Compiled Learning Objectives

At the end of the sprint, you should be able to do the following things. Make sure to check you can do them all, and if not, go back and keep practicing until you can.

Classes and Objects (Prep)

• Explain what a class represents in Java
• Create object using constructors
• Use constructor overloading and constructor chaining to set particular fields on objects
• Explain how object references work when objects are assigned or passed around

The Four OOP Pillars - Encapsulation & Abstraction (Prep)

• Explain what encapsulation means and why protecting object state matters
• Explain what abstraction means and how it reduces system complexity
• Identify class responsibilities and object boundaries
• Explain why we use access modifiers to control visibility
• Explain why fields are usually private
• Design classes that expose a clear public API while hiding internal implementation

The Four OOP Pillars - Inheritance & Polymorphism (Prep)

• Explain the difference between method overriding and overloading
• And write overridden and overloaded methods
• Explain Java decides which method implementation to run
• Explain what upcasting and downcasting are, and when they occur
• Explain how polymorphism enables flexible, reusable designs
• Inspect types using instance of

Packages, import, static & final (Prep)

• Explain how Java packages organise code and communicate structure
• And demonstrate organising code into appropriate packages
• Explain how import works across packages
• Use an IDE to import classes
• Explain what it means for a member to belong to a class vs an instance
• Explain how static changes ownership and lifetime
• Write static fields and methods
• Explain how final communicates constraints and design guarantees
• Write final methods and classes