■ Java Mastery Roadmap

Complete Learning Schedule • 8 Hours/Day • Target: Senior Java Developer (5

YOE)

Beginner → Job-Ready in 7 Months

■ Duration ■ Modules ■ Projects ■ Target Role

7 Months 6 Modules 10+ Projects 3–5 YOE Java Dev

■ MONTH 1 — Java Core Mastery (Weeks 1–4)

■ WEEK 1 — Java Fundamentals & OOP Basics

Day 1: Java Basics

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 Variables, Data Types, Operators int, double, String, boolean, arithmetic, modulus

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Input & Decision Making Scanner, if/else, else if, &&, ||, comparison operators

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Loops for loop, while loop, do-while, nested loops, break, continue

Block 4 Hrs 7 Arrays 1D arrays, array traversal, array length

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Multiplication Table + Grade Print tables, calculate grade from marks
Calculator

Day 2: OOP Part 1 — Classes & Objects

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 Classes & Objects Blueprint concept, creating objects with new, instance
variables

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Constructors Default, parameterized, overloaded constructors, this

keyword

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Encapsulation private fields, getters/setters, data hiding principle

Block 4 Hrs 7 Static vs Instance static keyword, class-level vs object-level, static methods

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Bank Account App Create accounts, deposit, withdraw with encapsulation

Day 3: OOP Part 2 — Inheritance

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 Inheritance Basics extends keyword, parent/child classes, code reuse

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 super Keyword Calling parent constructor, [Link](), method overriding

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Polymorphism Runtime polymorphism, @Override, dynamic dispatch

Block 4 Hrs 7 Method Overloading Compile-time polymorphism, same name different params
■ Project Hrs 7–8 Animal Kingdom App Animal → Dog/Cat/Bird with sounds and behaviors

Day 4: OOP Part 3 — Interfaces & Abstract

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 Abstract Classes abstract keyword, abstract methods, partial implementation

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Interfaces interface keyword, implements, multiple interfaces

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Access Modifiers public, private, protected, default — when to use each

Block 4 Hrs 7 final keyword final variable, final method, final class

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Shape Calculator Shape interface → Circle/Rectangle/Triangle area

Day 5: Exception Handling

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 try/catch/finally Exception hierarchy, checked vs unchecked, finally block

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Custom Exceptions Creating your own exception classes, throw vs throws

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Multiple Exceptions Catching multiple, exception chaining, best practices

Block 4 Hrs 7 Try-with-resources AutoCloseable, resource management

■ Project Hrs 7–8 ATM Machine App Full ATM with custom exceptions for invalid ops

Day 6: Strings & Math

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 String Methods length, charAt, substring, contains, replace, split, trim

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 StringBuilder Why StringBuilder, append, insert, delete, reverse

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Math Class [Link], sqrt, abs, max, min, random

Block 4 Hrs 7 String Formatting [Link], printf, format specifiers

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Word Analyzer Count vowels, reverse, palindrome check, word count

Day 7: Week 1 Revision & Project

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 OOP Quiz 20 questions covering all OOP concepts with explanations

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Code Review Session Review your week's code, refactor, clean up

Block 3 Hrs 5–8 Weekly Project

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Library Management System Add/remove/search books, members, borrow/return system
 ■ MONTH 1 — Java Core Mastery (Weeks 1–4)
■ WEEK 2 — Collections, Generics & Java 8+

Day 8: Collections — List & Queue

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 ArrayList add, remove, get, size, contains, iteration, index

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 LinkedList Doubly linked, addFirst, addLast, peek, poll

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Stack & Queue LIFO vs FIFO, push, pop, offer, poll

Block 4 Hrs 7 Collections Utility sort, shuffle, reverse, min, max, frequency

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Todo List App Add/remove/complete tasks using ArrayList

Day 9: Collections — Map & Set

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 HashMap put, get, containsKey, keySet, values, entrySet

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 HashSet & TreeSet Uniqueness, add, contains, iteration, ordering

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 LinkedHashMap Insertion order, LRU cache concept

Block 4 Hrs 7 When to use which Big-O complexity of each collection

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Word Frequency Counter Count word occurrences in a paragraph using HashMap

Day 10: Generics

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 Generic Classes , type parameters, generic methods

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Bounded Types , wildcards

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Generic Collections Writing type-safe code, why generics exist

Block 4 Hrs 7 Generics vs Object Type safety, casting, ClassCastException

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Generic Pair & Stack Build your own generic stack data structure

