WHAT THE EXAM EXPECTS OF YOU

"To know your enemy, you must become your enemy." — Sun Tzu, The Art of War

First, you need to understand the motive behind the exam questions and what the exam is really testing. Recognising the intent can help you determine the source and style of the questions, which in turn allows you to prepare efficiently. 

There are 2 main categories.

1. Unofficial: Exam Domain
2. Official: Exam Domain

UNOFFICIAL: EXAM DOMAINS 

You may not find this in their official docs. Most of these reasons are driven by business needs and real-world demands. You can only learn this by solving more questions and finding patterns.

Here are some examples from my experience as a test taker: 

LeetCode expects you to:

1. Choose the right data structure: Identify the optimal Data structure to use for a problem. Do this correctly, and you are 90% closer to solving the question
2. Choose the most efficient algorithm for the above data structure.
3. Know how to translate your natural, intuitive reasoning into modular and actionable steps: Oh boy! This was hard to crack. Often, you can intuitively solve the questions just by looking at them, but breaking them down on paper is where the real issue is.

AWS (DVA-C02) expects you to:

1. Awareness of newer AWS services: The goal is to Market new products and influence developers to use them. Question source: AWS product announcements. Example: X-ray, Athena, Lambda, Step functions
2. Understand the customer and developer’s pain points: The goal is to know how to solve most of AWS’ FAQs and problematic areas for AWS customers. Question source: AWS FAQ pages
3. Design cost-effective solutions: Accidentally going over budget is one of AWS’ biggest headaches, and they want developers to know how to prevent that. Question source: AWS white papers
4. Migrating from on-premise to AWS cloud: Most questions indirectly tell you to do this, and the advantages involved in migrating.
5. Follow best practices and learn to solve real-world problems with AWS. Question source: AWS white papers

Java OCA/OCP expects you to:

This doesn't focus on solving real-world problems, but emphasises knowing the internal workings of the Java language.

1. Have a deep understanding of Java’s Internals: Unfortunately, the exam does not test you on how to solve real-world problems; instead, you learn how to master some concepts like Java garbage collector(Memory management), JVM, Concurrency, and Object lifecycle. Get an intuitive understanding of the internal workings, and you can solve most questions.
2. Mastery of Java syntax: The exam tests not only your understanding of correct syntax but also your knowledge of the appropriate methods to call. This dual focus makes the Java OCP one of the most challenging exams I’ve encountered.
3. Adoption of modern Java features:  Java now has a faster release cycle (every 6 months) to keep up with competing languages like Node.js and Python. The goal is to ensure developers are updated with new Java features—for example: Functional programming, Generics, Concurrency, Optional, Streams, etc.

EXAM DOMAINS OFFICIAL

You can find this on the official exam website of the certification you want to take. They provide the syllabus, question structure and what to expect. 

AWS (DVA-C02) Example domains: 

• Content Domain 1: Development with AWS Services (32% of scored content)
• Content Domain 2: Security (26% of scored content)
• Content Domain 3: Deployment (24% of scored content)
• Content Domain 4: Troubleshooting and Optimisation (18% of scored content)