Java Roadmap for Beginners 2024

In this article, let's look at the roadmap to learning Java in 2024.

Check out Full Stack Java Developer Roadmap for Beginners 2023.

If you want to learn and don’t know the Java topics, Java frameworks, and the tools you need to know to work on Java projects, then you are in the right place.

Well, this Java Roadmap is intended to serve as a guideline for anyone who plans to start learning Java in 2024.

This Java roadmap is my opinion. Having worked with Java for 10 years and creating content on this blog has given me a good idea to suggest a road map for you to follow. 

Learn complete Java programming: Complete Java Programming Tutorial.

1000+ Java API Guides: Java API Documentation.

YouTube Video

I have explained the Roadmap to learning Java in 2024 in the YouTube video below:

Java Roadmap for Beginners 2024 - Flowchart

1. First Learn Java Language Basics

1. Java Programming Language - Getting Started
2. Java JVM, JRE, and JDK Explained with Diagrams
3. Java Buzzwords or Features of Java
4. Java First Hello World Program
5. Variables in Java
6. Java main() Method
7. Java Access Modifiers
8. Arithmetic Operators
9. Bitwise Operators
10. Equality, Relational, and Conditional Operators
11. Primitive Data Types in Java
12. Java if Statement
13. Java Switch Case Statement
14. Java for Loop
15. Java while Loop
16. Java do-while Loop
17. Java continue Statement
18. Java break Statement

2. Learn Arrays

1. Java Array Basics Guide
2. Two-Dimensional Array in Java
3. Copying Arrays in Java
4. Convert Array to ArrayList
5. Convert ArrayList to Array
6. java.util.Arrays Class API Guide

3. String Handling

1. Java String Class API Tutorial
2. Java StringBuffer Class API Tutorial
3. Java StringBuilder Class API Tutorial
4. Guide to Java String Constant Pool
5. Guide to String Best Practices in Java (Best Practice)
6. String Special Operations with Examples
7. String Comparison Methods with Examples
8. String Methods for Character Extraction
9. String Searching Methods with Examples
10. String Modifying Methods with Examples

4. Learn Object-Oriented Programming in Java

1. What Is Object in Java with Programming Examples
2. What is Class in Java with Programming Examples
3. What Are All the Different Ways to Create an Object in Java?
4. java.lang.Object Class Methods with Examples
5. Java Interface
6. Java Abstract Class
7. Abstraction in Java with Example
8. Encapsulation in Java with Example
9. Inheritance in Java with Example
10. Polymorphism in Java with Example
11. Composition in Java with Example
12. Aggregation in Java with Example
13. Association in Java with Example
14. Cohesion in Java with Example
15. Coupling in Java with Example
16. Delegation in Java with Example
17. Oops Concepts in Java
18. How to Make Immutable Class in Java
19. Packages in Java with Examples
20. Overloading Constructors in Java with Examples
21. Method Overloading in Java with Examples
22. Nested Classes in Java

5. Learn Collections Framework

1. Collections Framework in Java
2. Collections Framework - The Collection Interface
3. Collections Framework - The Set Interface
4. Collections Framework - The SortedSet Interface
5. Collections Framework - The List Interface
6. Collections Framework - The Queue Interface
7. Collections Framework - The Deque Interface
8. Collections Framework - The Map Interface
9. Collections Framework - The SortedMap Interface
10. Collections Framework - ArrayList Class
11. Collections Framework - LinkedList Class
12. Collections Framework - CopyOnWriteArrayList
13. Collections Framework - HashSet Class
14. Collections Framework - LinkedHashSet Class
15. Collections Framework - TreeSet Class
16. Collections Framework - CopyOnWriteArraySet
17. Collections Framework - EnumSet
18. Collections Framework - HashMap Class
19. Collections Framework - LinkedHashMap Class
20. Collections Framework - TreeMap class
21. Collections Framework - EnumMap
22. Collections Framework - WeakHashMap
23. Collections Framework - IdentityHashMap