Day 11: Java 8 — Lambdas & Functional Interfaces

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 Lambda Basics Syntax, functional interfaces, Runnable, Comparator

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Built-in Functional Interfaces Predicate, Function, Consumer, Supplier

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Method References Class::method, instance::method, constructor ref

Block 4 Hrs 7 Sorting with Lambdas [Link], [Link], chaining

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Employee Sorter Sort employees by name/age/salary using lambdas

Day 12: Java 8 — Streams API

Block Time Topic Key Concepts
Block 1 Hrs 1–2 Stream Basics stream(), filter, map, collect, forEach

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Terminal Operations reduce, count, min, max, findFirst, anyMatch

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Collectors toList, toMap, groupingBy, joining, counting

Block 4 Hrs 7 Optional of, empty, isPresent, orElse, map, flatMap

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Student Report Generator Filter, group and summarize students with streams

Day 13: Multithreading Basics

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 Thread Basics Thread class, Runnable, start, sleep, join

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Synchronization synchronized keyword, race conditions, deadlock

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Executor Framework ExecutorService, thread pools, Callable, Future

Block 4 Hrs 7 CompletableFuture async tasks, thenApply, thenCombine, exceptionally

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Parallel File Downloader Simulate multi-threaded downloads with ExecutorService

Day 14: Week 2 Revision & Project

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 Collections Quiz 20 questions on collections, streams, lambdas

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Code Review & Refactor Rewrite earlier code using streams & lambdas

Block 3 Hrs 5–8 Weekly Project

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Inventory Management System Full CRUD with collections, streams, file save/load
 ■ MONTH 2 — Backend Development with Spring Boot (Weeks 3–5)
■ WEEKS 3–4 — Spring Boot, REST APIs, Databases

Day 15: Spring Boot Intro

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 Spring Boot Setup Spring Initializr, project structure, @SpringBootApplication

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Dependency Injection @Component, @Service, @Repository, @Autowired, IoC

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Spring Beans Bean lifecycle, @Bean, ApplicationContext, scopes

Block 4 Hrs 7 [Link] Config, profiles, environment variables

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Hello World API Basic Spring Boot app with config and beans

Day 16: REST APIs with Spring MVC

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 REST Basics HTTP methods, status codes, REST principles, JSON

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Controllers @RestController, @GetMapping, @PostMapping,

@RequestBody

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Path & Query Params @PathVariable, @RequestParam, response entities

Block 4 Hrs 7 Exception Handling @ControllerAdvice, @ExceptionHandler, error responses

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Product CRUD API Full REST API for products with all HTTP methods

Day 17: SQL & Database Basics

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 SQL Fundamentals SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, WHERE, ORDER BY

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Joins & Aggregates INNER/LEFT JOIN, GROUP BY, COUNT, SUM, AVG

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Indexes & Constraints PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY, INDEX, UNIQUE

Block 4 Hrs 7 MySQL Setup Install MySQL, create DB, tables, connect to Java

■ Project Hrs 7–8 E-commerce Schema Design tables for users, products, orders, reviews

Day 18: Spring Data JPA & Hibernate

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 JPA Basics @Entity, @Table, @Id, @Column, entity lifecycle

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Repository Pattern JpaRepository, CrudRepository, custom queries

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Relationships @OneToMany, @ManyToOne, @ManyToMany, fetch types

Block 4 Hrs 7 JPQL & Named Queries @Query, @NamedQuery, N+1 problem & solutions

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Blog API with Database Posts, comments, users with JPA relationships

Day 19: Validation, DTOs & Mapping

 Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 Bean Validation @Valid, @NotNull, @Size, @Email, @Min, @Max

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 DTOs Request/Response DTOs, separation of concerns

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 ModelMapper / MapStruct Entity to DTO mapping, avoiding boilerplate

Block 4 Hrs 7 Pagination & Sorting Pageable, Page, PageRequest, sorting API responses

■ Project Hrs 7–8 User Management API Full CRUD with validation, DTOs, pagination

Day 20: Testing Spring Boot Apps

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–2 JUnit 5 Basics @Test, @BeforeEach, @AfterEach, assertions

Block 2 Hrs 3–4 Mockito @Mock, @InjectMocks, when/thenReturn, verify

Block 3 Hrs 5–6 Integration Testing @SpringBootTest, MockMvc, @WebMvcTest

Block 4 Hrs 7 Testcontainers Real DB in tests, @Container, PostgreSQL container

■ Project Hrs 7–8 Test Suite for Blog API Unit + integration tests with 80%+ coverage

