
Ask HN: Best resources to learn Java in 2017 - theweirdone
Most of the Java tutorials available online don&#x27;t have very good interface and structure, in comparison with front-end documentation.<p>I have been doing front-end development for past 3 years and know enough node and Java to get by on server sice. I want to deepen my knowledge in backend dev in general, Java seemed like a good start because of better career prospects.<p>Related: Is Java still relevant? Or should I start with some other backend stack?
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fiftyacorn
Yes Java is still relevent - but how relevent depends on your local market.
What are the main skill sets in your local market? What aspects of Java are
they looking for? Im seeing some java stacks being replaced with nodejs - but
we'll see if the trend lasts

In terms of resources its hard to advise - different people learn differently.
Some people prefer books, some youtube videos and some by example. Best bet is
to google the resources

I do think Java 8 in action is an excellent book, also oracle's tutorials are
good. The stackoverflow documentation pages for java are quite good too, as is
dzone

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tom5
Yes, Java is relevant, especially in large companies. A lot of back-end
systems are using Java.

For learning, you can start with reading Java Language Specification. And then
you can read Java Virtual Machine Specification. After that, you should have
very good understanding of big picture. Then it is just about writing code
using APIs.

As for back-end, there are a lot of topics (not specific to language). File
system, networking, distributed computing and others. In real production
systems, it is about how to compute/process within certain time-frame. And how
to operate the production systems.

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adamnemecek
Effective Java, while a bit out of date is still relevant
[https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Java-2nd-Joshua-
Bloch/dp/03...](https://www.amazon.com/Effective-Java-2nd-Joshua-
Bloch/dp/0321356683/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1483737516&sr=8-1&keywords=effective+java&linkCode=ll1&tag=adamnemecek03-20&linkId=1a0057234fc3edab9f2b5e78248ae60a)

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rvdavis
I was sponsored through the Udacity Intro to Java course by my employer as a
condition of employment when I first got recruited. I found that it was a
great course on learning the language.

[https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-java-programming--
cs...](https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-java-programming--cs046)

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jabv
I find the book "Absolute Java" by Savitch to be rather readable for a
textbook about a language. The author doesn't seem too self-serious. Grab an
older edition for cheap.

I am curious if anyone else likes/dislikes the book.

