Software Engineering with Java/AWS Specialization

Prepare for a Software Engineering Career

What You Will Learn

• Java

  Learn to build object-oriented software systems using the Java programming language. Java has been one of the most popular programming languages for over 25 years and is on track to remain so for years to come. It is used by millions of developers at thousands of companies world-wide to build applications used by billions of people every day. You’ll turn written requirements into complex applications. You’ll write, compile and run Java programs. You’ll begin with the fundamentals of variables, conditions, loops, and classes and move to more advanced concepts such as exceptions, generics, lambdas and streams.

• Cloud Programming with Amazon Web Services

  Learn principles of cloud native applications and distributed systems. Work with AWS services such as S3, Lambda, DynamoDB, CloudWatch, CloudFormation, APIGateway, CodeCommit, and CodePipeline.

• Software Engineering Practices

  Learn the software development tools and practices that will allow you to work effectively on a software development team. Collaborate and submit code reviews with git. Discover the benefits of text editors and IDEs. Navigate your computer with the command line. Use proven design patterns to craft quality software. Build and deploy your projects with automated pipelines. Apply Agile values and use the Scrum methodology while working in a team environment.

• Object-Oriented Programming

  Study object-oriented programming, a popular style of software development that combines many small “objects” in code to construct large, cohesive programs. Protect data with encapsulation. Reuse and extend functionality using inheritance. Share common behaviors with polymorphism. Create abstractions to represent both the physical and conceptual world.

• Algorithms and Data Structures

  Learn the fundamental concepts of designing, building and analyzing software. Explore a broad range of data structures such as hash tables, queues, stacks, and trees. Know how and when to implement particular searching and sorting algorithms. Use Big O notation to describe and evaluate the performance characteristics of code in order to choose the most efficient approach.

• Testing and Debugging

  Learn what to test, how to test, and how to determine the root cause of a problem once it’s found. Construct clear and testable use cases. Create and run unit tests. Use an interactive debugger with an IDE. Increase code coverage with reference to a code coverage report. Inspect logs to diagnose a problem. Mock code so that it can be tested without instantiating dependencies. Build and run integration tests.

• Concurrency

  Discover techniques to boost software efficiency by performing multiple tasks at the same time. Learn about threads, thread pools, executor services, futures, sychronization, and caching.

• NoSQL Databases with DynamoDB

  Data is an essential component of any software system, and storing that data is a chief concern. Learn the ins and outs of data modeling, storage, and retrieval using AWS DynamoDB, a massively scalable, distributed, cloud-native database created by Amazon and used as a datastore by companies both large and small.

• Relational Databases and SQL

  Data is so important it made this list twice. In this course you’ll learn to represent and store data in tables, and how to create and use relationships between tables. You’ll also learn SQL, the specialized language created to work with relational databases.

• HTTP and RESTful Services

  Explore ways in which the components of distributed software systems communicate and interact with one another in order to form a complete application. We’ll cover topics such as basic networking, HTTP, Web APIs, the request/response communication pattern, and more.

• HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

  Learn how to structure web pages using semantic markup in HTML and then style those pages using CSS. Extend your static pages with JavaScript to create dynamic user experiences. You will use these languages to build web-based user interfaces for your projects.

• Real World Projects

  You will have two capstone projects for your personal code portfolio. The first will be as part of a project team designing, building, testing and deploying a realistic cloud-native application that can be shared with potential employers as proof of your ability to apply your skills as part of a collaborative project team. Your final capstone project will be an individual effort that demonstrates your ability to take a project through the entire software engineering process. This project will demonstrate to potential employers your ability to apply the skills learned in this class to a complete real-world problem.

• Career Preparation

  Throughout the program you will be preparing to move into an enterprise software engineering job. You’ll meet working software engineers from several industries. We’ll hold workshops on resume preparation, marketing yourself, interview preparation, negotiating, and more as well as focused preparation for solving technical interview challenges. You’ll get interview practice in mock scenarios with real hiring managers and senior engineers. You will demonstrate your technical ability, teamwork, and professionalism. And we’ll introduce you to prospective employers, share job postings, and support you after graduation during your job search. Our job isn’t done when you graduate, it’s done when you get your first software engineering job.

• Learn To Work On A Remote Team

  NSS’s live online experience prepares you to work with teams remotely. You’ll learn to communicate in a remote environment through virtual interactions with your instructors and classmates on Zoom, asynchronous communication tools like Slack, and written code reviews with Git and GitHub.

Requirements

Student requirements

• At least 18 years of age

• American citizen, permanent resident or legally able to work in the U.S.

• Due to regulatory constraints, we are not yet able to accept students residing in the state of California.

• High school diploma (or equivalent)

• A college degree is not required for the program, but may be required by some employers to qualify for a job.

Hardware/Software requirements

• Personal laptop meeting our hardware & software requirements. See this blog post for full details of our laptop specs.

• Accepted students will be given requirements for software to be downloaded prior to the start of class.