Cert Prep: Databricks Data Engineer Associate
How to pass the certification - official courses, study guide, practice exams, and free hands-on labs
This is a certification guide for the Databricks Data Engineer Associate - the most common Databricks certification and the one hiring managers actually look for. It walks you through official prep courses, a condensed study guide, vetted practice exams, and hands-on labs. Work through it top to bottom and you’ll be ready to pass on your first attempt.
I’m building this guide in the open. If you have tips or resources that helped you pass, drop a comment below!
Review the exam content
📄 Review the Associate Exam Outline
Read the course outline and the PDF under “Data Engineer Associate Exam Guide” to see exam topics.
📄 How to get 50% off the certification
Register for a “Virtual Learning Festival”, complete the required courses in the timeline provided to automatically receive 50% off.
Take the official Databricks preparation courses
🎓 Data Ingestion with LakeFlow Connect
Covers ingestion pipelines, connector setup, and data loading patterns using LakeFlow Connect.
🎓 Deploy Workloads with LakeFlow Jobs
Covers job orchestration, scheduling, and workflow deployment with LakeFlow Jobs.
🎓 Build Data Pipelines with LakeFlow Declarative Pipelines
Covers declarative pipeline design, data quality expectations, and pipeline monitoring.
🎓 Data Management and Governance with Unity Catalog
Covers governance, permissions, data lineage, and metadata management with Unity Catalog.
Review the Exam Study Guide
All certificate topics summarized in one place, with quick-recall tables and a day-before checklist. Based on the official exam objectives.
📄 Study Guide (PDF)
All 5 exam sections mapped line-by-line to official objectives: Platform, Ingestion & Dev, Processing & Transformations, Production & DAB, Governance & Quality.
Test yourself on practice exams
🎓 Practice Exams (Ramesh Retnasamy)
3 realistic practice exams to assess your readiness.
🎓 Practice Exams (Derar Alhussein)
5 realistic practice exams with detailed answer explanations.
🎓 Practice Exams (Akhil R)
5 realistic practice exams covering all exam objectives.
Explore additional study resources
📺 Check other courses from Udemy
Browse additional courses to supplement your preparation.
📺 How to pass the exam on first attempt (DatabricksForProfessionals)
Five-step guide for passing on your first attempt, plus a secret Databricks repository for prep.
📺 Databricks Certification Preparation Playlist (The Data Master)
Curated video playlist specifically for Associate certification prep.
Practice with free hands-on labs
Build real pipelines that cover core exam topics - DLT, streaming, Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, and ingestion patterns.
🛠️ Data Engineer Associate Certification Prep
Exam-aligned labs covering Delta Lake, Spark SQL, Structured Streaming, ingestion patterns, and governance. Includes checklists and practice questions.
🛠️ DLT Apparel Streaming Pipeline
Build a streaming data pipeline with Databricks DLT, medallion architecture, and SCD2 - covers DLT, real-time processing, and data quality expectations.
Solidify your foundations
🔗 Junior Databricks Engineer Learning Path
Work through curated lessons and hands-on exercises to better prepare for the certification.
Take the exam!
🏅 Register for the exam
Create an account on Webassessor and find the exam associated with your certification.
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Last updated: February 24, 2026