When I was just beginning to learn Java, I was looking for some projects to help solidify what I had already learned. I knew I wasn’t the only one, so I compiled a list of 10 of the best Java projects for beginners with full tutorials to boot. Learning to code is only 10% reading and watching videos and 90% hands-on programming. Therefore, this will be one of the best resources as you’re beginning to learn Java.
If you’re just starting out learning Java, you’re probably not programming the next billion-dollar app just yet. Odds are, you’re printing some concatenated strings, making a basic calculator, and playing with loops, arrays, and other logical statements. Yet, I’m sure this level of programming is not the end goal for you. It certainly wasn’t for me.
You may not know this, but Java can be used to create many different types of programs. So it begs the questions: What is Java used for? What has already been created with Java? And finally: What can I create using Java? All of these questions are answered below.
What Is Java Used For?
Java is used to create large-scale web and mobile applications, as well as smaller programs called applets that run on web pages. Java is a general-purpose programming language, so it’s used in a wide array of projects. However, Java has a few unique features compared to other languages which make it more appealing in certain types of projects.
10 Major Projects That Use Java
Many of the most popular web apps and mobile apps are written in Java, among other languages. Java is used in the back end of these projects. However, anything web base will also use HTML and CSS for their front end. The monthly traffic of each project given below is sourced from ahrefs and refers to traffic in the United States. Also, the projects below are listed in no particular order.
1. Google
Google is a huge international tech company most known for its search engine. The term ‘Google’ has become an actual verb meaning “search for information about (someone or something) on the Internet using the search engine Google.” The search engine has 94+ million page views per month. According to Jeff Nelson, the Product Technology Manager at Google; “There is no single programming language. […] Java, Javascript, C++, Python, Go, Sawzal (a custom logging language), and probably a few other languages are supported.”
2. YouTube
YouTube is the most popular sharing platform in the United States. It was created by three former PayPal employees in 2005. YouTube has more monthly traffic in the United States than any other project on this list, with 1.7+ billion page views. The main languages used in the development of YouTube are Java, Javascript, HTML, Python, Go, C, and C++, according to FreelancingGig.
3. Amazon
Amazon is primarily an e-commerce business and one of the largest in the world at that. However, they’re also in the cloud computing, streaming, and artificial intelligence space. Amazon’s website has 533+ million monthly users in the United States alone. According to several developers at Amazon, they use front end languages such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript, while the back is created with Java, C++, and Perl.
4. eBay
eBay is another e-commerce business that is better known for its consumer-to-consumer sales but also facilitates business-to-consumer sales. It was founded in 1995 on the brink of the dot com bubble. eBay gets 115+ million page views monthly in the United States. Their back end is created mainly with Java in order to accommodate the scale and security needed for such a massive business, according to High Scalability.
5. Facebook
Facebook is among the largest social media networks in the world. It was first launched in 2004 but didn’t garner mainstream attraction until several updates later. Facebook receives 616+ million pages per month in the United States alone but has billions of users worldwide. According to Chris Piro, a former software engineer at Facebook, “The frontend is written in PHP (programming language). […] Most of the backend services are written in C (programming language), C++ and Java.”
6. Twitter
Twitter was founded in 2006, two short years after Facebook, and is second only to Facebook as far as the scale of its userbase. It’s also known as a microblogging platform as tweets are limited to 280 characters. Twitter has 573+ million monthly page views. HTML, CSS, and Javascript (the usual suspects) are used to create Twitter’s front end, while the back end, according to PinProgram, used Java, Scala, Ruby, and C++.
7. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is another social media platform, although it stands out from the previous two. Your profile on LinkedIn is basically a resume, full of your skills and past work history, which makes for more professional networking. LinkedIn has 78+ million monthly page views in the United States. In PinProgram‘s same article, it’s mentioned that Java, Scala, and Javascript are used in LinkedIn’s back end.
8. Uber
Uber is an American based international ride-sharing service and food-delivery service that was founded just 10 years ago in 2009. They dominate this space with a huge market share and 90+ million active users every month. Uber’s front end uses Javascript for the web and the back end is mostly Java, Python, Go, and Node.js, according to Jérôme Cukier, a software engineer at Uber. Uber’s Android app also uses Java, while their IOS app uses Swift and Objective-C.
9. Zillow
Zillow is a web app that allows its users to browse their massive database of commercial, industrial, and residential real estate and even book showings or contact agents. There were 37+ million page views on their site per month this year. Zillow’s back end is configured using mainly Java and Python, according to Stack Overflow and Yalantis.
10. TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor is a web app that allows you to browse millions of restaurants, hotels, and other attractions, as well as read reviews, and even book said services. There were 114+ million page views on their site per month this year. While their front end uses HTML, CSS, and Javascript, the backend of the site uses Java to process the requests in the User Interface (UI). This is according to TripAdvisor’s Technical Operations Teams.
