the most hit aspect of the exam, JAX-RPC (viz is about 30% of exam) continues to be used in the industry today.

Also, there will be alot of work aimed towards upgrading the older EJB 2.0/2.1 app to EJB 3.0 and a JAX-RPC 1.1 client/service to JAX-WS 2.0. And to do such a work, one will require not only the knowledge of EJB 3.0 or JAX-WS 2.0 but also of the earlier version viz the source of upgrade.

Preparing for SCBCD 1.3

Sun certified Business Component Developer exam (SCBCD 1.3)
is the exam i am going to take next on the coming monday (30 th Sept, 2006).
This exam covers EJB 2.0 spec (of J2EE 1.3). I am going to prepare for it inthe following way:
1. First refer to my notes from Mastering EJB 3rd Edn book by Ed Roman et al (covers EJB 2.1 and not 2.0 as required by exam).
2. Read Head first EJB book by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates.
3. Mocks from Enthuware's EJBPlus.

Thats all of it i will do (or rather i can do) with 1 week of preparation.

Update 30th Sept, 2006: I passed this exam with 85% (85.7% in fact ;) ). Read my post on javarach of the customary how-i-prepared-for-it.

Preparing for SCWCD 1.4

I have decided to take the SCWCD 1.4 (CX-310-081) exam and have booked a slot for taking the exam at the local prometric test center on 18th Sept, 2006. I had already read the book Head First Servlets and JSP by Bryan Basham, Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates before but it was some 10 months back that it did so, and i needed some time to recap on the theory. I am using MZ's WCD Study guide to prepare and practice using the exercises from Head First book. I plan to use Enthuware JWebplus mock exam together with the mock exam with the Head first book and the mock exam at JavaRanch.com.

Update 18th Sept, 2006: I have passed the exam today morning and could complete it 45mins earlier (ie i took 1hr 30mins of time to complete the exam). Refer to my post on javaranch about how i prepared for it and where i went wrong to end up with the low score of 82%.

Preparing for SCDJWS

SCDJWS 1.4 is Sun Certified Developer for Java Web Services certification exam. I started preparing for this exam after taking the SCJP 5.0 exam earlier in May 2006. This exam covers alot of specifications (XML 1.0, XML Schema 1.0, WS-I BP 1.0a, J2EE 1.4 for WS 1.1, WSDL 1.1, SOAP 1.1, UDDI 2.0, JAX-RPC 1.1 to name a few). You can see the complete list at Valentin Crettaz's site. There isnt any certification guide available as of this writing for this exam so i followed the advices of people who have already taken this certification exam at JavaRanch SCDJWS Forum and following is my approach to prepare for the exam.

Again, as has become a standard practice for me, i started with a word document where i copy pasted the exam objectives and wrote down the reference material (name of the book and chapters) for each topic on the exam. In summary, following are the resources i am referring:

• J2EE WebServices by Richard Monson-Haefel (RMH): all chapters + appendices E, F & G. I did not read the F and G from here but referred to MZ's notes for SwA with SAAJ.
  
• Sun's Blueprint book - Designing Webservices using J2EE 1.4: whole book
  
• Mikalai Zaikin's (MZ) WSD Notes and Quiz You will need to buy the quiz (~95+ questions) from Mikalai. I referred to the Security (chapter 8) and a section on SwA with SAAJ (a section in chapter 2) from MZ's notes. I went through all quiz questions once, a night before the exam.
• XYZWS.COM - provides a free mock exam (in all 200 questions collection).
  
• XSLT and TrAX from Elliot Rusty Harold's (ERH) excellent book Processing XML with Java.
  
• Java Webservices Tutorial (WST) for tutorial on JAXB (chapters 1 & 2)

14th Jul 2006 - I am through with all chapters from the RMH book and am mid-way through the Blueprint book. I have to go back to RMH to cover appendices E, F & G which cover SwA, SAAJ with Attachments and JAX-RPC & SwA. I also have to cover the ERH book's XSLT/TrAX, MZ's notes + WS-Security and WST for JAXB/Security. This might take me another week. I plan to complete the syllabus by 21st Jul 2006. After this i will need another week's time to revise my notes and practice more on the code.

I have created some sample programs from RMH's book (on topics like XSD, XML namespaces, JAX-RPC JSE/EJB Endpoints and clients Generated stubs/Dynamic Proxies/DII, JAXR, JAXP DOM/SAX).

I practiced the JAXB samples (first 5 only) as discussed in the WST. The exam does not require one to know

customizing the JAXB bindings so i did not cover those topics. For security, i did not do any programming but just read the concepts from MZ's notes.

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10th Aug, 2006 - I passed the exam (CX-310-220) with 88%. If you need my study notes (305 pages covering whole syllabus completely) the download it here. You can read my final tips to the ranchers on how to prepare at javaranch.com.

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15th Mar, 2007 - I noticed that a few people (infact just 2, one wrote to me a thank you email and another mentioned of referring to my notes at Javaranch forum ) have used my SCDJWS 1.4 notes while preparing for the certification exam. If i could have posted my notes on a personal web site like MZ then probably more people will have been able to use it. Presently the single 305 pages pdf file might seem daunting to many. So setting up a web site is on my list of to-dos.

Preparing for SCJP 5.0 Exam

While preparing for SCJP 5.0 exam, i did the following:

1. Bought a certification guide (SCJP 5.0 Study Guide by Kathy Sierra & Bert Bates)
2. Read the book from cover to cover
3. The guide came with a ebook in pdf format on a CD with the book. I used the pdf document for copy pasting the contents i wanted to revise later into a word document notes i prepared.
4. I first copied the 2 minute drills part (which was like a quick summary of essential parts of the chapter). Then i went to the relevant parts where i needed some examples copied from into my notes.
5. I also copied the exercise examples to the respective sections of my notes. This really helps to see the kind of question on a topic you can get near to the notes on that topic.

I did the above for all chapters and captured my notes in one word document which i took a print out of and then revised and kept adding any special question which i could not answer from one of the several mock exams found on the internet.

As an end result, following the above process for any certification exam, will help one prepare not only a exam cram but a worthy quick reference for work and refreshing your knowledge on the subject for a job interview.

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Well i passed the exam on 15th May, 06 with 90% score (65/72 questions answered correctly). And here's my final words on how i prepared for this exam: Thread on JavaRanch Discussion Form where i declared my pass result