Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate: Complete Study Guide

Master the Databricks Lakehouse, Delta Lake and Spark SQL. Exam format, the five topic areas with weights, and a focused study plan for the Associate exam.

Practice 136 free Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate questions

Official exam page: https://www.databricks.com/learn/certification/data-engineer-associate

The Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate certification proves you can use the Databricks Lakehouse Platform to build and maintain basic data pipelines with Spark SQL and Python, Delta Lake, and Delta Live Tables. It is one of the most in-demand data certifications today.

Exam at a glance

• Format: 45 multiple-choice questions
• Duration: 90 minutes
• Cost: 200 USD
• Delivery: online proctored
• Validity: 2 years

Confirm the latest version and objectives on the official page linked above.

Topic areas

1. Databricks Lakehouse Platform — ~24%. Workspace, clusters, notebooks, Repos, the medallion architecture, and how the Lakehouse unifies data lakes and warehouses.
2. ELT with Spark SQL and Python — ~29%. Reading and writing data, creating tables and views, joins, aggregations, and working with complex types.
3. Incremental data processing — ~22%. Delta Lake fundamentals (ACID, time travel, OPTIMIZE, VACUUM, MERGE), Structured Streaming, and Auto Loader.
4. Production pipelines — ~16%. Delta Live Tables, Databricks Jobs, task orchestration, and basic troubleshooting.
5. Data governance — ~9%. Unity Catalog concepts, permissions, and securing data objects.

Concepts to master

• Delta Lake: why it exists, ACID transactions, MERGE INTO, time travel, OPTIMIZE and VACUUM
• The medallion architecture: bronze → silver → gold and what each layer is for
• Auto Loader & Structured Streaming: incremental ingestion with cloudFiles
• Delta Live Tables: declarative pipelines, expectations for data quality
• Unity Catalog: the three-level namespace (catalog.schema.table) and grants

A study plan

• Week 1: Platform basics, clusters, notebooks and Spark SQL transformations.
• Week 2: Delta Lake and incremental processing — practise MERGE, time travel and Auto Loader.
• Week 3: Delta Live Tables, Jobs and Unity Catalog, then full practice exams.

Exam-day tips

• Know the difference between managed and external tables and what happens on DROP.
• Be precise on Delta Lake operations — OPTIMIZE (compaction) vs VACUUM (file cleanup) vs ZORDER.
• Several questions test Structured Streaming triggers and Auto Loader options.

Practice with real questions

Reinforce each topic with the free practice questions below, focusing on Delta Lake and Spark SQL, which carry the most weight.