10 Java Projects For Beginners
1. Simple Banking Application
This simple, beginner-friendly 17-minute tutorial shows how to make a simple banking application that acts as a checking account. It utilizes print statements, if/else statements, strings, ints, methods, loops, and more. Using these techniques, the bank program created allows the user to perform multiple different functions:
- Check your balance
- Make a deposit
- Make a withdrawal
- View the previous transaction
- Calculate Interest
- Exit the application
This is definitely one of the easier projects for a beginner to do once they have learned some fundamental concepts. Be sure to subscribe to the Comp Sci Central YouTube channel!
2. Email Administration Application
This nearly 40-minute tutorial is a little more advanced than the previous yet still at a very basic level. It shows how to make a program that simplifies the process of creating new email accounts for a particular business. This begins to delve into Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) which is the main use of Java.
Once completed, the program should do a few things:
• It should generate a new email based on the employee’s first name, last name, and department.
• Generate a random string for their password.
• Have set methods to change the password.
• Have get methods to display name, email, and mailbox capacity.
3. Student Management System
This project, like the previous one on this list, is from the Master Skills YouTube channel. It’s also just a little bit longer, coming in at nearly 50 minutes. This project is slightly more advanced than the last one and also involves OOP.
Once completed, your program should do a few things:
• Ask the user how many new students will be added to the database.
• The user should be prompted to enter a name and year for each student.
• The student should have a unique 5-digit id, with the first being their grade level.
• The student should have several course options to choose from.
• Each course costs $600 to enroll.
• The student should be able to check their balance and pay tuition.
• The status of the student should show their name, id, courses, and balance.
4. School Management System
This tutorial is much longer than the previous tutorial at nearly 2 hours, but that’s what’s to be expected of a larger, more complex program. Similar to the last tutorial, this is also an OOP program. The objects are the school, the students, and the teachers. The program will not manage everything to do with the school, only its finances.
Once completed, your program should have a few things:
• A school object with teachers, students, revenue, and expenses.
• A teacher object with a name, id, and salary.
• A student object with a name, id, grade, fees paid, and total fees.
5. Text-Based Adventure Game
This is the last video in a 10-part playlist called: Java For Beginners. If you don’t already know the fundamentals of Java, you could watch the first 9 videos leading up to this one and it would be time very well spent. This tutorial isn’t too long at just under 50 minutes.
This was my favorite game to create because it wasn’t overly challenging and because I’m a big fan of adventure games. This doesn’t involve any Graphical User Interface (GUI) as it’s text-based, but it’s still a fun game to create with Java and even more fun to play.
The premise of the game is that the main character enters a dungeon and chances across 4 different types of enemies at random: a skeleton, a zombie, a warrior, and an assassin. The hero enters the dungeon with 3 health potions and could potentially get more when a monster is defeated. At each turn, the user can either attack, use a potion, or run. This is a great project to start with!
6. Pong Game
Pong is a classic game and it makes for a great project for a beginner Java developer. This tutorial is only about 40 minutes long so it can easily be completed in an evening. Also, this is the first project on this list that functions with a GUI.
Unlike the previous game, this one opens in a new window for the user to interact with, rather than simply interacting in the console. Unfortunately, in this version, you cannot beat the computer and there is no score count. However, I think that’s an opportunity to build upon this Java project and create something even better.
7. Snake Game
Snake is another classic game and similar to number 6 on this list, this tutorial is also brought to you by Krohn – Education. It’s also nearly the same length as the previous Java project that he created at 40 minutes. Additionally, and along with the rest of the game-projects on this list, this project uses a GUI that the game is actually played on. This project is slightly more advanced than the previous one and after the game is done, you’ll be left with a final score.
8. Brick-Breaker Game
If you’re not already familiar with brick-breaker, it’s a game in which the player has a small platform at the bottom of the screen that they can control. The player uses the platform to bounce a ball throughout the screen and break the bricks that are at the top. The more bricks you break, the higher your score. If you miss the ball with your platform, that’s game over. This project, taking only 57 minutes, is a very basic version of that.
9. Flappy Bird Game
The story behind the original Flappy Bird game is pretty amazing if you haven’t heard it already, but I won’t get into that here. As for the gameplay, this modest version for beginners uses a small red dot as the Flappy Bird.
The goal is to control the bird (which is notoriously difficult) and navigate through the spaces between the green pillars. The further you go, the more points you earn. For each pillar you pass through, you earn an additional point. This game plays with more colors than the previous games on this list, giving it a more complete feel. It’s also the longest of the game tutorials, at just over 1 hour.
10. ATM Interface
This is the longest Java tutorial on this list at just over 2 hours, but it’s an excellent project to take on. In addition to being the longest, this is probably the most complex project on this list. So once this ATM Interface is complete, what will it be able to do?
This program is made with 5 different classes: one for the account, the user, the transaction, the bank, and the ATM. Once complete, the program will prompt the user to enter their unique user id to access their account. After that, the user will be prompted to enter their pin number. If entered successfully, they will be granted access to their account. Once inside their account, they will be able to view the balance in the checking and savings account, as well as the following options:
• Show account transactions
• Withdraw
• Deposit
• Transfer
• Quit