Day 21: Month 2 Project

Block Time Topic Key Concepts

Block 1 Hrs 1–3 Planning & Setup ERD design, API contract, project structure

Block 2 Hrs 4–6 Implementation Build full REST API with Spring Boot + JPA

Block 3 Hrs 7–8 Testing & Polish Write tests, fix bugs, document endpoints

■ Project Hrs 7–8 E-Commerce REST API Products, orders, users, auth-ready, fully tested
 ■ MONTHS 3–4 — Architecture, Microservices & Senior Skills
Week Focus Area Key Topics Milestone

Week 5 Design Patterns Singleton, Factory, Builder, Strategy, Observer, Decorator Refactor codebase with patterns

Week 6 Microservices Spring Cloud, API Gateway, Service Discovery, Feign Client Split monolith into 3 services

Week 7 Messaging & Events Kafka, RabbitMQ, async communication, event-driven arch Event-driven order system

Week 8 Docker & CI/CD Dockerfile, docker-compose, GitHub Actions, Jenkins basics Containerize your app

Week 9 Spring Security OAuth2, JWT, roles, permissions, method security Secure your REST API

Week 10 Redis & Caching Cache strategies, Redis setup, @Cacheable, eviction Add caching layer to API

Week 11 System Design Scalability, load balancing, CAP theorem, SQL vs NoSQL Design Instagram/Twitter clone

Week 12 AWS Basics EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, API Gateway, IAM basics Deploy app to AWS EC2

■ Months 3–4 Capstone Project: Microservices E-Commerce Platform

Build a full microservices system with: User Service • Product Service • Order Service • API Gateway • Kafka events • Redis caching
• JWT security • Docker compose • GitHub Actions CI/CD

■ MONTHS 5–6 — Portfolio Projects & Interview Preparation

Area Topics Covered Resources/Tools Hours/Week

DSA & Problem Solving Arrays, Strings, HashMaps, Trees, Graphs, DP basics
LeetCode Easy→Medium, 2–3 problems/day 10 hrs

System Design Design scalable systems, databases, caching, CDN,Grokking

queues System Design, [Link] 8 hrs

Java Deep Dive JVM internals, GC tuning, memory leaks, thread safety
JVM books, profiling tools 6 hrs

Spring Advanced Spring internals, AOP, custom annotations, batch Spring docs, Baeldung 6 hrs

Mock Interviews Full technical rounds, behavioral, whiteboard codingPramp, [Link] 6 hrs

Portfolio Polish README files, Swagger docs, deployment, GitHub profile

GitHub, Postman, AWS 8 hrs

Behavioral Prep STAR method, leadership, conflict, project stories Your own project stories 2 hrs

■ MONTH 7 — Final Push: Advanced Topics & Job Hunt

Week 13–14 Performance Engineering JProfiler, VisualVM, GC analysis, heap dumps, APM tools (New Relic)

Week 15 Advanced Testing Contract testing, Pact, performance testing with Gatling/JMeter

Week 16 Job Applications Apply to 10+ jobs/day, negotiate offers, technical take-homes
 ■ Your Milestone Timeline
Month Milestone What You Can Do Status

Month 1 Core Java Mastery Write clean OOP code, use collections, streams, lambdas ■ Target

Month 2 Backend Developer Build full REST APIs with Spring Boot + database ■ Target

Month 3 Mid-level Dev Design patterns, microservices, Kafka, Docker ■ Target

Month 4 Advanced Backend Security, caching, system design, AWS basics ■ Target

Month 5 Portfolio Ready 3 real-world projects on GitHub, deployed & documented ■ Target

Month 6 Interview Ready Crack DSA rounds, system design, behavioral rounds ■ Target

Month 7 Job Offer! Land 3–5 YOE Java Developer role ■ Goal!

■ Your Daily 8-Hour Schedule

■ Time Block ■ Activity ■ Purpose

Hrs 1–2 Learn new concept with Claude (explanation + examples) Understanding & theory

Hrs 3–4 Write code yourself, practice examples Hands-on application

Hrs 5–6 Solve practice problems / coding challenges Reinforcement

Hrs 7–8 Build project feature or daily mini-project Real-world application

30 min (end) Revise today's topic, write notes Retention & memory

■ Remember: Consistency beats intensity. Show up every day, build something real, ask questions without hesitation.
You are not just learning Java — you are building a career. Every line of code you write today is an investment in your
future. Let's go! ■