Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate (DE-ASSOC) — Study Hub

Blueprint-aligned DE-ASSOC prep: overview, objective-by-objective syllabus, a comprehensive data engineering cheat sheet (Spark + Delta Lake + ETL), 30/60/90-day study plan, FAQs, resources, and practice.

Meet your Databricks Data Engineer Associate (DE‑ASSOC) home base. This hub is built for the skills this exam rewards: building reliable ETL in Spark, using Delta Lake correctly, and choosing the right Databricks primitives for pipelines.

What you’ll find here

  • Overview: what’s tested, who it’s for, and how to prepare efficiently.
  • Study Plan: 30/60/90‑day schedules with weekly focus + practice integration.
  • Syllabus: objective-by-objective breakdown organized by topic with quick links to drills.
  • Cheatsheet: high-yield Spark + Delta Lake tables, SQL patterns, and ETL pickers for last‑mile review.
  • Practice: topic drills and mixed sets to build pacing.
  • FAQ: common questions on prerequisites, difficulty, and strategy.
  • Resources: official Databricks + Delta + Spark references.
  • Updates: content changes and syllabus mapping updates.

What DE‑ASSOC emphasizes (in one paragraph)

Expect scenario questions about Spark transformations vs actions, writing clean DataFrame/SQL logic, and working with Delta Lake features (schema enforcement/evolution, time travel, upserts/MERGE, file layout basics). You’ll also see Databricks platform awareness: notebooks vs jobs, simple orchestration, and reliable batch ETL patterns.

Ready to drill now? Open Practice →

In this section