SCJP 1.5 syllabus

How is the SCJP 1.5 exam different from the SCJP 1.4?
· Exam objectives: Several important new language features have been added, including enums, generics, static imports, and autoboxing/unboxing. API features added to the exam include java.lang.StringBuilder, java.util.Locale, java.util.Formater, java.util.Scanner. java.util.regex.Pattern, and java.util.regex.Matcher. Java IO features have been added, including File, BufferedReader, BufferedWriter, FileReader, FileWriter and PrintWriter. Concepts such as loose coupling and high cohesion have been added, as well as greater emphasis on encapsulation as it relates to JavaBean conventions. Bit manipulation (e.g., shifting) has been dropped.
· Number of questions: 72 (increased from 61)
· Time: 175 minutes (increased from 120 minutes)
· Passing score: 59% (increased from 52%)
· Level of difficulty: The concensus is that it is more difficult.
· Format of questions: As before, you will always be told how many options to choose. No credit is given for partial answers. Drag-and-drop questions were also introduced for this version of the exam.

Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 5.0 (CX-310-055)
Exam Objectives

Section 1: Declarations, Initialization and Scoping

1.1 Develop code that declares classes (including abstract and all forms of nested classes), interfaces, and enums, and includes the appropriate use of package and import statements (including static imports). (Covered-chap1)
1.2 Develop code that declares an interface. Develop code that implements or extends one or more interfaces. Develop code that declares an abstract class. Develop code that extends an abstract class. (Covered)
1.3Develop code that declares, initializes, and uses primitives, arrays, enums, and objects as static, instance, and local variables. Also, use legal identifiers for variable names. (Covered-chap1)
1.4Develop code that declares both static and non-static methods, and – if appropriate – use method names that adhere to the JavaBeans naming standards. Also develop code that declares and uses a variable-length argument list. (Covered-chap1)
1.5Given a code example, determine if a method is correctly overriding or overloading another method, and identify legal return values (including covariant returns), for the method. (Covered)
1.6Given a set of classes and superclasses, develop constructors for one or more of the classes. Given a class declaration, determine if a default constructor will be created, and if so, determine the behavior of that constructor. Given a nested or non-nested class listing, write code to instantiate the class.(Covered)

Section 2: Flow Control

2.1 Develop code that implements an if or switch statement; and identify legal argument types for these statements. (covered)
2.2 Develop code that implements all forms of loops and iterators, including the use of for, the enhanced for loop (for-each), do, while, labels, break, and continue; and explain the values taken by loop counter variables during and after loop execution. (covered)
2.3 Develop code that makes use of assertions, and distinguish appropriate from inappropriate uses of assertions. (covered)
2.4 Develop code that makes use of exceptions and exception handling clauses (try, catch, finally), and declares methods and overriding methods that throw exceptions. (covered)
2.5 Recognize the effect of an exception arising at a specified point in a code fragment. Note that the exception may be a runtime exception, a checked exception, or an error. (covered)
2.6 Recognize situations that will result in any of the following being thrown: ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException,ClassCastException, IllegalArgumentException, IllegalStateException, NullPointerException, NumberFormatException, AssertionError, ExceptionInInitializerError, StackOverflowError or NoClassDefFoundError. Understand which of these are thrown by the virtual machine and recognize situations in which others should be thrown programatically.(covered)

Section 3: API Contents

3.1 Develop code that uses the primitive wrapper classes (such as Boolean, Character, Double, Integer, etc.), and/or autoboxing & unboxing. Discuss the differences between the String, StringBuilder, and StringBuffer classes. (Covered)
3.2 Given a scenario involving navigating file systems, reading from files, or writing to files, develop the correct solution using the following classes (sometimes in combination), from java.io: BufferedReader,BufferedWriter, File, FileReader, FileWriter and PrintWriter. (covered)
3.3 Develop code that serializes and/or de-serializes objects using the following APIs from java.io: DataInputStream, DataOutputStream, FileInputStream, FileOutputStream, ObjectInputStream, ObjectOutputStream and Serializable. (covered)
3.4 Use standard J2SE APIs in the java.text package to correctly format or parse dates, numbers, and currency values for a specific locale; and, given a scenario, determine the appropriate methods to use if you want to use the default locale or a specific locale. Describe the purpose and use of the java.util.Locale class. (covered)
3.5 Write code that uses standard J2SE APIs in the java.util and java.util.regex packages to format or parse strings or streams. For strings, write code that uses the Pattern and Matcher classes and the String.split method. Recognize and use regular expression patterns for matching (limited to: . (dot), * (star), + (plus), ?, \d, \s, \w, [], ()). The use of *, +, and ? will be limited to greedy quantifiers, and the parenthesis operator will only be used as a grouping mechanism, not for capturing content during matching. For streams, write code using the Formatter and Scanner classes and the PrintWriter.format/printf methods. Recognize and use formatting parameters (limited to: %b, %c, %d, %f, %s) in format strings. (covered)

Section 4: Concurrency

4.1 Write code to define, instantiate, and start new threads using both java.lang.Thread and java.lang.Runnable. (covered-chap9)
4.2 Recognize the states in which a thread can exist, and identify ways in which a thread can transition from one state to another. (covered-chap9)
4.3 Given a scenario, write code that makes appropriate use of object locking to protect static or instance variables from concurrent access problems.(covered-chap9)
4.4 Given a scenario, write code that makes appropriate use of wait, notify, or notifyAll. .(covered-chap9)

Section 5: OO Concepts

5.1 Develop code that implements tight encapsulation, loose coupling, and high cohesion in classes, and describe the benefits. (Covered)
5.2 Given a scenario, develop code that demonstrates the use of polymorphism. Further, determine when casting will be necessary and recognize compiler vs. runtime errors related to object reference casting.(Covered)
5.3 Explain the effect of modifiers on inheritance with respect to constructors, instance or static variables, and instance or static methods.
5.4 Given a scenario, develop code that declares and/or invokes overridden or overloaded methods and code that declares and/or invokes superclass, overridden, or overloaded constructors.(Covered)
5.5 Develop code that implements “is-a” and/or “has-a” relationships.( Covered)

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Written by : bhaskar
( Treats Given : 8 Treats Attended : )