Learn more about Java Collections on Java Collections Tutorial

6. Java Generics

1. Java Generics - Generics Basics
2. Java Generics - Benefits of Generics
3. Java Generics - Generic Types
4. Java Generics - Generic Methods in Java
5. Java Generics - Bounded Type Parameters
6. Java Generics - Wildcards
7. Java Generic Methods Examples
8. Java Generic Interface Examples
9. Java Generic Class Examples
10. Java Generics Multiple Type Parameters Example

7. Learn Exception Handling in Java

1. Java Exception Handling Guide
2. How the Exception Handling Works in Java
3. Three Types of Exceptions in Java
4. Exceptions Hierarchy in Java
5. Java Chained Exceptions
6. java.lang.Throwable Class in Java
7. Exception Handling Keywords in Java
8. Java try/catch block
9. Java throw Keyword
10. Java throws Keyword
11. Java finally Block
12. The try-with-resources Statement
13. Advantages of Java Exceptions
14. Java Exception Handling Best Practices

8. Learn Java Multithreading

1. How to Create and Start a Thread in Java
2. Java Thread Sleep Example
3. Java Thread Join Example
4. Java Thread Set Name Example
5. Java Thread interrupt Example
6. Java Thread Priority Example
7. Java Thread isAlive Example
8. ThreadGroup class in Java
9. Thread Class in Java
10. Runnable Interface in Java
11. Synchronization in Multithreading Java
12. ThreadLocal class in Java

To know in-depth about Java multi-threading on Java Multithreading Tutorial

9. Functional Programming (Java 8 Main Features)

1. Java 8 Lambda Expressions
2. Java 8 Functional Interfaces
3. Java 8 Method References
4. Java 8 Stream API
5. Java 8 Optional Class
6. Java 8 Collectors Class
7. Java 8 StringJoiner Class
8. Java 8 Static and Default Methods in Interface

10. Java Input/Output

1. Create File
2. Write File
3. Delete File
4. Copy File
5. Move File
6. Rename File
7. Append to File
8. Read the File using BufferReader
9. Read File using BufferInputStream
10. Read File using DataInputStream
11. Get File Size in Bytes KB MB GB TB
12. How to write an Object to file in Java
13. How to Read Object from File
14. Compress Files in ZIP format in Java
15. Decompress Files from a ZIP file in Java
16. Get the current working directory
17. Create a directory
18. Delete directory
19. Copy directory
20. Traverse /List a directory structure
21. Check if the directory is empty

To know in-depth about File handling on Java I/O Tutorial

11. Learn Data Structures and Algorithms

DS Stack

1. Stack Data Structure in Java
2. Stack Implementation using Array in Java
3. Dynamic Stack Implementation using Array in Java
4. Stack Implementation using Linked List in Java
5. Stack Implementation using Array List
6. Generic Stack Implementation in Java
7. Reverse a String using Stack Data Structure in Java
8. How to Reverse a Stack in Java

DS Queue

1. Queue Data Structure in Java
2. Queue Implementation using Linked List in Java
3. Queue Implementation using Circular Array in Java
4. Dynamic Queue Implementation using Array

DS Linked List

1. Linked List Data Structure in Java
2. Singly Linked List Implementation in Java

DS Searching Algorithms

1. Binary Search Algorithm in Java
2. Linear Search Algorithm in Java
3. Interpolation Search Algorithm in Java

DS Sorting Algorithms

1. Bubble Sort Algorithm in Java
2. Selection Sort Algorithm in Java
3. Insertion Sort Algorithm in Java
4. Merge Sort Algorithm in Java
5. Quick Sort Algorithm in Java

12. Advanced Java

1. Learn JDBC

JDBC stands for Java Database Connectivity, which is a standard Java API for database-independent connectivity between the Java programming language and a wide range of databases.

