The following list describes some of the ideal candidate's characteristics. If you already have many of them, you are ready to tackle the certification project. You will learn the characteristics you don't have as you work through the assignment. If you have only a few of these characteristics, however, you should consider studying and practicing more before tackling the SCJD certification. The certification tests your ability by expecting you to be capable of the following:
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Design Java programs using the tools in Sun's SDK version 1.4.
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Have a thorough understanding of programming in Java.
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Have experience in the systems development process.
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Explain the object-oriented software development process.
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Be able to model the software development process.
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Be proficient with a development methodology, such as the waterfall methodology, Extreme Programming, or Rational Unified Process (RUP).
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Use the wait , notify , and notifyAll methods in the appropriate places to avoid thread blocking.
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Understand how the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) starts and runs standalone and networked applications.
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Design strong error handling, including throwing and catching exceptions.
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Analyze the downloaded instructions to determine the assignment's functional requirements.
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Use Java's conditional and loop constructs and flow-control break and continue statements.
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Understand how to declare a class as an interface and then implement that interface in a concrete class.
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Understand how to use anonymous classes for Swing events.
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Be familiar with phases and documentation involved in requirements gathering, requirements analysis, architecture, design, implementation, testing, and deployment.
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Take advantage of the benefits of encapsulation and inheritance in Java's object-oriented design.
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Effectively use overloading and overriding methods in inheritance relationships.
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Handle multiple threads in your code with the synchronized keyword to avoid data corruption in a network-capable application.
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Understand how to implement Java I/O and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that follow Human/Computer Interaction (HCI) principles.
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Properly package and document your solution to make it clear to the evaluator that you met all requirements.
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Use design patterns, such as Model-View-Controller and Adapter.
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Document code in a way that takes advantage of javadoc, which is required.
