SCJP is the prerequisite for SCWCD, SCBCD, and all other Sun Java Certification Exams (excluding SCEA and SCJA). Candidates who successfully pass SCJP, are motivated (yes, really!) to take other exams. Usually, they confuse between SCWCD and SCBCD. Because, these two exams are categorized in ‘Expert’ level.

The most common questions, we see today among all candidates are:

1. After SCJP, to go for SCWCD or SCBCD? (What is next – SCWCD or SCBCD?)
2. Which is worth or better or has more value - SCWCD or SCBCD?
3. Which helps in job - SCWCD or SCBCD?
4. SCWCD Vs SCBCD?

And, any common (certified) man would answer “It’s your call” for all aforesaid questions. Certainly, I am not giving the same answer, but I’ll throw some light on the questions

1. After SCJP, to go for SCWCD or SCBCD? (What is next – SCWCD or SCBCD?)

Go for SCWCD. Because, Servlets/JSP are the most used components than EJB in any realworld J2EE project and application. And, I’ve never ever heard from someone that he coded at least a single line of EntityBean or Stateful SessionBean or whatever. So, EJB is used very little in real-world. Most of the developers use only Stateless SessionBean in their applications – that too a little amount.

Also, business, developers and community ceaselessly blame EJB for its complexity and resource consumption. The Community had come up with alternative frameworks for EJB every now and then in the last few years (hope, you have heard of Hibernate, topLink, and etc).

EJB is slowly dying. I am not biased towards JSP/Servlets. But, this is the fact. So, don’t go for SCBCD unless someone (your boss) asks you to do it!

2. Which is worth or better or has more value - SCWCD or SCBCD?

Both are worth (infact), having same value. Can’t compare both, because they two different tracks. As told in #1, prefer SCWCD than SCBCD, if not you have any need for SCBCD.

3. Which helps in job - SCWCD or SCBCD?

If you are fresher (with no previous work experience), then you don’t need to confuse too much about it. Because, any certification on your resume will be a plus, either it is SCBCD or SCBCD. So, worry not for the choice, choose anything you find easier.

If you have previous work experience, and serving a job currently, then make yourself some analysis by asking questions like – which technology I’ll be working on next?, what kind of job position or role I’m going to take next? The answers for these question will help you in taking right decision.

If you want to know what kind of certified professionals are in demand (in the job market), you may give a job search on ‘scwcd’ and ‘scbcd’ in Job Portal sites. I mean, go to job portals like Dice , Monster , Naukri and etc and search for: ‘J2EE SCBCD’ and ‘J2EE SCWCD’ queries. You’ll get decent results.SCWCD Vs SCBCD?

4. SCWCD Vs SCBCD

Analysis	SCWCD	SCBCD
Understanding Level (for average candidate)	Easy, when compared to SCBCD	Little more difficult than SCWCD
Certification Cost	$300 (USD)	$300 (USD)
Latest Versions	SCWCD 5 (CX-310-083) covering JSP 2.1, Servelet 2.5 of Java EE 5.0	SCBCD 5 (CX-310-091) covering EJB 3.0 of Java EE 5.0
Worth/Value	Equal	Equal
Preparation Time	Depends on person’s ability!	Depends on person’s ability!
Recommended Book,Preparation Guide	Head First Servlets & JSP by Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates	Note, ‘HeadFirst EJB’ is for previous version of the exam. There is no HeadFirst EJB for SCBCD 5.0 so far. Some recommended SCBCD 5.0 preparation books and guides are: Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0, O’Reilly Media EJB3 In Action - Manning Publication Mikalai Zaikin’s Guide here, an ultimate resource!

You can post comments or write to me directly, if you have any specific questions. Anyway, JavaRanch forum is there to help a lot than this.

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