Databricks ML Associate
Databricks Machine Learning Associate
Everything you need for the Databricks Certified Machine Learning Associate exam: format, the four sections, a study plan and free sample questions.
- Questions
- 48 scored
- Duration
- 90 min
- Fee
- $200
- Validity
- 2 years
The Databricks Certified Machine Learning Associate exam assesses your ability to use Databricks to perform basic machine learning tasks. It covers the platform’s ML tooling — AutoML, Unity Catalog and MLflow — alongside the modelling workflow itself.
Databricks recommends 6+ months of hands-on experience with the tasks in the exam guide. There are no formal prerequisites. All machine learning code on the exam is Python; where a task is not ML-specific, data manipulation code may be provided in SQL.
What the exam covers
| Section | Weight |
|---|---|
| Databricks Machine Learning | 38% |
| ML Workflows | 19% |
| Model Development | 31% |
| Model Deployment | 12% |
The weighting is the most important planning fact here. Databricks Machine Learning is the largest section at 38% — that is platform knowledge, not modelling theory. Combined with Model Development at 31%, those two sections are more than two thirds of the exam.
Model Deployment is only 12%, which surprises people who expect an engineering emphasis. This exam is about developing models on Databricks, not about running them in production at scale.
Format at a glance
48 scored questions in 90 minutes, multiple choice, delivered online or at a test centre. The fee is $200 and the certification is valid for two years. No test aids are permitted.
Offered in English, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil) and Korean.
Where to start
Read the exam format, then the study plan. If you are weighing this against the Generative AI Engineer certification, the comparison sets out which matches your work.
Databricks ML Associate guides
- Databricks ML Associate exam formatThe Databricks Machine Learning Associate format: 48 scored questions, 90 minutes, $200, two-year validity and the four section weights.
- Databricks ML Associate vs GenAI EngineerTwo Databricks associate certifications, two different jobs. ML Associate builds predictive models; GenAI Engineer builds LLM applications.
- Databricks ML Associate study planA five-week study plan for the Databricks Machine Learning Associate exam, weighted to put most time on the platform section and model development.
- Free Databricks ML Associate sample questionsFive free Databricks Machine Learning Associate practice questions across the four sections, each with an explained answer.
- Databricks ML Associate: the platform sectionThe largest ML Associate section explained: the ML runtime, MLflow tracking and registry, AutoML, Unity Catalog and feature management.
- Databricks ML Associate model developmentThe ML Associate model development section explained: feature engineering, training, hyperparameter tuning, evaluation metrics and diagnosing fit.
- Databricks ML Associate workflows and deploymentTwo ML Associate sections explained: structuring and automating ML workflows, reproducibility, and batch versus real-time model deployment.
- Databricks ML Associate prerequisitesNo formal prerequisites for the Databricks ML Associate exam, but 6+ months hands-on, Python code-reading and platform familiarity are assumed.
- Is the Databricks ML Associate exam hard?How hard the Databricks Machine Learning Associate exam really is, why the platform section decides it, and the mistakes that cost marks.
- Is the Databricks ML Associate worth it?Is the Databricks Machine Learning Associate certification worth taking? Who benefits, what it costs, and when another Databricks credential fits better.