7 Tips to Become A Great Java Developer in 2019

To become a great Java developer, knowing the programming language is not enough. You must be excellent in Java programming and coding to make a good application.

This year, in 2019, just don’t sit around with the same level of Java programming skills, rather hone your Java skills to become the best Java Programmer.

Since Java is one of the hottest programming languages, remember that you are not alone in the competition. According to a report, there are around 9 million of enthusiastic Java developers in the world, who have good insight on technology, and they are also willing to learn new developments in Java, such as Java 8, JDK 10, and JVM internals.

For a Java app development company to overlook all of them and hire you as their new Java software developer, who will help them make a robust Java application needs some difference in skills, efficiency, and perspective on your part.

So, if you are seeking to know how to get better at Java, then you have reached the right place. Here, we will share you 7 impressive tips to become a great Java Developer in 2019, focusing on new updates in Java such as Cloud Native Java, Kotlin, Code and Design Patterns.

But before we go ahead, here are some interesting facts that state why Java programmers are in such a high demand.

Facts: Why Companies Hire Java Developers For their Critical Software Projects

Here’s a list of interesting facts that make Java so popular and increase the demand of Java Developers.

Java is now managed by Oracle, a thriving American multinational computer technology corporation. Means there is a lot of scope for Java in terms of growth as a platform and its core APIs. Java’s latest major release is the Platform Standard Edition 8.

Java is ranked #2 in popularity after C. The language ranked first in the rankings of software developers as the best choice of programming languages.

About 3 billion mobile phones, 125 million TV sets and each Blu-Ray player are working in Java.

Google’s Android operating system also uses Java APIs.

Since this open source code programming language is used both in software and web development, it is no surprise that 95% of enterprises use Java for programming. That is more than C and other languages put together.

These facts highlight why Java is so important for enterprises, regardless of size. And if you want to get hired as Java Developer, you must possess extraordinary Java Development skills.

Here is a list of 7 useful tips for Java mobile app and web developers. These tips are equally useful for companies looking to hire Java Developer, as it will give them a glimpse of what skills they should be seeking in a good Java Programmer.

List of 7 Useful Tips to Become a Great Developer in 2019

Java is used to build a comprehensive range of applications and platforms for a myriad of devices, including Smartphones, Computers, Laptops, Gaming Consoles, Car Navigation Systems, Lottery Terminals, Blu-ray Players, and more. Here is the list of Java tips that will help you to give an idea of how you can improve on your Java development skills to build applications for these devices.

Learn Java 8

There are many Java Developers in the market with the 7 to 8 years’ experience, and still not comfortable to write a code using Java 8 features such as Lambda Expressions, Java Stream API, used for bulk data operations on collections, and various Default Methods.

If you get a strong command over Java 8 features, you can overpass so many Java Developers out there, with little or no knowledge of Java 8.

Java 8 was first launched on 18th March 2014, and now Oracle has decided to end the ongoing support plans for Java Standard Edition 8. Businesses need to get a commercial license to receive Java Updates after Jan 2019. Although, public updates for Java SE 8 will be available for individual, personal use through at least the end of 2020, which is the good news for Freelance Java Developers.

Key Features of Java 8 to Learn

Default and Static Method in Interfaces: Using Default and Static keyword, Java Developers can create interfaces with method implementation.

forEach() method in Iterable interface: In Java 8, a new forEach method in java.lang.Iterable interface has been introduced, which enables developers to focus on business logic while writing code. forEach method takes java.util.function.Consumer object as argument, that allows keeping business logic separately at a different location, so that it can be reused later.

Functional Interfaces and Lambda Expressions: Functional interfaces are a new concept introduced in Java 8. An interface with exactly one abstract method becomes Functional Interface. @FunctionalInterface annotation is a facility to avoid accidental addition of abstract methods in the functional interfaces.

Java Stream API:A new java.util.stream in Java 8 has been added to perform filter/map/reduce like operations with the collection. The new Stream API will enable developers to manage sequential as well as parallel execution.

Become a Pro at Java APIs and Libraries

Java is one of the most mature programming languages in the world, with 2nd largest StackOverflow community. The community plays an integral role in creating a Java ecosystem.

Java APIs and Libraries form a major part of this ecosystem. Knowing about key APIs and Libraries, including Java Development Kit and Third-party Libraries is one of the key traits of a great Java developer.

