| title | Data Engineer Associate | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| type | certification | |||
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Important
What changed in the May 2026 exam guide
- Terminology shift: "Workflows" → Lakeflow Jobs throughout the blueprint
- Expanded coverage of ingestion patterns (Auto Loader, COPY INTO) and CI/CD with Databricks Asset Bundles
- Continued emphasis on Unity Catalog as the default governance layer
- Pass / fail — Databricks no longer publishes a numeric passing score
Topic folders preserve the previous structure plus a new 06-CI/CD and Monitoring folder covering the explicitly tested CI/CD + monitoring skills. The official PDF remains the source of truth: May 2026 exam guide (PDF).
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Certification | Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate |
| Exam guide | May 2026 (PDF) |
| Scored questions | 45 multiple-choice |
| Duration | 90 minutes |
| Result | Pass / fail (no published threshold) |
| Languages | English, Japanese, Portuguese (BR), Korean |
| Code in stems | Python and SQL |
| Experience | 6+ months hands-on with Databricks (recommended) |
| Recertification | Every 2 years — see Renewal Guide |
| Cost | $200 USD |
| Delivery | Online proctored or test center |
The guide's existing topic folders track the prior blueprint structure; the weights below are kept for continuity. For the official May 2026 weighting, consult the exam guide PDF — it is the source of truth.
pie title Topic folders in this guide (5 domains — legacy)
"Databricks Lakehouse Platform" : 24
"ELT with Spark SQL and Python" : 29
"Incremental Data Processing" : 22
"Production Pipelines (Lakeflow Jobs)" : 16
"Data Governance" : 9
| Section | Legacy weight | Topics |
|---|---|---|
| 01-Lakehouse Platform | 24 % | Architecture, workspace, compute |
| 02-ETL with Spark SQL and Python | 29 % | SQL, DataFrames, joins, aggregations |
| 03-Delta Lake | 22 % | ACID, time travel, optimization |
| 04-Workflows & Orchestration | 16 % | Lakeflow Jobs, scheduling, monitoring |
| 05-Data Governance | 9 % | Unity Catalog, access control, sharing |
| 06-CI/CD and Monitoring | new domain (May 2026) | Asset Bundles, Git folders, Lakeflow Jobs notifications, Spark UI, system tables |
| Resource | Description |
|---|---|
| Practice Questions | Topic-specific practice questions |
| Mock Exam 1 | Full-length practice exam (45 questions) |
| Mock Exam 2 | Alternative practice exam |
| Exam Tips | Strategies and exam format guide |
| Official Links | Documentation and registration links |
After completing this certification, explore design and architecture questions:
- Interview Prep Resource - System design, Delta Lake internals, pipeline architecture, and more
Before starting this certification, review:
- Lakehouse Platform fundamentals
- Delta Lake basics
- Spark SQL and Python
- DataFrame operations
- Workflows and jobs (Lakeflow Jobs)
- Data governance
- Complete practice questions (aim for 70%+)
- Take Mock Exam 1 (under timed conditions)
- Review weak areas
- Take Mock Exam 2
- Complete this Data Engineer Associate certification
- Progress to Data Engineer Professional for advanced topics
- Reference Learning Paths for recommended progression