The Sun Certified Java Associate (or SCJA), concentrates on basic knowledge of object oriented programming, UML, and the essentials of the Java programming language and platform. It is targeted at newcomers to Java who are not necessarily working in technical positions, such as project managers, students, or developers for whom Java is not a primary requirement.
The Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) exam is the entry level Java exam and is a prerequisite to a number of the other Java-related certifications. SCJP 6, designated CX-310-065 by Sun, was released in December 2007.
It is designed as a fairly detailed test of basic knowledge of the essentials of the Java programming language. It tests looping constructs and variables, and does not cover specific technologies such as GUI creation, Web or network programming. The exam tests how well a programmer has understood the language constructs and not the programmer's capability to write efficient algorithms.
It is assessed through an automatically administered multiple-choice test system and consists of 60 questions which the candidate has 180 minutes to answer . At least 35 questions are needed to be correct to pass (around 58%). The exam is taken at a Prometric test center, and to take the test a candidate must buy a voucher from Sun (approximately US$300 in the US, but £150 (excluding VAT) in the UK, AUD 316 plus Tax in Australia, Rs. 7200 plus taxes in India) and book the test at least a week in advance. The test consists of multiple choice and drag-and-drop questions, the latter comprising 20-25% of the questions.
The SCJP 6 exam tests a candidate on knowledge of declarations, access control, object orientation, assignments, operators, flow control, assertions, string handling, I/O, parsing, formatting, generics, collections, inner classes, threads and the JDK tools. The test is available in English, Japanese, Chinese, German, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish
