Monday, February 10, 2025

5 Best Java 8 Lambda, Stream, and Functional Programming Books for Beginners and Experienced in 2025 [UPDATED]

If you follow Java updates, you may know that Java 13 was released, and Java 14 is on the way, but I often receive emails and queries asking about some good books to learn Java 8. Since Java 8 is very different from any other JDK release, in terms of language and API enhancement, you really need an excellent book to learn fundamentals. In short, based upon my 2 years of learning and reading Java 8 books, I can say that Java SE 8 for Really Impatient is hands down the best book to learn Java 8. It covers all the essential things released in JDK 8, not just lambda expression and streams but also new Date and Time API and several other minor enhancement yet crucial features, which often go unnoticed.

7 Must Read Tech Books For Experienced Developers and Leads in 2025 - Best of Lot

Hello guys, if you are looking for some interesting novel-style tech books to read this weekend then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared the best software architecture books and in this article, I am going to share the best tech books for experienced developers to not just learn technical skills but also operational and management skills in a fun and easy way. I always like to read books which are interesting first and informative later because it's very difficult to go through a book which informative but not interesting and that's why when I found an interesting tech book which is full of life lessons, I buy it and read it again and again and this book list is collection of such books. 

Top 5 Books to Learn Java Programming from Scratch in 2025 - Best of Lot

I receive lots of emails and Facebook chats related to Java, but one of the most common questions which I have mostly asked is, which is the best book to learn Java? I have just started learning Java, Could you please recommend a good core Java book to me? After answering in one word too many of those readers and new Java developers as "Head First Java," I thought to write this blog post, Why? because some of them came back to me and asked me, "Can you please recommend a serious Java book, not the comics?" Well, I didn't like that comment, but then I thought it's natural that not everyone will find "Head First Java" as useful as I have always found.

Top 6 Advanced SQL Books for Experienced Programmers in 2025 - Best of Lot, Must read

If you an experienced programmer and know how to write SQL queries and database fundamentals but want to take your SQL and database skills to the next level then you have a come to the right place. In this blog, I have shared a lot of free SQL books and courses you can use to start your SQL journey. This is also the second article about SQL books, In the first part, I have shared some of the best SQL books which are essential to learning SQL queries and fundamentals of database like normalization, indexing, and other design stuff, if you haven't read it yet, I suggest to do it now. You will find some amazing books to start learning SQL.

Saturday, February 8, 2025

Top 8 Books to Learn Spring Boot and Spring Cloud for Java Developers in 2025 - Best of Lot

Hello guys, if you are a Java developer and want to learn Spring Boot and Spring Cloud frameworks and looking for some of the best books and courses, then you have come to the right place. In the past, I have shared some of the best Spring Boot courses and Spring Cloud courses, and today I am going to talk about some of the best books to learn Spring Boot and Spring Cloud, but before that let's try to understand what is Microservice and how Spring Boot and Spring Cloud helps with the development of microservices in Java. In simple words, Microservices is nothing but an extension of RESTful web services with the fundamental idea to break up your code into small, distributed, and independent services for better scalability and management, but it does require thoughtful design and think through ability.

Top 6 Hibernate Books for Java Developers in 2025 - Best, Must read

Hibernate is one of the most popular, open-source ORM (Object Relational Mapping) framework, which has now become a standard for developing persistence layer on Java enterprise application, along with JPA (Java Persistence API). I often receive requests to suggest which book is best to learn to hibernate or recommendation about some good books and training courses on Spring and Hibernate. This motivates me to write this article about some of the best books on Hibernate currently available on the market.

Top 7 Books to Learn and Master Programming and Coding in 2025 - Must Read, Best of Lot

Coding is an integral part of Programming, and we all somehow learned to code by following examples here and there. Yes, I am talking about both self-taught programmer and Computer Science Graduates. You can learn Coding easily if you are dedicated, but what is more difficult is to write good code. You can easily find programmers in Java, C++, Ruby, or Python, but finding programmers, who are also a good coder is very difficult. Some universities have a good curriculum and practical classes to teach coding better than others, but most of these great coders are self-taught Programmers, who learned by reading books, joining online courses, and doing things on their own.

Top 5 Books to Learn Unit testing, JUnit and TDD in Java in 2025 - Best of Lot

Hello guys, If you done some professional Java development then you know that Unit testing is a very, very important thing to learn to adapt. I would say this is the single most important practice in my opinion, which differentiates an excellent programmer with a professional programmer. It's one way you can see how disciplined a programmer is? It's also the best way to write clean code; a code that can stand the test of time, a code that is flexible enough to accommodate future changes and a code that you don't afraid of while changing. Despite several efforts of promoting unit testing by programming community and emphasizing unit testing by many notable programmers, it's still one of the lacking practice.

Friday, February 7, 2025

2 Books to Prepare for Spring Professional Certifications (VMware EDU-1202) Exam

Ever since Pivotal (now VMware) has removed the requirement of mandatory training to become a certified Spring developer, many Spring developers have been asking for good resources to prepare for Spring Professional V5.0 Exam like books, courses, mock exams, study notes, etc. to prepare for Spring Core Certifications via self-study. Since, earlier, you cannot give Spring certification exam without attending an online or instructor-led core Spring training, which costs around 3200 USD in the USA and North America and 50K INR in India, many experienced Spring developers refrain from becoming a certified Spring developer.

Thursday, February 6, 2025

Top 13 Java Programming Books for Beginners and Experienced - Best of lot, Must Read

Hello guys, if you want to learn Java and looking for the best books to learn Java then you have come to the right place. In the past, I have shared best Java courses, websites, and even a complete Java Developer RoadMap and in this article, I am going to share best books you can read to learn Java programming in depth. These top Java programming books are some of the good books to learn Java and I would say some of them are simply the best Java books ever published. Whenever a programmer starts learning Java programming language, the first question he asks is "Which book should I refer to learn Java?", or "What is the best book to learn Java for beginners?" or "Can you tell me some good books to learn Java?" .That itself says how important Java books are for programmers especially beginners.  

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Top 10 Websites for Coding Interview Preparation in 2025 - Best of Lot

Are you preparing for Coding Interviews? If yes then you might know that there are a number of free online resources to practice important topics for coding Interviews like data structure and algorithms, database and SQL, and others. These websites are equally useful for both, new programmers who are just learning the fundamentals and for experienced ones who are brushing up their coding skills for interviews. I have been sharing useful resources for programming and technical interviews for a long time in this book. In the past, I have shared some recommended online courses and books for coding interviews, as well as some of the frequently asked programming interview questions from tech companies (see here). But, my readers have been asking about some recommended websites for practicing programming challenges and coding interview questions.

3 Ways to Learn Spring Core, Spring MVC, Spring Security, and Spring Boot Framework in 2025

If you are a Java developer and want to learn the Spring framework then you have come to the right place. In this article, I will share three ways to learn the Spring framework, but before that let's understand what is a spring framework and why Java developers should learn Spring framework? Well, Spring is a framework that assists you to develop Java applications by following some best practices, particularly the principle of dependency injection and inversion of control. As per this principle, instead of the class asking for its dependency, the framework provides them at runtime.  Following these principles improves your code quality because it reduces coupling between different parts of your applications like between modules and classes, which makes it easier to test and develop.

Do you Need to Pass OCAJP before taking OCPJP - Core Java Certification from Oracle

Even though we now have Java 11 certification, I know many Java developers who are going for Java certification like Java SE 8 Programmer 1 and 2, also known as OCAJP 8 and OCPJP 8 with exam code 1Z0-808 and 1Z0-809. Even though Oracle split Java certification into 2 after acquiring Sun Microsystem in 2010, there is still confusion among Java developers whether they need to pass just one OCAJP exam or both OCAJP and OCPJP exam to become a certified Java developer. Well, The short answer is Yes, if you want to become a Java certified engineer then you need to pass both OCAJP and OCPJP, but the long answer depends upon your situation, e.g. whether you hold any previous Java certification or not, which we'll discuss in the second section.

Top 5 Books to Learn Concurrent Programming and Multithreading in Java in 2025 - Best, Must Read

Books are essential to learning something new, and despite being in the electronic age, where books have lost some shine to the internet and blogs, I still read and recommend them to get complete and authoritative knowledge on any topic, like concurrent programming. In this article, I will share five best books to learn concurrent programming in Java. These books cover basics, starting from how to create and start a thread, parallel programming, concurrency design patterns, an advantage of concurrency and of course pitfalls, issues, and problems introduced due to multithreading. Learning concurrent programming is a difficult task, not even in Java but also in other languages like C++ or modern days JVM languages like Groovy, Scala, Closure, and JRuby.

Top 5 books to Learn Object Oriented Programming and Design in 2025 - Must Read, Best of Lot

The OOP or Object Oriented Programming is one of the most popular programming paradigms which helps you to organize code in the real-world system. It's a tool that allows you to write sophisticated software by thinking in terms of objects and relationships. Unlike its predecessor procedural Programming paradigm, which is implemented most notably by C, which solves the problem and complete task by writing code for computers, the OOP style of programming allows you to think in terms of real-world objects which have both state and behavior. You can view anything as objects and then find their state and behaviors, this will help you to simulate that object in code.

Review - Is Grokking Algorithms book by Aditya Bhargava worth it?

Hello guys, I have read many books on data structures and algorithms like Introduction to Algorithms by Thomas H. Corman and Algorithm design manual by Steve S. Skiena, so when I come to know about this book, Grokking Algorithms,  I thought, just another book on algorithms, but I was wrong. This is not just another book on algorithms but one of the most interesting books you will ever read on Algorithms and Data structure. It doesn't cover all the data structure and algorithms you see in Computer Science but whatever it covers, it covers really well and that's what matters most for beginner programmer or Computer Science students. Another great thing about this book is that 2nd edition of this book is also out now which covers even more topics. 

Top 10 Best Java 8 Tutorials, Courses, and Books for Beginners

It's been quite some time since Java 8 was released but the Java community is still buzzing with functional programming and lambda expression. Many developers, programmers, and bloggers have already shared lots of really good tutorials to learn lambda expressions, probably the biggest thing in Java world after Generic was introduced in Java 5. While the term "lambda expression" may sound abstract and academic, Java 8 Lambdas can have a big impact on how you program every day. Java 8 has not only introduced Lambda expressions but also Stream API, Functional interfaces, new Date and Time API, and default methods, which has completely changed the way you write your Java code. As a professional Java developer, you will have to learn Java 8 one day, and it's better to do it sooner than later.

Top 5 Books to Crack Java Programming Interviews in 2025- Best of Lot

If you are preparing for Java Programming interviews, then apart from blogs and articles, you should also take the help of my book (Grokking the Java Interview) and courses specially written for Java interviews. Though nothing can substitute actual job experience, cracking the coding interview is a little bit different beast. Even if you have a good experience you may struggle to crack the online coding tests which are becoming very challenging for Java developers of all levels of experience. Similarly,  if you are not going for the exact same profile job then you can expect a hell of a lot of questions from vast topics of Java domain, which you might not have heard before. 

Top 5 Books to Learn Groovy for Java Developers in 2025 - Best Of Lot, Must Read

Groovy is a programming language that is specially created for Java developers with a view to being a fast-paced, scripting companion to Java. It aims to increase the productivity of Java developers by simplifying Java code and removing unnecessary boilerplate. Groovy not only present a succinct and easy to read syntax but also provide a much more elegant and convenient API than Java for common stuff. For example, a Groovy file can do in 50 lines what a Java source code does in 500 lines. You can declare an array as [] and map as [: ] which really makes code full of data without much syntax. Because of this property, Groovy is heavily used in unit testing of Java application. Some popular unit testing frameworks like Spock is also built on Groovy.

5 Must Read Books to become Software Architect or Solution Architect in 2025

I receive a lot of queries from senior Java developers, who aspire to become software architect or solution architect, like what can they do to become a software architect? Which books, resources, or certifications can help? And general queries like how much experience you need to become a software architect etc. In the past, I have been suggesting them individually about some books to read to expand their knowledge base and look at the software from architecture and design perspective, and this article is a compilation of many of such suggestions. Since a lot of books can confuse, I have only select 5 best and must-read books from the software architect's perspective.

