Jeanne Boyarsky and Scott Selikoff developed a study guide for the new Oracle Certified Associate (OCA), Java SE 8 Programmer exam. The book, OCA: Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer I Study Guide: Exam 1Z04-808 is published by Wiley Publishing.
We are using this blog to publish information about the book such as objectives changes and any errata found within the book. To report an error in the book that is not yet listed here, please create a thread in the OCA forum and include “Sybex OCA Java 8 Study Guide” in the subject.
For those wanting to take the Oracle Java 8 OCA Exam, the official release was on January 10th. For more information, visit Oracle’s Java SE 8 Programmer I exam page. If you have any questions for us, feel free to post in the OCA forum at CodeRanch which Jeanne and Scott visit frequently.
Key links
- OCA/Java SE 8 Programmer I official exam page (check the latest score/duration/objectives)
- Pearson VUE (register for the test) and ID requirements
- Cert View (check your score). See blog on how to register (English) or blog on how register (other languages)
- How to access the online mock exams
- Information about Oracle’s exam engine
Where to buy it
- Amazon paper and ebook (Amazon sells the book for less than everyone else)
- Barnes and Noble paper and nook
- Wiley
- Goodreads (links to many book sellers)
Length/score
Oracle has a tendency to change this information from time to time. As of May 14, 2017:
- Length: 2 hours (was two hours originally, then 2.5, then back to 2)
- # Questions: 56 (was 77 questions originally, then 80, then 70 and now 56)
- Passing score: 65%
Changes to the objectives
- None so far
Online Material
- Sample content: Table of Contents
- Sample content: Chapter 1
- OCA 8 Book: Online Material and Practice Exams
Blog posts related to OCA: Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer I Study Guide: Exam 1Z1-808:
- Announcing the OCA: Oracle Certified Associate Java SE 8 Programmer I Study Guide
- Our first look at the PDF
- A tool to find out about objective changes (an alternative to just looking below in this page)
- Announcement of exam being released
- The online material and practice exams. Updated how to sign up for the practice exams
- Announcement of first reported printed copy
- How to use our book to study for the OCA 7
- How to use our book to study for the Java Foundations Junior Associate exam (this exam was removed after the beta. The post is still interesting as you can get a glimpse of my unedited writing)
- Oracle posted sample questions
Errata
The table is sortable so you can see focus on the errata by criticality, chapter or see the ones added since you last checked. To report a potential error, please create a thread at http://www.coderanch.com/forums/f-117/ocajp. Be sure to include “Sybex” and the chapter and/or page number in the subject.
Note: If you got the second printing of this book (late 2016), most of these errata have been corrected.
| Page | Chapter # | Error | Type of error | Reported by/via | Confirmed on | Listed on Wiley’s errata | Fixed in 2nd printing* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| xxvii | Intro | Develop code that uses wrapper classes such as Boolean, Double, and Integer should be listed as being in chapter 3, not chapter 1 | Typo | Malik Ashter Mehdy | 2018-08-11 | No | No |
| xxxiv | Intro | #9 – there is a stray “a” after (Choose all that apply) | Typo (e-book only) | Alex | 2014-12-171 | Yes | Yes |
| xxxvi | Intro | #12 – choice C should read Color: white rather than Color: White | Typo | Chris McDowell | 2016-07-22 | No | No |
| xxxvooo | Intro | #17 – choice D should end with 5)); rather than 5); | Typo | Igor Soudakevitch | 2016-11-27 | Pending | No |
| xxxix | Intro | #1 – “a_b defaults to a null value” should be “$ defaults to 0” | Error in mock explanation | Mushfiq Mammadov | 2015-10-11 | Yes | No |
| xxxix | Intro | #3 – The answer is correct. In the explanation, “Puma is invalid” should be “Cougar is invalid” for the explanation for D. And “E is incorrect” should be “E is correct”. In the second printing, we introduced a regression error. It should be “since the declaration in the parent iass Puma is invalid” and then “the declaration of Puma is invalid” | Error in mock explanation | Alan Couze | 2015-08-03 | Yes | Partially |
| xxxix | Intro | #4 – The answer is correct. In the explanation, the first bullet should say “starts” rather than “continues” and the assignment of 1, 2, etc is to count. The complex expression spelled out is y. Also, in the second bullet, 1 + 4 should say 1 + 5. | Error in mock explanation | Elena Felder and Alan Couze | 2015-04-04 and 2015-08-03 | Yes | Yes |
| xxxix | Intro | #4 – If you have the second printing, bullet 3 should say (1+4) % 3 and 5 % 3 rather (1+5) % 3 and 4 % 3. | Error in mock explanation | Olivier Ska | 2016-11-17 | Pending | No |
