Sun offers 5 free proficiency assessment examinations. Read below for details and how you can take them.

Sun Certified Associate for the Java Platform, Standard Edition, Exam Version 1.0
Exam Objectives:

  • Fundamental Object-Oriented Concepts
  • UML Representation of Object-Oriented Concepts
  • Java Implementation of Object-Oriented Concepts
  • Algorithm Design and Implementation
  • Java Development Fundamentals
  • Java Platforms and Integration Technologies
  • Client Technologies
  • Server Technologies
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 5.0
Exam Objectives:

  • Declarations, Initialization and Scoping
  • Flow Control
  • API Contents
  • Concurrency
  • OO Concepts
  • Collections / Generics
  • Fundamentals
Sun Certified Business Component Developer for the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5
Exam Objectives:

  • EJB 3.0 Overview
  • General EJB 3.0 Enterprise Bean Knowledge
  • EJB 3.0 Session Bean Component Contract and Life Cycle
  • EJB 3.0 Message-Driven Bean Component Contract
  • Java Persistence API Entities
  • Java Persistence Entity Operations
  • Persistence Units and Persistence Contexts
  • Java Persistence Query Language
  • Transactions
  • Exceptions
  • Security Management
Sun Certified Mobile Application Developer for the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition, Version 1.0
Exam Objectives:

  • JTWI (JSR 185) and Overview of JTWI-Compliant Wireless Applications
  • CLDL 1.0 and 1.1
  • Security (Both CLDC and MIDP)
  • Networking
  • Application Model, Delivery, Lifecycle, and Provisioning
  • MIDP Persistent Storage
  • Push Registry
  • MIDP User Interface (UI) API
Sun Certified Developer for Java Web Services
Exam Objectives:

  • XML Web Service Standards
  • SOAP 1.1 Web Service Standards
  • Describing and Publishing (WSDL and UDDI)
  • JAX-RPC
  • SOAP and XML Processing APIs (JAXP, JAXB, and SAAJ)
  • JAXR
  • J2EE Web Services
  • Security
  • Developing Web Services
  • General Design and Architecture
  • Endpoint Design and Architecture

These pre-assessment exams will also help you to determine which Java certification course is best suited to your current level of skill and knowledge.

You can take the exams here.