What to do after learning the basics??

[tomtaila]

Hey guys, I've been learning Java for a while now and Ive started off by reading "Head first Java." Basically now I'm asking myself "now what?" I feel I have the knowledge of Java but I don't have the practice and I want some resources/direction to improve my skills.

• Are there any excersises or sites/books with excersises anyone could recommend?
• Are there any more advanced books I should read now? (I have already purchased one for design patterns)

Thank you

[doWhile]

A few quick and random thoughts:
a) Project Euler
b) If you have not already, learn more language independent things, such as data structures (trees, graphs, etc...) and algorithms (the standard teaching algorithms are sorting algorithms)
c) Learn about design patterns (which I see you have a head first start - pun intended)

[tomtaila]

lol I see what u did there, nice lol I actually am in my final year doing a maths and computer science degree so I've covered trees, graphs etc and looking at the Euler stuff I reckon I'd be able to tackle a lot of them so cheers for that. I was thinking of something a little larger though, like building a brick breaker game for android or making a mini word editor, are there any places you know of which have ful length tutorials or excersizes asking for things like this?

Thanks for the quick response btw :)

[DarrylBurke]

lol I see what u did there, nice lol

Please maintain the decorum of the forum. This isn't SMS chat.

Thank you.

db