Before you can pass SCJP, you must have been 65% comfortable with the details of Java Programming language.

It really pays knowledge-wise to study and sit for the certification. For other non-Java certifications....I cannot tell. But any Java Certification is worth the effort.

I'll go with what Rob Ross said. I've been developing with Java since jdk 1.02 (the days when nothing worked). I sat the exam mostly because I had nothing better to do that week and I thought it might give proesctive employers a wee bit more confidence in a failing market. Over the weekend before the exam, I did a bit of mugging up on the bits I hadn't seen for a while, sat about 4 mock exams I found on the web got my singature from Scott soon after. The exam is tricky and tries to catch you out with onerous minutae, but there's no rocket science involved if you know Java and the compiler. ;-)

Finally someone has had the balls to stand up and say what a whole community is thinking; Certification is just another money making route for Sun.

Believe me, i have come up against a lot of people that wear their certification badge with pride, but you wouldn't want them anywhere near your project.

Certification is just a memory game; big deal. So if you are ceritified; well done ... be proud of yourselves ... you've financed Sun that little bit more ... you've 'bought' an extra line for your CV!!!!

Hello!

Does one, who is in the industry, really needs to know which layout
is a default for what container?
Or what needs to be done to draw a polygon?

There is always JDK API or an online tutorial, leaving alone tonns of samples comming with any production quality IDE.

What if he/she is on the server side?
What if he/she is doing EJB's?
No GUI and threading respectively.
( I did my GUI once: "Hello World!".
That was it. Am I a bad programmer? )

Answer this: does the ability to calculate the outcome of smth like
...
outer:
for( int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
for( int j = 0; j < 2; j++) {
if( i == j) continue outer;
System.out.println( i + ", " + j);
}
}

distinguishes a good one ( certified)
from a bad ( thousands of others)?

If the answer is "yes" - go for it.

All the best,
Josh.

Seize every opportunity you have to qualify your technical skills. If you have thorough knowledge of the Java 2 Platform, you should do well with the SCJP examination - then take the challenge of the Java Developer's assignment (I'm working on it now). Become a Sun Certified Architect if you can.
Place more effort on improving your skills, and waste less energy on complaining about others' apparent credibility, "playing the game", and other distractions.

"Signature may be printed , but then there is more to it... " !!

I Don't agree with the author's viewpoint and i am sure most of the people who have gone through SCJP also won't agree with author .
[ I been through it with 93% ,and i know what effort it takes ]

The SCJP test in specific is surely designed/planned with lot of effort , and it does its job of testing programmer for 'Java' skills in a preety nice way.

The only points author trying to make are more general , and don't seem to jive with the actual topic of the article. Like author says "it doesn't really say about a programmer's skills"
Yeah so what, thats okay . It wasn't designed to grill the general programming skills , it is specific to 'java programming skills' . Of course , some of the fundamentals it tests are sure building blocks of any 4/5 GL Programming Language [ like OOPs , Threading , GC etc ] . So it surely builds on 'general programming skills' as well.

And then author says "I did it because I'm playing the game".Again , this is not about SCJP only. This is about most of the objective-question based exams .Still , SCJP is best of the lot in such exams .

Just one thing i ll say , the things finally boil down to how is take the exam and preparation . if you take it as a 'learning effort' , learn/write code etc along your prepration , then exam is really worth it.

Certificate is just the byproduct , skills you gained are your actual price.

So i guess the q is NOT ' to certify /or not to certify ' but INSTEAD it should be ' To learn/not to learn while you earn your certificate ' !

I agree with Keith that the Programmers test is hellish and a lot of what is covered is irrelevant. It is a game. Most employers don't care and many of your fellow programmers look at you with scorn. However, the Developers test is different because you actually have to DO something rather than just memorize and lot of disparate facts and take mock exams over and over.

The Developers exams is worth it because it's hard and you actually have to code and think. Employers don't have a clue about it - they're more concerned whether or not you have 7 years of WebSphere - but I got a lot of personal satisfaction out of it. None of my co-workers have passed or are even considering taking it.

I'm now working on my architect certification. After I'm finished with that I'm retiring and changing fields because the Java market has gone down the tubes with the flood of H1Bs. This flood is making all certifications worthless and turning programmers into commodities.

Watch your back, certified or not.

While the test was an interesting exercise (I got 91%) I agree that it’s just all part of playing the game.

Case in point:
I know someone who took the test after cramming for 4 hours and got 71% who had no OO experience (C only) and hadn't written 1 line of Java code. He also couldn't program his way out of a paper bag. Programming certifications are meaningless for the most part. It’s not a good indicator if someone will be a good developer or not.

I have some credibility problems with the author. I would take with a grain of salt any opinions about a java test from someone who "has been involved with Java for many years" and yet still needed to take a 5 day programming course from Sun, AND who considers "actually writing code" a "necesary evil" for preparing for this exam. I'm studying for this exam myself purely to gain a better understanding of java fundamentals, and this process has already had a lot of benifits for me, and I have yet to take the actual test!

Rob

Keith,

I have gone through the process of SCJP and i feel the test is very well designed and test ones knowledge of programming aspects. Very little of things to cram are being asked, specially in the new format launched on OCT'4, 2000.

May be market for Java is down and people are not finding the real value for the certification but the certification is really worth it.

My 2 cents
amit

Two great resources for Java Certifications (SCJP and SCWCD)
A.) http://www.jchq.net
B.) http://www.whizlabs.com