Monday, February 3, 2025

10 Tips to Improve Programming Skill and become a better Programmer

Many Java developers ask me how to become a better programmer? How do I improve my programming skills? Or I am good at Java but not so good at problem-solving ability etc. This is a reality, today's era is full of language experts than real programmers. It's easy to understand keywords, methods, and API of the Java programming language. Still, at the same time, it's challenging to solve practical problems, design reusable, and robust software, and get the best of data structure and algorithm. I have often seen Java programmers are not doing so well when asked to design and code a solution in a limited time, but at the same time, they are really good with Java concepts and all theories.

Top 5 Tips to Prepare for Oracle Java Certifications (OCAJP and OCPJP)

Hello All, today, I am going to share some useful tips to prepare for Oracle's Java certifications like OCAJP and OCPJP, both associate and programmer level certification. These certifications are great for both mastering Java language as well as getting recognition for your skill which not only improves your chances of getting a Java development job but also helps you in your career growth. Though you need a bit of Java experience or knowledge to pass the Exam. If you are entirely new to Java, then you need to first go through a comprehensive course like The Complete Java MasterClass on Udemy and learn how to program in Java, because getting certified without knowing how to program in Java is of no use.

Top 23 Docker Container Interview Questions Answers for Developers and DevOps

Hello guys, if you are preparing for DevOps Engineer interview or a Software developer job interviews like Java developer then preparing about Docker is a good idea. Docker has become an essential tool for packaging and deploying Software, particularly Microservices, and you can expect a couple of questions about Docker during Interview to check your knowledge. Having absolutely no idea of Docker before going into interview can be detrimental to your prospect considering the importance of container on deploying apps and services on Cloud. That's why I always programmers and developers to prepare Docker interview questions and revise key Docker concepts before interview. 

Top 5 AI-900 Azure AI Fundamentals Practice Tests in 2025 - Best of Lot

Hello guys, if you are preparing for Azure AI Fundamentals certification or AI-900 exam and looking for the best preparation material and resources then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared best AI-900 courses and in this article, I am going to share best AI-900 practice tests to pass this exam in first attempt. The AI-900 Azure AI Fundamentals Certification exam is meant for people who are interested in Machine Learning and want to become Data scientists or AI Engineers. The Azure AI Fundamentals certification covers a wide range of topics like Azure Cognitive Services, Knowledge Mining, Responsible AI, and other AI Concepts. 

Top 10 Websites to Improve Coding Skills in 2025 - Best of Lot

Hello guys, if you are preparing for programming interviews or just want to improve your coding skills and looking for practice websites then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shred best System Courses, Books, System Design Interview Guide, Cheat Sheets, and System Interview Questions and today I am going to share 10 best resources to improve your coding skills. These sites include not just website where you can solve coding problems like LeetCode but also where you can solve real life coding challenges and earn money or bounties like Top Coder. You can use these websites to not just prepare for coding interviews but also to improve your coding and programming skills. 

6 Projects You can do to learn JavaScript in 2025 - Best of Lot

Learning any new programming language is not that easy as everyone thinks just by completing a course and consider yourself a developer on that language and JavaScript is one of them. There is a way to do so you can consider yourself a JavaScript developer until you can build an app from scratch on your own, and that's why its very important to do actual coding and building real apps. If you are looking for best JavaScript project ideas which are neither too easy nor too difficult to start learning JavaScript better then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared best JavaScript courses, best books to learn JavaScript, Websites, and Interview questions and in this article, I am going to share 5 beginner level project ideas to learn JavaScript in 2025. 

Sunday, February 2, 2025

Design a Vending Machine in Java - Interview Question

How do you design a Vending Machine in Java? is one of the popular Java interview questions mostly asked at Senior level Java developer Interviews. In a typical coding interview, you will be given a problem statement to develop a vending machine and within a limited time, usually, 2 to 3 hours you need to produce a design document, working code, and unit test in Java. One of the key advantages of such Java interviews is that you can test many essential skills or a candidate in one go. In order to complete the design, coding, and unit testing of a Vending machine, a candidate needs to be really good in all three departments. Recently, I have also seen this question on Object Oriented Design Interviews and  System Design Interviews, where interviewer want to check experienced developers knowledge on various Software architecture components and design decision. 

