What are The Basic Things Java Programmer Should Know?

In this post you will know what are the some basic things every Java Programmer should know. Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere.

In any technology say Java or some other language, it is more important and valuable to know the language fundamentals thoroughly (OOP concepts, interfaces, class, objects, threading etc.) rather than specific frameworks or syntax. It's always easy to quickly learn new technologies when you master the fundamentals.

The first thing which I guess every programmer should know that Java is not going to be replaced by any technology ever. Java is still the biggest asset while developing a enterprise level application. 

Here are some of the java specific thing which you should know.

• Always follow official java docs and java API docs. It will help you throughout your career, I'll advise you bookmark it on your browser.
• Learn by doing. You just cannot remember each and everything conceptually without implementing it.
• Being comfortable in Java you can easily get your hands dirty by building some cool apps for desktop, mobile and web.
• Don't feel ashamed to use APIs and Libraries. It will save a lot of your time
• Join IRCs and be active on online java forums, read blogs, follow articles on medium to stay updated.
• How Java Virtual Machine works? e.g. (Platform Independence, Garbage Collection, class files etc)
• What are the Object Oriented Programming Concepts Implemented in Java?
• Multi-threading
• Java Collection framework
• Good understanding of data types and few java.lang classes like String, Math, System etc. java.io stream concepts.
• Learn design pattern and implement them.
• Follow java projects on github. Go through commits and check how other developers are doing.
• Don't feel shy to ask someone to review your code. It's a good practice and even you should take out sometime to do code review of your peers.
• Always write unit test cases for your code and try to provide 100% coverage.
• Java is not going to die. Stop switching technology just because they are trending. Get comfortable in Java and you'll be able to do anything with it.
• Improvements on language from major version changes (Generics, Annotations, Enums, ...).
• Coding Conventions.
• Build tool (Ant) or Project Management Tool (Maven).
• Version control System like GIT/SVN/Perforce/Clearcase.
• Unit testing - e.g. Junit and TestNG