Java learning materials

You are expected to spend your free time learning and practicing your Java development skills. Here are some resources for you. Different people tend to prefer different resources because they support different styles of learning.

our favorate resources (so far)

Please note, this document is alive. It is likely to change over time as we learn more about how best to learn Java. If you have any suggestions about how to make this page (or any page) better then please let us know! And if you have any opinons on the materials listed below please let us know as well!

Learn Java the Hard Way

This book looks like it will be very useful. We are keen to get your opinion on how good it is before buying a million copies.

Please download and work through the free samples and tell us what you think :)

It doesn’t cover absolutely everything we need to cover but it lays a very solid foundation.

Unfortunately the author is working from a windows machine so the command-line stuff is a little strange. We’ll be using bash and IntelliJ instead of PowerShell and Notepad++.

Java Syntax guide

This is just a reference, it doesn’t explain absolutely everything

CodeWars

This is a nice tool that lets you practice your coding skills. We have found it very useful for our other syllabuses.

Udemy

This course will take you through all the basics of java

TutorialsPoint

This one has a lot of great info but expects you to have some coding experience already.

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/java

other resources under consideration

  • Java Overview
  • Code Gym: You are a young robot who is learning some Java from some insensitive aliens…

  • Head First Java: This book is nice because it is thorough and weird. It’s not one of those boring text books. Unfortunately this book is a bit old so not all of it is appropriate:

    • outdated and useless JUST SKIP
    • Ch. 17 - last half of the chapter teaches Java Web Start(This was deprecated in Java 9, we’re on Java 11 at the time of me writing this)
    • Ch. 18 - Part of this chapter talks about RMI, absolute legacy that you’ll only find in systems that are 15 - 20 years old.
    • Parts that are outdated but not useless
    • Ch 12 -15 - These chapters teach a small amount of Java Swing (quite outdated) to build projects. They are still full of useful information because the point is not to teach Swing, but to learn about Java core and just use Swing to make a very simple GUI. The Swing that you learn is quite minimal.

  • Core Java Volume 1. This is up to date with Java 11.

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