Isn't SCEA5 very difficult without SCBCD and SCDJWS?

[Deepayan Roy]

I went through the course coverage (exam objectives) for SCEA5 on Sun's website and found it be too exhaustive and quite huge - compared to any other Sun certification.

To me it appears that one cannot go for the SCEA certification unless one is a master at EJB3 development (SCBCD), Java web services & SOA (SCDJWS), OOAD, Design Patters, Java Security APIs, Java messaging and few others.

What do others think?

Can the SCEA5 training lab (being promoted) really make me get SCEA5 certification without having done any hands-on work with EJB3 or Java Web Services?

Thanks,
Deepayan

SCJP (89%), SCWCD (86%)

[Theodore Casser]

I respectfully disagree.

Certainly, you need to know the basics of each set of technologies if you're going to pass the Part I examination for SCEA. I would, however, hardly think that you need to be an expert on the technology - bear in mind what this certification is really covering. An architect is not expected to necessarily be the technology implementer, but rather the person who is designing the software.

Therefore, while I would agree that it's helpful to have SCBCD and SCDJWS, it's not certainly required. These two exams (and SCWCD to round out the Java EE exams) don't just touch on the theory of what the technologies represent, but also the details of the implementation of the same when it comes to creating software. It's a step beyond what you need to know (in theory) to be a successful architect by Sun's metric.

On the other hand, OOAD and design patterns are definitely necessary to be masters of to get past this examination. The rest can be covered at the level of concepts. Now, whether or not you can become comfortable with the concepts of the technology without having had some practical experience working with the various pieces... that's a wholly different kettle of fish.

[Cameron Wallace McKenzie]

One of the big things about SCEA is that you need to know when to use certain components, and how to design an architecture that uses those components properly. This differs from the SCWCD and SCBCD exams in so much as those exams have a very heavy focus on syntax. I don't recall a single syntax question on any of the 160 questions I did in the SCEA Beta exam for JEE5.

I certainly think knowlege is power, and knowing web and business component development can only help. But I certainly wouldn't say it is a requirement at all.

-Cameron McKenzie

[Deepayan Roy]

Many thanks Theodore and Cameron, for your inputs!