(FAQ) SCEA (Sun Certified Enterprise Architect) for J2EE

Collected questions that have appeared on the various online groups and forums...

Ques: Do I need practical experiencewith J2EE technologies to attain the certification?
Ans: Not in my opinion although practical experience will obviously help as in any certification. This opinion is based on my experience with part 1 of the exam only. You can pass the first part with plenty of reading and a good understanding of web and J2EE technologies.

Ques: When is the new exam available?
Ans: Parts I and II of the exam are now available. Part three has not yet been released. I have no dates for part III and there is no information on the official Sun page

Ques: What's SCEA, what's happened to SCJA?
Ans: SCJA has gone for good. It ha been replaced by Sun Certified Java Architect for Java 2, Enterprise Edition. The older exam needed dragging into J2EE and the new exam has done this.

Ques: What are the new objectives? Can I pass based on my SCJA notes.
Ans: The new objectives can be found at the official Sun site. You will find a link in the links section. In my opinion you will not pass part one with only the knowledge required of SCJA. SCEA is very J2EE dedicated with a lot of EJB. It also introduces UML on a grander scale and a significant number of questions on patterns. See the Objectives folder in the links section.

Ques: Do I have to sit the associated course from Sun?
Ans: If you can then do as it will give you a good consolidation. I did not sit it, simply because I am a contractor and am too stingy. I don't believe the course pertaining to the new exam is available yet anyway.

Ques: So which API versions are covered in the exam?
Ans: There isn't any official declaration from Sun regarding the API versions covered in the exam however I have been informed by email from Sun that the exam covers EJB 1.1. I can tell you for a fact that there are questions in the exam that pertain to EJB 1.0 and in some circumstances the ambiguity leaves you guessing as it is impossible to answer some questions correctly. Make sure you are familiar with bean timeouts and transaction types from EJB 1.0. I have complained to Sun about this but have received a 'go away' reply followed by a patronising 'okay okay our technicians will look into it, now go away' after pestering them.

Ques: Who did you contact at Sun?
Ans: See the file entitled 'So what do I do now' for contact details.


Ques: How does SCEA fit into the certification initiative with Oracle, IBM, Novell, iPlanet and Netsacpe?
Ans: It doesn't. The certification initiatives have three parts. The first part is simply the SCJP. The second and third parts are developer and enterprise developer respectively. The SCJD and SCEA run independently from these.

Ques: What are the different parts of SCEA for J2EE
Ans: Part I is a multiple choice. You need 68% to pass. See the objectives for detailed information. For this you buy a voucher from Sun then book the exam with Sylvan Prometric. For the second part you pay Sun for the assessment and they will then allow you to download the assignment. When you finish, send it back. You then need to arrange to sit the essay/multiple choice part III, at which point you will be given a joint score for parts II and III. See the file entitled 'So what do I do now' for more information