Unconventional Guides. For Programmers.

I digest complex topics in (mainly) the Java/JVM programming world and write them up as fun and easily understandable guides & courses. So that you save time, frustration and do a better job. 👨‍💻👩‍💻

Premium Guides & Courses

Git: Merge, Cherry-Pick & Rebase New

Ever had a botched merge? Crazy rebase with tons of conflicts? You can use this guide to get a deep understanding of how Git's merges, rebases & cherry-picks work under the hood, so that you'll never fear them again.

Start Reading →

The Confident Spring Professional

Go from not knowing where to start to having a good understanding of Spring Framework, Spring MVC, Spring & Databases, as well as Spring Boot, without having to fall back on constantly copying someone else's code.

Learn More →

The Confident Maven Professional

A learning-by-doing course covering not only Maven's basics but also going into detail on multi-module projects, release flows & corporate Maven settings.

Learn More →

JDBC Workbook

A workbook and video course that teaches you JDBC fundamentals through exercises. This workbook teaches you the universal basics you should know if your Java application talks to a database.

Learn More →

Java Guides

Java Versions & Features

How to install the latest Java. Differences between Java distributions (Adoptium, AdoptOpenJDK, OpenJDK etc.). Overview of language features: Java 8-17.

Read →

Java Microservices: A Practical Guide

Understand what Java microservices are, how you architect and build them. Also: A look at Java microservice libraries & common questions.

Read →

JDBC - a short guide

You can use this guide to learn the basics of JDBC: How to connect to any database and execute SQL queries. Including JDBC drivers & connection pools.

Read →

Java & Databases: An Overview of Libraries & APIs

Overview of all popular database libraries & APIs in Java. Covers JDBC, Hibernate, JPA, jOOQ, Spring Data and more.

Read →

How To Work With Files In Java

How to work with files in Java through the Path API. From reading and writing files, to watching directories & using in-memory file systems.

Read →

How To Do Logging In Java

Discover, understand and use the right Java logging library for your applications, like Log4j2, Logback, or java.util.logging.

Read →

Intermediate Java - A Learning Path | Part1

In this fun guide you will build a mp3-archiving project from scratch, learning a lot about Core Java, JDBC, servlets and much more.

Read →

mvn clean install - a short guide to Maven

Use this guide to understand what a 'mvn clean install' really does. Also: A crash-course on Maven and workarounds for its most common pitfalls.

Read →

jOOQ - a short guide

Use this guide to understand what jOOQ is, how to get started with it quickly and how jOOQ integrates with or compares to libraries like Spring and Hibernate.

Read →

Spring Guides

What is Spring Framework? An Unorthodox Guide

You can use this guide to understand what Spring framework is and how its core features like dependency injection or aspect-oriented programming work. Also, a comprehensive FAQ.

Read →

What is Spring MVC: @Controllers & @RestControllers

You can use this guide to understand what Spring MVC is, how its @Controllers, @RestControllers and DispatcherServlet work. Also, how it compares to Spring Boot.

Read →

How Spring Boot's Autoconfigurations Work

You can use this guide to get an in-depth understanding of what Spring Boot's Autoconfigurations are and how they work.

Read →

Spring Transaction Management: @Transactional In-Depth

You can use this guide to get a simple and practical understanding of how Spring's transaction management with the @Transactional annotation works.

Read →

11 Spring Boot Interview Questions That Make You Think

Here are 11 Spring Boot interview questions that don't focus on trivial details, but rather make you think and thus learn a lot along the way.

Read →

Spring And Spring Boot Versions

A short guide to the latest Spring and Spring Boot versions, as well as information on the release cycle and maintenance windows.

Read →

Spring Security: Authentication and Authorization In-Depth

You can use this guide to understand what Spring Security is and how its core features like authentication, authorization or common exploit protection work.

Read →