Java SE documentation contains detailed, developer-targeted descriptions and references on Java API, including workarounds and working code examples.

It is not expected from a Java application developer to learn all the APIs and know about every element in the library. Only that the developer, whether a Freelance Java Developer or one working for Java Development Company, must be aware of crucial APIs and Libraries.

Among thousands of Java Libraries, here are the top 10 well-documented libraries that are open source and free for use.

Top 10 Java Libraries

Java Standard Libraries: Contains a vast set of collections and data structures, and elements required for Java application development project

JHipster: Used for generating, develop and deploy Spring Boot + Angular Web applications and Spring microservices

Maven: Used for managing project dependencies, configurations and build configuration and documentation

Apache Commons: Product-focused libraries with components allowing advanced mathematics and statistics operations and computations

Guava: Google Core Libraries for Java, used for extending the basic Java collections functionalities

google-gson: Useful for converting Java Objects to JSON and vice versa

Hibernate-ORM: Used for persisting of data in relational databases

Mockito: Used for creating mocks and write tests easier with simpler and cleaner code

Junit: Used for conducting repeatable tests on your code

Log4j and Slf4j: Simple logging frameworks

When it comes to Java APIs, the core Java API contains Android (Google), SE (OpenJDK and Oracle), MicroEJ (IS2T), whereas optional APIs are defined by organizations such as Alljoyn, OSGi, Eclipse, JCP, E-S-R, etc.

Here, you don’t have to learn all the libraries, instead, focus on maximum 2 or 3, but also gain the knowledge of all these libraries and how they can help you in a particular project.

Explore Spring Framework (Spring Boot)

This Java platform is important for every Java Application Developer.

It enables the developers to build applications from plain old Java objects” (POJOs) and also useful for Java SE programming model.

These days, most of the Java Development Companies use Spring framework such as Spring Boot, Spring MVC, and Spring Cloud for developing a web application, microservices, and REST APIs.

You will find that a great Java Developer is familiar with all the Spring platform advantages such as: making a Java method execute in a database transaction, making a local Java method a remote procedure, and making a local Java method a management operation.

Enhance Your Unit Testing Skills

You will find advanced unit testing skills in every professional Java programmer. It is this skill that distinguishes good Java programmer from average Java programmer.

A professional Java developer always writes unit tests for their code, which helps in validating code results in the state testing or behavior testing.

If you are seeking a good Java Application Developer, please make sure that the developer has the familiarity with a wide range of tools for unit testing, automation testing, performance testing, and integration testing.

Professional Java developers, who already have experience with Java, it is time for you to improve your skills on software unit tests to verify the logic of a piece of a software program.

Beginners can start with Junit, the latest version of which is JUnit 5, which is easy but powerful.

Focus on JVM Internals

Even if you are a beginner in Java Application Development you must have some working knowledge Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which is a crucial element of JRE (Java Runtime Environment).

If you understand JVM, means you understand Java better.

Learning JVM will help you solve complex problems during programming.

For becoming a great Java Developer, learn how JVM works, JVM system threads, how JVM executes JAVA bytecode, and the order of execution. Some other key aspects that you must be aware of to hone your Java skills in 2019 are JVM stack restrictions and common mistakes that most of the Java Developers make.

Improve Your Working Knowledge of Design Patterns

If you are an experienced object-oriented software developer, you must be aware of the importance of Design Patterns in Software Development.

Design pattern shows the relation between classes and object. A systematic naming of the objects and classes helps in addressing the recurring problem in the object-oriented systems.

Every great Java Developer knows and incorporates design patterns in their code to make the application flexible and changeable.

There are two goals of learning design pattern:

Identify and understand the problem in the application and associate it with some pattern.

Reuse of old interface or make the existing design more usable for future purposes.

Whether you are a freelance Java developer or working as a regular employer, you must have an in-depth understanding of design patterns.

Learn JVM Languages

The way learning new languages helps you in personal and professional life, exactly the same way, learning programming languages other than Java help in Java application development.

Kotlin is a statically typed programming language that runs on the Java virtual machine and also can be compiled to JavaScript source code or use the LLVM compiler infrastructure.

Java enthusiasts must learn JVM languages, such as Scala, Groovy, and Kotlin to become a Polyglot developer.

By learning new programming languages, you can compare the advantages and disadvantages better, which will further enable you to write better code. Besides, it will also help into Android development.[Source]-https://www.finoit.com/blog/tips-become-great-java-developer-2019/

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