Java Developer Roadmap
1. Master Core Java (Java SE)
- OOP Concepts - Encapsulation, Inheritance, Polymorphism, Abstraction
- Data Types, Operators, Loops, Conditionals
- Strings & StringBuilder
- Exception Handling
- Collections Framework - List, Set, Map, Queue
- Generics
- Multithreading & Concurrency
- File I/O, Serialization
- Java 8+ Features: Lambda, Streams API, Functional Interfaces, Optional, Date/Time API
2. Build Strong Problem-Solving Skills
- Practice on LeetCode, HackerRank, Codeforces
- Learn Algorithms, Data Structures, Recursion, Dynamic Programming
3. Understand Java Development Tools
- IDE - IntelliJ IDEA / Eclipse
- Maven / Gradle - Build tools
- Git & GitHub - Version control
- Junit - Testing framework
- Lombok - Cleaner code
Java Developer Roadmap
- Log4j / SLF4J - Logging
4. Learn Java Frameworks (Enterprise Java Development)
Spring Ecosystem:
- Spring Core
- Spring Boot - Create REST APIs quickly
- Spring MVC
- Spring Data JPA - ORM and database access
- Spring Security - Authentication & authorization
Other Frameworks:
- Hibernate - ORM, SQL to Java mapping
- Thymeleaf or JSP - Server-side rendering
5. Learn Databases
- SQL (MySQL/PostgreSQL/Oracle)
- JDBC
- NoSQL (MongoDB - optional but good)
6. Understand APIs and Web Development
- Create & consume RESTful APIs
Java Developer Roadmap
- Use tools like Postman
- JSON / XML handling
- Authentication with JWT, OAuth2
7. Backend Project Architecture
- MVC pattern
- Clean Architecture
- Service layer / Repository pattern
- DTOs (Data Transfer Objects)
8. Microservices (Advanced Java Dev)
- Spring Boot + Spring Cloud
- Eureka, Feign, Gateway
- Docker & Kubernetes (for deployment)
- RabbitMQ / Kafka (for async communication)
9. Unit Testing & DevOps Basics
- JUnit / Mockito
- CI/CD tools - GitHub Actions, Jenkins
- Docker basics
- Linux commands & deployment
Java Developer Roadmap
10. Build Projects
- Library Management System
- E-commerce backend
- Task Manager with Auth
- REST API for Blog App
- Chat System (with WebSocket)
11. Soft Skills & Career Growth
- Write clean, readable, and maintainable code
- Contribute to open source (GitHub)
- Learn to read documentation
- Stay updated with blogs, YouTube channels, newsletters
- Practice system design for interviews
Tools to Learn Along the Way
| Tool | Purpose |
|-------------|---------------------|
| IntelliJ | IDE |
| GitHub | Code Hosting |
| Postman | API Testing |
| MySQL | Database |
Java Developer Roadmap
| Docker | Containerization |
| Swagger | API Documentation |