Java 11 upgrade exam (1Z0-817)

I'm now "double certified". I've passed all three of the part 1 (1Z0-815), part 2 (1Z0-816) and upgrade (1Z0-817).

My blog posts on these

part 1 (1Z0-815)

part 2 (1Z0-816)

upgrade (1Z0-817)

should I take the 816 or 817

what does it mean to be Java 11 certified

Congrats, Jeanne!!  

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Yeah, congrats !!
A weird coincidence I also passed 1z0-817 today :
Don't forget to add your name to the wall of fame : https://coderanch.com/wiki/659976/OCPJP-Wall-Fame

Congratulations, both of you

. . . and, RB, welcome to the Ranch

Congratulations, Jeanne and Richard, and thanks for the blog posts Jeanne!

I’m curious about the "Major topics people who are OCA 7/8 certified can avoid that those starting with a Java 11 cert must know" listing in the what does it mean to be Java 11 certified  post. Have we not already been examined on these, apart from annotations and secure coding(? not sure what these last two are)?

That brings me to a whine which has been fermenting in my soul (apologies re length for any who read it   )...

On the one hand I can appreciate that Oracle has to draw the line somewhere in terms of the number of different upgrade exams they provide based on a candidate's previous certification, but on the other hand they certainly charge enough for them – surely having just a single offering for those with OCP 6, 7 or 8 is unfair to the latter?

My route so far has been OCA 7, OCP 7, -> OCP 8 via 1ZO-810. I don't yet have any professional experience (I'm trying to get into software development, and without a CS degree - a long shot, I know), so I realise this may colour my perceptions - though I code small personal projects and HackerRank problems etc, I know that API details I've learned but don't happen to have used for a while are slipping away below the level of exam readiness in my head.

So I'm disgruntled about how much it seems I would have to revisit for 1Z0-817, i.e. material not new to Java 9/10/11:
-- Try-with-resources and multi-catch , plus NIO.2, which I studied for OCP 7, but not the upgrade to 8(!)
-- Lambdas and all the streams API details I studied for the upgrade to 8 (seemingly everything except the Date/Time API?...ha, so now I've been through that and the previous deprecated version, while Java 11 'direct' candidates do not have to cover either!)

On the other hand it seems I avoid having to study a few new (post-8) features (annotations and secure coding? - I'm not sure where these are described) – I know I can explore these by myself, but surely it would be better to have them included them in a separate 8->9 upgrade exam in place of the repeated material?

(And then, on a tangent, the appearance to the uninitiated that OCP for Java 8 is 3 versions behind the current 11.)

I wonder if there is any chance Oracle would reconsider the upgrade situation. Anyone know of any petitions on this? Suppose I could write to them (ha ha)...

Elaine Byrne wrote:So I'm disgruntled about how much it seems I would have to revisit for 1Z0-817, i.e. material not new to Java 9/10/11:
-- Try-with-resources and multi-catch , plus NIO.2, which I studied for OCP 7, but not the upgrade to 8(!)
-- Lambdas and all the streams API details I studied for the upgrade to 8 (seemingly everything except the Date/Time API?...ha, so now I've been through that and the previous deprecated version, while Java 11 'direct' candidates do not have to cover either!)

At the same time, you will probably find those topics easier than modules. So it adds some balance to the exam rather than everything being a new topic.

Elaine Byrne wrote:On the other hand it seems I avoid having to study a few new (post-8) features (annotations and secure coding? - I'm not sure where these are described) – I know I can explore these by myself, but surely it would be better to have them included them in a separate 8->9 upgrade exam in place of the repeated material?

Note that these are not new topics to Java 9/10/11. They are new to the exam. To learn about them:

Oracle annotations trail

Oracle's Secure Coding Guide

Elaine Byrne wrote:
(And then, on a tangent, the appearance to the uninitiated that OCP for Java 8 is 3 versions behind the current 11.)

You mean like HR? Because a dev team would know about the 6 month release model.

Elaine Byrne wrote:
I wonder if there is any chance Oracle would reconsider the upgrade situation. Anyone know of any petitions on this? Suppose I could write to them (ha ha)...

A similar problem existed for Java 8. You had to know different topics based on what path you took. So I think it is intentional.

Thanks, Jeanne