speaking at the java sig “hello java” group

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I spoke at the “Hello Java” workgroup meeting of the NY Java SIG this week. The topic was an overview of the Java certification – how to get started, how to study, etc. While the focus was the Java OCA/OCP certifications, much of the material applies to any exam. You can view the deck on slideshare.

There were two challenges:

  1. There were about 30 attendees at varying levels of Java knowledge – from people who were very new to Java to those who already held the certification. I think I was able to hold everyone’s attention.
  2. The projector didn’t work for the first half hour. I actually did about a third of my presentation based on my printout of the slides and writing/drawing on the whiteboard. I was actually finishing a point about content when the intro slide went up and these pictures were taken. Luckily I’m experienced enough as a presenter for this to not throw me! When the projector did work, I reviewed the graphical highlights and continued from there. Toastmasters helped me practice many things going wrong.helloJava-cert-intro helloJava-cert-intro2

In addition to the deck, we wrote a little code. I got teased about my “one handed vi skills” (I was holding a microphone in the other hand.) And we went over some practice questions not on the exam – I used the Random vs Math examples. I got lots of questions which was great. Both during the presentation – every time I asked if there were questions – and 8-10 people who stayed afterwards to ask more questions. I even had someone bring his copy of our OCP book for me to sign.

I enjoyed the session and will be doing a part two in May. Part two is about how to create practice questions and figure out the important points to study for any exam. We’ll be using some Java 9 concepts as the examples so this will be good for people at any experience level of Java. Very few people are solid on Java 9 yet (I’m not either) so it should be a level playing field for showing how to approach!

how to prevent the bad guys from getting your tax refund

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I read about a problem where the “bad guys” would file your (US) federal tax return before you could and get your refund. Luckily there is a way to protect yourself from this scenario. I did it this year. There’s a few steps, but the peace of mind is worth it to me.

Step 1 – Fill out a form

If you live in Florida, Georgia or DC, you can skip this step and go on to step three. For most of us, we have to fill out a form. The Identity Theft Affidavit form sounds like it is for those who have actually had their identity stolen. However there is another option on the form:

I have experienced an event involving my personal information that may at some future time affect my federal tax records.

Who hasn’t had some of their personal information stolen by now!

It’s not a hard form. In fact, the hardest part is that you need a photocopy of your passport, driver’s license or social security card. Which means you have to go to a photocopy machine.

Step 2 – Receive letter

Some time after filling out the form, you get a letter saying your account has been marked with an identity theft indicator. It also gives the option to opt-into to the IP PIN (Identity Protection Personal Identification Number) program. Make sure you want to. Once you opt in, there is no way to opt out in the future.

The letter also gives you a voucher to use if you have an inquiry or payment to further tie your letter to your identity. I’ve never written the IRS about anything, but keeping it in case.

Step 3 – Sign up for IP PIN

The IRS IPPIN site allows you to sign up for a PIN. It’s like two factor authentication for submitting your return. I signed up as a first time user and received a 15 minute expiring confirmation code in my gmail to validate I control that email. I then had to enter some basic info about myself – social security number, birthdate and my filing status from last year. None of this is hard for the “bad guys” to find out.

Then I had two choose three pieces of information to identify them in the future:

  1. a unique phrase for emails to me
  2. a unique phrase when I log into the site
  3. a picture when I log into the site

This is good. It makes it incredibly difficult for someone to spoof the IRS in email or on the web. Then I had to pick 4 challenge/response questions if I forget my password. They were the usual type of not terribly secure questions.

Next, I had to answer four questions to confirm my identity. Two had an answer of “n/a” just like the annual credit report system. I don’t think this is overly difficult for the bad guys to get past nor does Krebbs. In fact, the best way to protect yourself against this is to sign up so your identity already has an account and nobody else can sign up for you.

edit: online lookup is now disabled

Once you login, the system shows you the date/time of your most recent log on (which is the current one in this case) and gives you a six digit number to put on your tax return. This works whether you file on paper or electronically.

jeanne’s experiences with the jenkins certification beta exam

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On February 24th, I took the beta for the Jenkins Certification. This beta is different than beta exams from Oracle. In particular, it was only being offered on one day. The only choices you have are:

  • whether you want the morning or afternoon offering. It’s also only being offered in 12 cities (8 in the US and 4 in Europe). I chose the afternoon because I’ll probably be up late the night before. (yeah, I know. not ideal for taking an exam)
  • whether you want the Open Source or Enterprise version of the exam. I chose Enterprise because we use it at work and I like some of the features like templates.

