Practical Coding in Java

Learn to write and validate your own code

Darren Kessner, PhD

(revised January 9, 2026)

Previous: To the student

About the book

This book is based on notes, demo code, and coding exercises I have written and used over the past 10 years of teaching AP Computer Science at Marlborough School in Los Angeles.

Various versions of this content have been published previously on my class webpages with open source licensing,

About the author

I am the Program Head of Computer Science and Software Innovation at Marlborough School in Los Angeles, where I have taught Math and Computer Science for 11 years.

I am also a software developer with over 25 years of experience writing software in a wide variety of fields, including computer security, computer graphics, and scientific applications. My published academic papers include contributions to the areas of bioinformatics, proteomics, and population genetics.

I am a strong proponent of free and open source software, open public data, and open educational resources. I am also an advocate for increasing the diversity of voices in the STEM fields in general, and in software development in particular.

In the classroom I use free and open source software, open public data, and open educational resources.

Darren Kessner, PhD
https://dkessner.github.io


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