Java Tutorial for Beginners

Learn the basics of Java in the time it takes to watch a movie.

Become a programmer.

Java is one of, if not THE most popular language in existence. Every major company uses it, millions of developers write software with it, it powers everything from PCs to tables, phones, watches and your smart fridge. If something has an operating system, it can probably run Java.

Many people say programming is hard or for "geniuses". But it's not. It really isn't. You can learn fast with the right tools, the right selection of topics and the right sequencing so you can relate to them as you progress. This mini-course gives you that.

In the time it takes for you to watch a Lord of the Rings movie, you will learn the equivalent of a 300 page book and you will have the tools to read, understand and work with Java. You will create your first Java application and you'll start your journey into software development.

Here's what you will do in this tutorial/mini-course:

  • install Java and IntelliJ IDEA and write your first Java application
  • understand how the computer executes things
  • learn about data types and variables
  • make the computer do different things based on conditions
  • automate instructions with loops
  • define your own data types with classes, fields and methods
  • use arrays to process data uniformly
  • use access modifiers like public and private
  • use class-level fields and methods with static

By the end of this tutorial, you will write your first small chatbot which will be very polite and greet you by your name, will compute your age based on some info you give it, and will do some repetitive tasks very fast.

It's free.

But I hope this course turns out better than most people's paid stuff.

Your Instructor


Daniel Ciocîrlan
Daniel Ciocîrlan

I'm a software engineer and the founder of Rock the JVM. I started the Rock the JVM project out of love for Scala and the technologies it powers - they are all amazing tools and I want to share as much of my experience with them as I can.

As of February 2024, I've taught Java, Scala, Kotlin and related tech (e.g. Cats, ZIO, Spark) to 100000+ students at various levels and I've held live training sessions for some of the best companies in the industry, including Adobe and Apple. I've also taught university students who now work at Google and Facebook (among others), I've held Hour of Code for 7-year-olds and I've taught more than 35000 kids to code.

I have a Master's Degree in Computer Science and I wrote my Bachelor and Master theses on Quantum Computation. Before starting to learn programming, I won medals at international Physics competitions.


Frequently Asked Questions


Dude, did you just say I can learn Java in 3 hours?
Yes, you can. There's much more to learn after this tutorial, of course, but you'll get the core skills you need.
How long do I have access to this?
The online platforms call this "lifetime access". It's really up as long as Rock the JVM is alive, which I hope will be a long time.
What if I am unhappy with the tutorial?
Just tell me at [email protected]. I want to make it better and more effective.
Do you issue certificates?
Not for this one. Although your focus for 3 hours in this course is commendable, a certificate wouldn't mean much. If you do build something real out of your own two hands after finishing this tutorial, let me know at [email protected] and I will send you a gift as a marker of your work.

Get started now!