| xli | Intro | #10 – “Reference one points to g1” should be “Reference one points to g2” | Error in mock explanation | Mushfiq Mammadov | 2015-10-11 | Yes | Yes |
| xli | Intro | #13 – “options D and E are correct” should be “options D and E are incorrect” | Error in mock explanation | Diarmuid Naughton | 2015-10-11 | Yes | Yes |
| xli | Intro | #13 – “since the pre-increment operator” should be “since the pre-decrement operator” | Error in mock explanation | Vitaliy Ovcharenk | 2017-05-14 | TBD | TBD |
| xli | Intro | #13 – “Since luck is not less than 10” should be “Since luck is not greater than 10” | Error in mock explanation | Ganesh Pateka | 2017-11-29 | TBD | TBD |
| xli | Intro | #14 – All reference to “array” in the explanation should be “List” | Error in mock explanation | Late Preteen | 2021-06-30 | TBD | TBD |
| xlii | Intro | #16 – The answer is correct. “because an interface may inherit two abstract methods with the same signature” should be “ a class”, not “an interface”. The statement isn’t wrong, but in the question it’s a class. | Error in mock explanation | Elena Felder | 2015-04-04 | Yes | Yes |
| xlii | Intro | #17 – The answer is correct. In the second to last sentence, “not inferring predicates” should be “of inferring predicates” | Error in mock explanation | Guram Savinov | 2017-10-15 | No | No |
| 4 | Chapter 1 | “each of these five words is in” should be “six words.” | Typo | Kevin Abel | 2015-03-xx | Yes | Yes |
| 8 | Chapter 1 | The stack trace should have “mainmethod.” removed. Also, it should refer to line 4 rather than line 7 | Typo | Michel Parisien | 2015-12-26 | Yes | Yes |
| 10 | Chapter 1 | In the fourth line of the second paragraph, “From example” should be “For example”. | Typo | Michel Parisien | 2015-12-26 | Yes | Yes |
| 12 | Chapter 1 | The import should be java.nio.file.Paths not java.nio.files.Paths. | Typo | Mushfiq Mammadov | 2015-03-20 | Yes | Yes |
| 18 | Chapter 1 | The middle code block should have } instead of { on line 5. | Typo | Gabriel Jesus | 2015-02-xx | Yes | Yes |
| 21 | Chapter 1 | In the first sentence, “their size in bytes” should be “their size in bits” | Typo | Bart Presso | 2018-01-15 | Yes | No |
| 30 | Chapter 1 | The compiler error message at the top of the page should refer to line 7 rather than line 5. | Typo | Michel Parisien | 2015-12-26 | Yes | Yes |
| 31 | Chapter 1 | At the end of the second paragraph, “simplest type it can give the value” should be “simplest value it can give the type” | Typo | Michel Parisien | 2015-12-26 | Yes | Yes |
| Chapter 1 review questions (e-book only) | Chapter 1 | In some of the review questions, the line break is missing between the code that would be in different files. You can assume that each package statement starts a new file. | Rendering error | Tom Keegan | 2015-12-26 | Pending | No |
| 53 | Chapter 2 | On the first line of table 2.1, ~ should be in the other unary operators section. And on the last line of the table, !=, should be |=. (This isn’t on the exam though so don’t worry). | Typo | Steve Aaron | 2015-04-02 | Yes | Yes |
| 54 | Chapter 2 | In “resulting in a value of x of 7. Make sure you understand why the result is 24”, the 7 and 24 should be 14 | Typo | Edward Rance | 2015-02-03 | Yes | Yes |
| 54 | Chapter 2 | In “int x = 2 * ((5 + 3) * 4 – 8); This time you would evaluate the addition operator 10 + 3 “, the 10 should be 5. | Typo | Edward Rance | 2015-02-03 | Yes | Yes |
| 54 | Chapter 2 | In the third to last paragraph, “except boolean and String” should be “except boolean” since String is not a primitive | Incorrect fact | Juliet Smith | 2015-07-28 | Pending | No |
| 55 | Chapter 2 | In the first paragraph “9 to 12” should be “11 to 12” | Typo | Mike Kenyon | 2017-08-11 | Pending | No |
| 55 | Chapter 2 | In the note “floating-point integers” should be “floating-point numbers” | Typo | Olivier Ska | 2016-11-17 | Pending | No |
| 57 | Chapter 2 | In the second sentence, “multiplied” should be “divided”. | Typo | Mushfiq Mammadov | 2015-07-01 | Yes | Yes |
| 58 | Chapter 2 | In the second to last sentence of the last paragraph, “the value return” should be “the value returned” | Typo | Tia Smith | 2017-07-10 | No | No |
| 61 | Chapter 2 | 9l should be 9f on the first row | Typo | Mushfiq Mammadov | 2015-03-30 | Yes | Yes |
| 62 | Chapter 2 | “The compound operator will first cast x to a long” – “x” should be “y” | Typo | Gabriel Jesus | 2015-02-24 | Yes | Yes |
| 64 | Chapter 2 | Figure 2.1 says “true tables” rather than “truth tables” | Typo | Dan | 2015-02-xx | Yes | Yes |
| 69 | Chapter 2 | “block of statement” should be “block of statements” | Typo | Michel Parisien | 2015-12-27 | Yes | Yes |
| 71 | Chapter 2 | The first code example shouldn’t have “final” so the ternary operator is equivalent. | Typo | Jan Stückrath | 2016-01-19 | Yes | Yes |
| 72 | Chapter 2 | There’s no reason to mention Java 7 in the sidebar about the ternary operator. The behavior hasn’t changed. | Typo | Mathias Bader | 2015-04-11 |