Databricks Data Engineer Associate · v4-May-2026

Pass the Associate exam,
without the noise.

18 lessons rebuilt from scratch for the new May 4, 2026 exam guide — including ABAC, Lakeflow Connect, Liquid Clustering and Automation Bundles. Scenario-based mock exams, executable notebooks, and our Athena AI tutor on WhatsApp citing the exact lesson when you ask.

0Lessons
0Scenario mocks
0Exam domains
0RAG chunks
Coverage

All 7 exam domains, weighted exactly like the official guide

Each lesson's depth matches its real exam weight. No fluff on low-weight areas, no shortcuts on the heavy ones.

6%

Databricks Intelligence Platform

Workspace, compute types, Delta basics — the foundation.

21%

Data Ingestion & Loading

COPY INTO patterns, Auto Loader deep dive, Lakeflow Connect.

22%

Data Transformation & Modeling

Bronze→Silver→Gold with PySpark/SQL, joins, dedup, tuning.

16%

Lakeflow Jobs

DAGs, tasks, dependencies, control flow and triggers.

10%

CI/CD

Git folders, branches, PRs, Automation Bundles, CLI.

10%

Troubleshooting & Optimization

Spark UI, skew, shuffle, spilling, run history, Liquid Clustering.

15%

Governance & Security

UC managed/external grants, masking, row filters, ABAC.

Curriculum

18 lessons, ordered the same way the exam is

Order of the course = order of the official exam guide. You build a coherent mental model, lesson by lesson.

00

Introduction to Databricks

Why study Databricks, the platform and Workspace, Free Edition for practice, notebooks + PySpark + Spark SQL as the first contact, high-level view of Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Lakeflow Jobs and SDP.

Opening
01

Intelligence Platform, compute and Delta Lake

Core components of the Data Intelligence Platform, Delta Lake as the operational base (ACID, time travel, schema enforcement), Unity Catalog as governance, compute types: all-purpose, job, serverless, SQL warehouse — when to use each.

Platform · 6%
02

Ingestion patterns and COPY INTO

Batch, streaming and incremental loading. COPY INTO incremental from cloud object storage (ADLS / S3 / GCS) into UC-governed tables. When to use COPY INTO vs Auto Loader vs Connect.

Ingestion · 21%
03

Auto Loader deep dive

Auto Loader with schema enforcement and schema evolution. Directory listing vs file notification. Rescued data column. Ingestion of semi-structured / nested JSON into UC Delta.

Ingestion · 21%
04

Lakeflow Connect and external clients

Lakeflow Connect: standard, fully-managed, partner connectors. Choosing between Auto Loader, Connect and partner connectors. JDBC/ODBC/REST in notebooks orchestrated by Jobs. Land data straight into UC tables or cloud storage.

Ingestion · 21%
05

Bronze → Silver with PySpark and SQL

Read bronze tables with PySpark/SQL. Clean nulls, standardize types. Write new governed silver tables. Medallion architecture in practice.

Transformation · 22%
06

Joins, manipulation, dedup and aggregations

Inner, left, broadcast, multi-key, cross, union, union all. Manipulate columns, rows, structures (add, drop, split, rename, filter, explode). Dedup. Aggregations: count, approximate count distinct, mean, summary.

Transformation · 22%
07

Tuning, Gold layer and data quality

Tuning knobs: shuffle.partitions, parallelism, executor/driver memory, broadcast threshold. Gold: materialized views, streaming tables, views, tables — when each one for BI in UC. Data quality checks for Silver and Gold.

Transformation · 22%
08

Lakeflow Jobs: DAGs, common tasks and dependencies

DAG-based task graph, common tasks (notebook, SQL, dashboard, pipeline), task dependencies, repair and rerun.

Jobs · 16%
09

Lakeflow Jobs: control flow and triggers

Control flows (retries, branching, looping), conditional tasks, schedules (time-based, file arrival, table update), choosing between time-based and data-driven triggers.

Jobs · 16%
10

Databricks Git Folders, branches and PRs

Git Folders (formerly Repos), branches in the workspace UI, commit, push, PRs via Databricks Git integration.

CI/CD · 10%
11

Automation Bundles and Databricks CLI

Declarative Automation Bundles (formerly DAB). Structure: databricks.yml, resources, targets, variables, overrides. Promote one codebase across dev/test/prod. Package Lakeflow Jobs, SDPs, other assets. CLI for validate, deploy, manage in CI/CD.

CI/CD · 10%
12

Spark UI: skew, shuffle and disk spilling

Find performance bottlenecks from stage-level metrics in the Spark UI. Diagnose data skew, excessive shuffle and disk spilling. Read Min/Median/Max shuffle metrics. (Sample question Q1 in the official exam guide.)

Troubleshooting · 10%
13

Run history, cluster failures, Liquid Clustering

Lakeflow Jobs run history vs historical baseline, Jobs UI for status, DAG blockers, run times and failure rates. Diagnose cluster startup failures, library conflicts, OOM. Liquid Clustering and predictive optimization.

Troubleshooting · 10%
14

UC managed/external tables and access controls

Managed vs external tables in Unity Catalog. Create, modify, delete, convert between them. GRANT, REVOKE, DENY. Apply privileges to users, groups and service principals. UC security hierarchy.

Governance · 15%
15

Column masking, RLS and ABAC policies

Column-level masking. Row-level security by user groups. ABAC policies in UC (NEW topic): central control of row filtering and column masking. Differences and when to use each.

Governance · 15%
16

Bonus: SDP with Python classes and pipelines

Spark Declarative Pipelines in modern Python: classes, tests, multi-file projects, production best practices, reusable pipeline example.

Bonus
17

Final review + exam strategy

Review by domain (7 sections). Full mock exam. Elimination strategy. Most common traps. How to manage 90 minutes for 45 questions. What to study in the last 3 days.

Closing
FAQ

Straight answers.

Is the course in English?

Yes — notebooks, study guides, and mock exams are all available in English. Video lectures are being recorded in PT first; EN narration follows in waves. Athena (our AI tutor) answers in the language you ask her.

Do I need to know Python or SQL already?

Comfortable SQL helps. Python at "I can write a function and use a library" level is plenty. If you're starting from zero, our PySpark Free course is the warm-up.

How long until I'm exam-ready?

With 6-10h/week, most students reach exam readiness in 2-3 months. With less time, plan for 4-5 months. We adapt the path inside the course based on your starting level.

What's the difference vs Databricks Academy?

Databricks Academy is excellent reference material — comprehensive, official, free. Our course is exam-focused, opinionated, and built by an engineer working in production. We answer "why" and "what trade-offs", not just "how the feature works". Plus: 16 scenario-based mock exams, executable notebooks, AI tutor on WhatsApp.

Do you offer corporate licenses?

Yes. Teams of 5+ get custom pricing and onboarding. Reach out on WhatsApp.

Refund policy?

7 calendar days from purchase, no questions asked. WhatsApp us with the email used.

Lifetime access · updates included

Pass the Associate, on your terms.

Buy once, keep access forever. We update content whenever Databricks changes the exam — at no extra cost.

$99
One-time payment · lifetime access
  • 18 lessons aligned with the May 4, 2026 exam
  • 16 scenario-based mock exams
  • Executable notebooks (EN + PT)
  • Athena AI tutor on WhatsApp
  • Content updates when the exam changes
  • 7-day money-back guarantee

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