This wasn’t a great time for me to study for or take an exam. The exam was held, literally the day after the robot is due for robotics team on which I mentor the programmers. This means I had little spare time and was somewhat tired. It was worth a shot though. I learned a lot getting ready for it. I also learned some things after the test when I tried them on Jenkins to see what happens in those scenarios.

For the non-beta, the exam is being offered starting in mid May.

 

How was the beta

The documentation said the exam was 60 questions in two hours for the Certified Jenkins Engineer and 90 questions in two hours for the Certified Cloudbees Jenkins Platform Engineer. Beta exams often have more questions and this one was no different. It was 85 questions in two hours for the CJE and 131 questions in two hours for the CCJPE. The time limit wasn’t a problem as most of the questions weren’t text heavy. Most people in my session for the CJE left between 90-120 minutes. I was the second to last to leave for the CCJPE with about 15 minutes left of time. I had time to go through all the questions twice.

We were advised to get there 30 minutes early to sign in and get ready. Glad I did. The first step was to “log into your Prometric account if you have one or sign up for one if you don’t.” Hmm. I knew I had a Prometric account. I used it for the old Sun exams before they switched to PearsonVUE in 2011. I also used it for the TOGAF exam in 2013. They had you in a restricted window so you couldn’t use then net. I tried what I thought might be my user id and password. After a while, they let me open a regular browser to try. I checked my email, I tried to login. Nothing. Eventually I tried registering for a new account. And it let me do so with the same email I know I used for the 2011 and 2013 exams. I suspect Prometric does separate accounts for each vendor (Sun, The Open Group, Cloudbees, etc).

Then we actually took the exam. They allowed using scrap paper and handing it to the proctor at the end. Which is good. I like to write stuff down. And since it was a beta (rather than administered by the testing center), it was paper and pen rather than reusable markers!

The actual exam was like your typical certification test. Some radio buttons. Some checkboxes where they tell you how many are correct. It was also cool to hear people chatting before the exam too since it was mainly Jenkins power users in the room.

How did I do

I passed! I am in the first batch of certified folks for this exam ever!

I’ll edit this post in 4-6 weeks when I have my score. I don’t think I passed. It’s impossible to tell for a beta though as it depends on which questions they choose to include in the exam and what the passing score ends up being.

For one thing, I chose the wrong exam if my goal was to pass. I learned more taking the CCJPE than if I had taken the CJE. But I haven’t used the Cloudbees Jenkins Operation Center in Production and knowing the Enterprise Jenkins parts well wasn’t enough to compensate for that. I’m glad I chose the CCJPE though. I learned more that way.

For another, I didn’t study in enough detail. I knew the scenarios I work with really well. I knew the concepts really well. I knew the things I played with at home studying. But then there were the parts I didn’t know. That was not enough time to study issue. While I did review flashcards at the robotics lab, I choose to prioritize mentoring the programmers on the team over hands on studying details about Jenkins.

How did I study

I recommend spending WAY more time playing with Jenkins features you are unfamiliar with to study for the exam. I didn’t do that due to lack of time. What I did do in the limited time I had available to study:

  • Week 1: 1/27-2/2
    • Decided to take exam
    • Got three out of five of the practice questions right from the PDF (they were easier than the majority of the questions on the exam by the way)
    • Read objectives in detail
    • Self assessed my strengths and weaknesses
    • Installed Jenkins locally including correct plugins
    • Played with plugins, made study outline and flashcards for chapter 1 of objectives
    • Started reading “Jenkins: The Definitive Guide” (I already owned this book and never got around to reading it)
  • Week 2: 2/3-2/9
    • Reviewed flashcards every day
    • Finished reading “Jenkins: The Definitive Guide”
    • Installed CJOC locally
    • Played with plugins, made study outline and flashcards for chapter 5 of objectives
  • Week 3: 2/10-2/16
    • Reviewed flashcards every day
    • Started reading “Continuous Delivery” (another book I owned and never got around to reading)
    • Played with plugins, made study outline and flashcards for chapters 2-3 of objectives
  • Week 4: -2/16-2/23
    • Reviewed flashcards every day
    • Finished reading “Continuous Delivery”
    • Played with plugins some more (fairly minimal though as the robot was due on 2/23) and I spent a lot of time in the lab
  • Exam day: 2/24

The study materials I created

Feel free to use these as a starting point. You need more hands on experience than just reading a study guide though.

I wrote both of these entirely before taking the exam. There are some objectives in the word document were I wrote that I wasn’t sure what they meant. After taking the exam, I’m still not sure! Hopefully these objectives are re-worded to be clearer.