Amit Jnagal's SCEA Resources

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Hello People! Thanks for those of you have been checking this site for your SCEA preparations. I have finally managed to find some time after eight long years to make some updates to this website. Please bear with me while I redesign this site. I have updated my email address in case you need to get in touch with me for feedback or otherwise. Happy Browsing!

took my SCEA part I on 11/13/00 and cleared with 85%. There are very few resources available on net for the study material online. These are some links that I found really helpful.

A word about the exam ...

Sun has divided the exam into 9 main categories. Well, that's what the score report says. The following are the categories and my score in each category.

Exam Category	Score	Comments
1. Concepts	100%	Some general stuff on J2EE
2. Common Architectures	66%	One question expected you to know the difference between B2B and B2C architectures
3. Legacy Connectivity	60%	Covered VT100 terminal, Screen scrapers and MQ Series on Legacy systems
4. EJB	88%	When to use which EJB based on scenarios described.
5. EJB Container Model	100%	Some questions on passivation, whose responsibility is it to relieve resources @ the time of passivation (bean/container?)
6. Protocols	100%	HTTPS (HTTP+SSL) runs on 443. Two questions expected you to know this.
7. Applicability of J2EE	100%	My favourite section. You should be able to evaluate a given requirement and suggest an architecture for it.
8. Design Patterns	80%	Definitions of all patterns and which pattern is applied for EJBHome interface with EJB Bean class and others
9. Messaging	100%	Advantages of messaging, and one question expected you to know that MQSeries is a MOM (Message Oriented Middleware)

Well, that is what Sun has to say. If you ask me, I would say the exam has 4 main categories:
1. EJBs
2. UML and Design Patterns
3. Internet Architectures
4. Miscellaneous

There are numerous things, which, i think cannot be placed in different categories. I would
place them in misc stuff. Here are some valuable resources that saw me through.

Books

1. Enterprise Java Beans - Richard Monson Haefel

I thought, I knew all about EJBs, until I read this book. I would STRONGLY recommend this book to everybody.

2. UML Distilled - Martin Fowler

A very nice little book, which covers basic UML. You need to know all the UML diagrams and when to use which diagram. This book is highly recommended.

Resources on the Net :

Design Patterns

I did not have enough enthusiasm to read a whole book on design patterns. These two
resources helped me a lot.

1. Fluffy Cat's paper on Design Patterns. This paper discusses 23 design patterns
with the consequences and need for each pattern. I would say that this is a MUST READ paper.

2. A very extensive source of design patterns. Covers Creational, Structural and Behavioral Patterns. It also contains c++ and java code for patterns. This site is still under construction, but I would advise you to keep checking this site regularly for updates.

3. Design Patterns In Java A very nice presentation. It has the bullets for all the
design patterns plus UML diagrams for all the patterns. This is a big plus for this resource.
You do need some fundamental understanding of UML before you can use this ppt.
A very helpful resource.

Design Patterns in J2EE

The serverside.com has a good collection of the design pattern usage in J2EE. You can access it here

Design Patterns in J2EE (Sun's Version)

Sun Microsystem released the first public release of 15 patterns used in J2EE. Have a look here

Secured Socket Layer (SSL)

There is a nice paper to get you started with SSL. It's right here

Public - Private Key Affair

This article can make your PKI literate. Its available here A very helpful resource. You must read this.

UML

1.Robert C Martin's Tutorials

A very Good resource, covers ...

1.Walking through a UML Design
2.Use Cases
3.Complex Transactions
4.Finite State machine diagrams
5.UML Sequence diagrams
6.UML Collaboration diagrams
7.UML Class diagrams

2.UML Reference Card

This UML reference card by Allen Holub was handy!

Miscellaneous

1.Active Replication For Fault Tolerance

This was one thing which I found difficult to find out. There is a paper on fault tolerance here, which may prove useful.

2.DNS Round Robin

I am so relieved that I could use this information in the exam.There were two questions which invloved DNS Round Robin. I am sure, you will find this paper useful.

3.FireWalls & DMZ

Firewalls are also a part of the miscellaneous stuff. And so is DMZ. Even if you think you know it all, This white paper is HIGHLY recommended. There is another whitepaper available on Enterprise Security on 3Com's website. It can be accessed here Another update is available here

4.Data Access Object (DAO)

You may want to have a look at this J2EE paper on DAO

5.Suresh Gopalan's Advanced Java Tutorials

This is a very nice collection of Advanced Java tutorials on EJBs, RMI, etc. A very good resource. You may want to have a look at this

5.Java Messaging Tutorial

Another one from Suresh Gopalan. This covers Publisher / Subscriber and Point to Point communication. This is a very good site for getting started with JMS.

Additional Resources

1.Certification Guru

It has a good list of links and other resources on the web. You can access this site,here

2.Michael Thomas's site

This site has an extensive list of goodies scattered all over the web. If you are serious about your certification, then you owe yourself a visit to this site You can access this site,here

3. Java.isavvix.com

The Devspace on this site offers free hostings of JSPs, servlets and JDBC code. A developer site with unusual features. java.isavvix.com

Closing Quotes ...

All in all, it was a very nice experience to study for and succeed in this exam. There is a free test available for Java EJB at www.brainbench.com. That was a real moral booster. You should try this. Someday, I will take time out and develop a mock exam for this test. If anybody wants to join me in this effort or has any queries regarding the exam, please feel free to get in touch with me at ajnagal@gmail.com.

All the Best !!!

Amit Jnagal

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