Hi Sandeep Gogineni,
First of all, a warm welcome to CodeRanch!
Sandeep Gogineni wrote:In the introduction chapter there is a table which compares OCA Java SE5/6 1Z0-850 and 1Z0-803 (SE7). I felt that SE 5/6 is more extensive than SE7 exam in terms of concept coverage and now I am confused on which exam should I take.
You got the wrong impression from that table
The
Oracle Certified Associate, Java SE 5/SE 6 (1Z0-850) certification is a very high-level certification and it's aiming for non-technical functions like managers, business analysts and so on. So it requires a very limited knowledge about the Java language. As you can see from the exam objectives, it's more about the Java eco-system, but it's all about the higher level, you don't need an in-depth knowledge of all the technologies mentioned in these exam objectives.
If you are a Java programmer (or want a job as one),
you should definitely opt for the
Oracle Certified Associate, Java SE 7 Programmer (1Z0-803) certification. This exam really requires a very good and solid understanding of the Java language and OO concepts on an entry-level. The
Oracle Certified Professional, Java SE 7 Programmer (1Z0-804) certification is the follow up and covers plenty of advanced topics of the Java language (like
JDBC, generics, collections, nio 2.0, threads, and so on).
You could of course also opt for the Java 8 certification. It's completely similar to the Java 7 certification. So you'll have to pass two exams as well (
1Z0-808 and
1Z0-809), but the exam objectives will be different.
Here you'll find a mapping between the exam objectives of the OCA7 and OCA8 exams.
Hope it helps!
Kind regards,
Roel