Programming practice

Question

I've decided to get some experience working on some project this summer. Due to local demand on market I would prefer to learn Java (Standard and Enterprise Editions). But I can't even to conjecture what kind of project to do. Recently I had some ideas about C. With C I could to contribute to huge Linux projects. I don't mean that my work will be surely commited. I could get the code and practice with it. But C it's not right thing to get good job in my area. In case of JavaSE there is a chance to develop some desktop applications. But thinking about JavaEE I get stuck. I'll be very thankful for answers.

Answer 1

CodingBat.com will give you good core Java practice.

Project Euler is still the best for all around practice. You can use whatever language you'd like to solve the problems there.

For actual projects, I almost always start on something easy like a Twitter client. It gets you exposure to all the basics along with UI and network communication. You can work up from there. Just don't start with something so overwhelming that you can't figure it out and want to give up. That's not going to get you anywhere.