Rating: 

I would expect this sort of thing from most of the certification industry, but not from O'Reilly. Essentially, this book covers the certification exam; that it also provides an introduction to Servlets and JSP is largely incidental. O'Reilly is certainly one of the most consistent, best publishers of technical material, and this book is very good. However, it is a surprise that they would publish a certification exam study guide rather than a serious tutorial about the material. Even though I have learned a good bit about Servlets, I am left wondering what they have left out, simply because it is not on the exam.

If you are looking for a SCWCDE study guide, this is it. If you are looking for a fast, good introduction to Servlets, this may also be it. But in the future, I'll probably give the Head First series a pass, and I'll be a little more careful about reflexively picking up O'Reilly books.