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    Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate Lessons

    33 lessons, one per exam-guide subdomain, in the order the guide teaches them. Every claim is cited to the official documentation.

    Domain 1: Databricks Intelligence Platform

    2 lessons · 6% of the exam

    1. 1.1Databricks Platform Architecture: Account, Workspace, Control and Compute Planes

      Subdomain 1.1: Understand the core components of the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform

      2 pages · 23 min read

    2. 1.2Databricks Classic vs Serverless Compute: Characteristics, Limits and Cost

      Subdomain 1.2: Understand Databricks Data Intelligence Platform’s compute services

      2 pages · 24 min read

    Domain 2: Data Ingestion and Loading

    7 lessons · 21% of the exam

    1. 2.1Batch, Streaming, and Incremental Ingestion with Lakeflow Connect

      Subdomain 2.1: Enable and detail data ingestion patterns

      2 pages · 26 min read

    2. 2.2COPY INTO: Idempotent Incremental Loads into Unity Catalog Tables

      Subdomain 2.2: Use the COPY INTO command

      2 pages · 20 min read

    3. 2.3Auto Loader Schema Inference, Evolution Modes and Enforcement

      Subdomain 2.3: Use Auto Loader with schema enforcement and schema evolution

      2 pages · 20 min read

    4. 2.4Lakeflow Connect Managed vs Standard Connectors and Their Components

      Subdomain 2.4: Configure Lakeflow Connect to reliably ingest data

      2 pages · 22 min read

    5. 2.5JDBC Ingestion in Notebooks with Unity Catalog Connections

      Subdomain 2.5: Use JDBC/ODBC or REST clients in notebooks

      2 pages · 17 min read

    6. 2.6Lakeflow Connect: Managed vs Standard Connectors and Partner Tools

      Subdomain 2.6: Prioritize between Auto Loader, Lakeflow Connect, and other ingestion methods

      2 pages · 21 min read

    7. 2.7Auto Loader and COPY INTO for JSON and Nested Data in Unity Catalog

      Subdomain 2.7: Ingest semi-structured and unstructured data

      2 pages · 22 min read

    Domain 3: Data Transformation and Modeling

    7 lessons · 22% of the exam

    1. 3.1Reading Bronze Tables and Cleaning Nulls for Silver

      Subdomain 3.1: Implement data cleaning

      2 pages · 21 min read

    2. 3.2DataFrame Joins in Databricks: Inner, Left, Multi-Key, Cross and Broadcast

      Subdomain 3.2: Combine DataFrames with operations

      2 pages · 22 min read

    3. 3.3Add, rename, drop and split DataFrame columns in PySpark

      Subdomain 3.3: Manipulate columns, rows, and table structures

      2 pages · 25 min read

    4. 3.4PySpark Deduplication: distinct() vs dropDuplicates()

      Subdomain 3.4: Perform data deduplication operations and aggregate operations on DataFrames

      2 pages · 20 min read

    5. 3.5Spark Shuffle Partitions, Parallelism and AQE Tuning

      Subdomain 3.5: Understand the basic tuning parameters

      2 pages · 20 min read

    6. 3.6Gold Layer Objects in Unity Catalog: Tables, Views, Materialized Views and Streaming Tables

      Subdomain 3.6: Understand the difference between, and how to build, Gold layer objects

      2 pages · 22 min read

    7. 3.7Lakeflow pipeline expectations: warn, drop, and fail

      Subdomain 3.7: Apply data quality checks and validation rules

      2 pages · 27 min read

    Domain 4: Working with Lakeflow Jobs

    4 lessons · 16% of the exam

    1. 4.1Lakeflow Jobs Retries and Run If Task Dependencies

      Subdomain 4.1: Implement control flows using Lakeflow Jobs

      2 pages · 20 min read

    2. 4.2Lakeflow Jobs task types: notebook, SQL, dashboard and pipeline tasks

      Subdomain 4.2: Configure common tasks and their dependencies using Lakeflow Jobs

      2 pages · 22 min read

    3. 4.3Lakeflow Jobs Triggers: Scheduled, Continuous and Concurrency

      Subdomain 4.3: Implement job schedules using Lakeflow Jobs

      2 pages · 21 min read

    4. 4.4Time-Based vs Data-Driven Triggers in Lakeflow Jobs

      Subdomain 4.4: Choose between time-based and data-driven triggers

      2 pages · 18 min read

    Domain 5: Implementing CI/CD

    4 lessons · 10% of the exam

    1. 5.1Databricks Git Folders: Credentials, Cloning, and the Git Dialog

      Subdomain 5.1: Manage your code development workflow within the Databricks workspace UI

      2 pages · 18 min read

    2. 5.2Bundle Variables and Substitutions for Environment-Specific Configuration

      Subdomain 5.2: Understand environment-specific configuration using Automation Bundle

      2 pages · 22 min read

    3. 5.3Declarative Automation Bundles: databricks.yml, Targets, Overrides and Variables

      Subdomain 5.3: Deploy Declarative Automation Bundles

      2 pages · 21 min read

    4. 5.4Validate and Deploy Declarative Automation Bundles with the Databricks CLI

      Subdomain 5.4: Understand the Databricks CLI to validate, deploy, and manage Declarative Automation Bundles

      2 pages · 23 min read

    Domain 6: Troubleshooting, Monitoring, and Optimization

    5 lessons · 10% of the exam

    1. 6.1Lakeflow Jobs Run History: Reading Durations Against a Baseline

      Subdomain 6.1: Identify trends in job performance using the Lakeflow Jobs run history view

      2 pages · 19 min read

    2. 6.2Lakeflow Jobs Run Statuses, Failure Rates, and Run History

      Subdomain 6.2: Use the Lakeflow Jobs UI to monitor pipeline health

      2 pages · 18 min read

    3. 6.3Spark UI Stage Metrics: Spotting Shuffle, Spill and Skew

      Subdomain 6.3: Identify common performance bottlenecks

      2 pages · 18 min read

    4. 6.4Liquid Clustering: Clustering Keys Instead of Partitions and ZORDER

      Subdomain 6.4: Understand the features of Liquid Clustering and predictive optimization

      2 pages · 23 min read

    5. 6.5Diagnosing Databricks Cluster Startup Failures

      Subdomain 6.5: Diagnose cluster startup failures, library conflicts, and out-of-memory issues

      2 pages · 27 min read

    Domain 7: Governance and Security

    4 lessons · 15% of the exam

    1. 7.1Managed vs External Tables in Unity Catalog: Storage, Formats, Create and Drop

      Subdomain 7.1: Differentiate between managed and external tables in Unity Catalog

      2 pages · 28 min read

    2. 7.2Unity Catalog Privileges: Securable Hierarchy, Inheritance and Principals

      Subdomain 7.2: Configure access controls using the UI and SQL

      2 pages · 23 min read

    3. 7.3Row Filters and Column Masks on Unity Catalog Tables

      Subdomain 7.3: Understand column-level masking and row-level security

      2 pages · 18 min read

    4. 7.4Unity Catalog ABAC Policies: Governed Tags and Central Control

      Subdomain 7.4: Understand Unity Catalog ABAC policies

      2 pages · 23 min read

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