Top 8 Object Oriented Programming and Design Courses for Java Programmers in 2025 - Best of Lot

There is no doubt that Object-oriented programming is a pillar of software development and one of the reasons for the massive success of Java. Good knowledge of Object-oriented programming helps you to create better software. It also allows you to communicate your ideas better with your team members and fellow programmers. Despite being such an important technology, it's difficult to find programmers who understand OOP well. Many programmers just think that OOP is nothing more than Abstraction, Inheritance, Encapsulation, and Polymorphism, without genuinely understanding these concepts and mastering them.

Top 5 Websites to Learn Java Coding for FREE in 2025 - Best of lot

Hello guys, if you want to learn Java Programming and looking for the best websites to learn Java coding for free then you have come to the right place. In the past, I have shared the best Java courses and books, today, I am going to share free websites to learn Java Programming for free. being the author of a Java blog and programmer I often receive questions like how to improve my coding skills?,  or how do I learn to code in Java?, or I am having difficulty solving programming problems, please help, etc. This is mostly from programmers who have just started programming or computer science graduates with a programming degree or even some programmers with a year or two in Job.

Top 5 Websites to Learn Python Coding for FREE in 2025 - Best of Lot

Believe it or not, but Python has inspired many people to learn to code, and it's continually inspiring them. I know a handful of people who are learning Python for different reasons, starting from web development to machine learning. I have seen new people learning Python to write web apps using Django, create a Machine learning Model using Python, and just write some handy scripts to automate the boring stuff. Python is currently the world's #1 programming language and its popularity is growing every passing day, thanks to Data Science and Machine learning and awesome Python libraries like Pandas, PyTorch, NumPy, and TensorFlow.

Saturday, February 1, 2025

Top 20 Books Every Java Programmers Should Read [UPDATED]

Hello guys, Happy New Year. We are already in New Year and while I am busy making my goals, I am also looking back on what I have done in the last year. One of the things which I would like to share with you guys is some of the books I have read last year on Java and related technologies and will continue to read. This includes books on Modern Java, Spring, Hibernate, Object-oriented programming, Algorithms, Soft skills, Microservice, Groovy, Scala, Agile, and UML, etc. If you haven't read them yet, you can very well read them this year, depending on what technologies and programming languages you are going to learn.

Clean Code by Uncle Bob - Book Review - Must read for Java Programmers

Even though the Clean Code book was released many years ago and there are lots of good reviews already available, I couldn't resist writing my own experience of this great book which every coder should read. I came across this book many years ago, but since then, I have read it multiple times, and I have recommended it to my readers, students, and fellow developers. It is one of those books which make you feel that why didn't come across it earlier, I felt the same when I first learned about this book. The Clean Code is all about writing good quality code, and how do you judge the quality of code? Well, you won't appreciate good until you have seen bad code and that's what this book does.

Top 5 Books to learn REST and RESTful WebServices for Java Programmers in 2025

The REST framework has now become the standard way to develop Web Services on the Internet. It's no more SOAP, who used to rule the world for the last two decades. The SOAP and XML went very well together in the past decade but it seems now REST and JSON have overtaken them and doing even better, thanks to the rise of JavaScript for both frontend and backend development. Since Java is also one of the most popular languages to develop backend services, there is a lot of demand for Java developers who know web services and can implement and expose existing SOAP-based services into REST style, light-weight web services.

Top 5 Java SE 8 Certification Books in 2025 - Best of Lot Must Read

Hello guys, If you are preparing for Oracle Certified Associate, Java SE 8 Programmer, also known as Java SE 8 Programmer I or OCAJP 8 exam and looking for some good resources then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared some courses, and practice tests to pass the Java SE 8 certification. Actually, I have been sharing some of the most useful resources for Java 8 certification aspirants ever since the exam was launched. You can find a lot of this exam and essential resources in this blog. To continue that tradition, I am going to share some of the best books to crack the Java SE certification like OCAJP 8 (1Z0-808)  and OCPJP 8 (1Z0-89). Yes, you need to pass two exams to become Java 8 certified professional.