By learning JDBC, you will be able to connect your Java project to an underlying database.

2. Learn Servlets

Java servlets are Java classes that are designed to respond to HTTP requests in the context of a Web application.

By learning Servlet, you will be able to understand how to process the HTTP request, how to return an HTTP response, how to build a web page, etc.

3. Learn JPA

The Java Persistence API (JPA) is the Java standard for mapping Java objects to a relational database. Mapping Java objects to database tables and vice versa is called Object-relational mapping (ORM).

By learning JPA, you will be able to map Java classes into the database table directly (using ORM).

4. Learn JAX-RS

JAX-RS is a Java API for RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS) is a Java programming language API spec that provides support in creating web services according to the Representational State Transfer (REST) architectural pattern.

There are two main implementations of JAX-RS API:
1. Jersey Framework
2. RESTEasy

By learning JAX-RS and its implementations, you will be able to develop RESTFul web services in Java.

5. Learn Design Patterns

In software engineering, a design pattern is a general repeatable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software design. A design pattern isn't a finished design that can be transformed directly into code. It is a description or template for how to solve a problem that can be used in many different situations.

By learning Design patterns, you will be able to apply commonly used design patterns in real-time project development to solve a particular problem.

6. Learn Thymeleaf

Thymeleaf is a modern server-side Java template engine for both web and standalone environments, capable of processing HTML, XML, JavaScript, CSS, and even plain text.

By learning the Thymeleaf template, you will be able to build dynamic HTML web pages in Spring MVC projects.

13. Build Tools

Maven

Maven is a popular build and dependency management tool in Java.

Gradle

Gradle is an open-source build automation tool that is designed to be flexible enough to build almost any type of software.

By learning Maven or Gradle, you will be able to build Java projects as WAR, JAR, or EAR.

14. Spring Framework

Learn Spring Core

Learn Spring core fundamentals such as:

• Dependency injection
• Spring IOC
• Spring beans
• Spring bean life cycle
• Spring configuration styles (XML, Java-based, and annotation-based) 
• Learn important annotations

By learning Spring Core, you will be able to understand how to use DI, IOC, and Spring Beans in Spring-based applications.

Learn Spring Security

Spring Security is a framework that provides authentication, authorization, and protection against common attacks. 

Also, learn JWT for token-based authentication.

By learning spring security, you will be able to secure web applications and REST APIs.

Learn Spring Data JPA

The goal of the Spring Data JPA module is to significantly reduce the amount of boilerplate code required to implement data access layers for various persistence stores.

By learning Spring Data JPA, you can develop a repository/DAO layer without writing boilerplate code.

Learn Spring MVC

Spring MVC is a web MVC framework for building web applications and RESTful web services.

By learning Spring MVC, you will be able to develop web applications and RESTful web services.

Learn Spring Boot

Spring Boot is basically an extension of the Spring framework which eliminates the boilerplate configurations required for setting up a Spring application.

By learning Spring Boot, you can develop REST APIs, web applications, and Microservices.

15. Hibernate Framework

Learn and master the Hibernate framework at Hibernate ORM Framework

16. Essential skills

Git

Learn Git as a version control system for your projects.

SQL

Learn SQL to query relational databases.

17. Databases

As a Java programmer, you should have good knowledge of databases.

Here are the commonly used relational databases and No SQL databases:

RDBMS

• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• MS-SQL server
• Oracle

No SQL Databases

• MongoDB
• Cassandra

18. Testing Java Application

Check out the JUnit framework and Mokito for unit testing in Java. As a Java programmer, you should have good knowledge of unit testing your core logic using the JUnit framework.

To learn and master the JUnit framework at JUnit tutorials

19. Commonly used libraries for Java development

It's also important for Java programmers to learn commonly used utility libraries for Java development.

- Parsing libraries - Jackson, GSON

- Logging libraries - Log4j

- Apache Commons - Lang, IO

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