Stage 0: Java Fundamentals

Stage 0 introduces students to the basics of Java, which is the programming language that is used throughout the learning course.

Note

Though it is not part of Stage 0, students are expected to go through the Course Setup. This ensures that students have the tools needed to follow along.

When learning Java, there are many topics to cover. Therefore, Stage 0 focuses mainly on the topics that are useful for programming an FRC robot. For students who are new to programming, it’s important for them to follow stage 0 in order. This will help ensure that important information is not missed.

The topics covered are:

• Java fundamentals
• Debugging
• Operators
• Conditionals
• Loops
• Classes and Objects
• Methods and Mutable State
• Arrays and For-Each Loops
• Interfaces, Generics, and Lists

Each page has a set of exercises that students should complete. This will help them build understanding of each new topic. By the end of the stage, students will have enough foundational Java knowledge to be able to follow the rest of the learning course.

Learning Objectives

By the end of Stage 0, students should be able to:

• Read and write basic Java syntax
• Identify code errors and solve them
• Use Arithmetic, Assignment, Comparison, Logical operators to change, or compare the values of variables
• Implement conditionals and loops
• Define classes
• Create and use objects
• Define methods
• Create Arrays and iterate through them using for-each loops

Common Issues to Watch Out For

• Forgetting to add a semi-colon
• Mismatching or forgetting opening and closing curly braces
• Variable names having inconsistent capitalization
• Infinite loops
• Using single equals = instead of double == for comparisons

Additional Practice

For students who want to learn more Java or want extra practice, we recommend the Additional Resources page.