Databricks Data Engineer Associate
Databricks Data Engineer Associate
Everything you need for the Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate exam: format, the seven sections, a study plan and free sample questions.
- Questions
- 45 scored
- Duration
- 90 min
- Fee
- $200
- Validity
- 2 years
The Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate exam assesses your ability to use the Databricks Intelligence Platform for introductory data engineering: ingesting and transforming data, orchestrating jobs, applying CI/CD, troubleshooting, and governing what you build.
There are no prerequisites, but Databricks recommends hands-on experience with the tasks in the exam guide. This is a platform exam — it tests whether you can do data engineering on Databricks, not data engineering theory.
What the exam covers
| Section | Weight |
|---|---|
| Databricks Intelligence Platform | 6% |
| Data Ingestion and Loading | 21% |
| Data Transformation and Modeling | 22% |
| Working with Lakeflow Jobs | 16% |
| Governance and Security | 15% |
| Implementing CI/CD | 10% |
| Troubleshooting, Monitoring, and Optimization | 10% |
Seven sections, which is more granular than most certifications, and no single one dominates. Ingestion and transformation together are 43% — the core data engineering work. Orchestration through Lakeflow Jobs is 16%, and governance 15%.
The two smallest sections after the platform overview are CI/CD and troubleshooting at 10% each. The platform section itself is only 6%, roughly three questions.
Format at a glance
45 scored questions in 90 minutes, multiple choice, online or at a test centre. Unscored items may also appear. The fee is $200 and the credential is valid for two years.
Offered in English, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil) and Korean.
Where to start
Read the exam format, then the study plan. If you are deciding between this and the Professional exam, the comparison sets out the gap.
Databricks Data Engineer Associate guides
- Databricks Data Engineer Associate formatThe Databricks Data Engineer Associate format: 45 scored questions, 90 minutes, $200, two-year validity and all seven section weights.
- Databricks Data Engineer: Associate vs ProfessionalThe Databricks Data Engineer Associate and Professional exams compared: sections, length, difficulty and which one to take first.
- Databricks Data Engineer Associate study planA five-week study plan for the Databricks Data Engineer Associate exam, covering all seven sections with most time on ingestion and transformation.
- Free Databricks Data Engineer Associate questionsFive free Databricks Data Engineer Associate practice questions across the seven sections, each with an explained answer.
- Databricks Data Engineer: platform and ingestionTwo Data Engineer Associate sections explained: the Databricks Intelligence Platform and Delta Lake, plus loading data incrementally with schema handling.
- Databricks Data Engineer: transformation and modellingThe largest Data Engineer Associate section explained: Delta Lake operations, the medallion architecture, idempotency and handling messy data.
- Databricks Data Engineer: Lakeflow Jobs and CI/CDTwo Data Engineer Associate sections explained: orchestrating with Lakeflow Jobs, task dependencies and retries, plus Git, promotion and pipeline testing.
- Databricks Data Engineer: governance and troubleshootingTwo Data Engineer Associate sections explained: Unity Catalog permissions and lineage, plus diagnosing failures, small files, skew and cost.
- Is the Databricks Data Engineer Associate hard?How hard the Databricks Data Engineer Associate exam really is, why seven sections means breadth over depth, and the mistakes that cost marks.
- Is the Databricks Data Engineer Associate worth it?Is the Databricks Data Engineer Associate certification worth taking? Who benefits, what it costs, and when to go straight to the Professional.