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Associate · Data Engineer AssociatePrep available

Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate (Data Engineer Associate) practice exam and study path

A free, timed 45-question Data Engineer Associate practice exam in 90 minutes, scored by domain, with every option explained after you submit. Also 177 practice questions you can check one at a time, a page for every task in the exam guide, and a study path. No sign-up.

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Data Engineer Associate exam pack:

$6.99for 12 months

The foundational Databricks data engineering exam: the platform and its compute, ingesting with COPY INTO, Auto Loader and Lakeflow Connect, transforming data with PySpark and SQL into silver and gold tables, orchestrating with Lakeflow Jobs, shipping with Git folders and Declarative Automation Bundles, troubleshooting performance, and governing data with Unity Catalog.

The exam

Exam code
Data Engineer Associate
Questions
Not yet published
Time
90 minutes
Passing score
Not published
Exam fee
$200 (USD)
Question types
multiple choice, multiple response

45 scored multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes (unscored items may be added and are not identified), USD 200 plus applicable taxes, online or at a test center, no test aids, in English, Japanese, Portuguese (BR) and Korean. No prerequisite; related training and six months of hands-on Databricks experience are recommended. Valid for 2 years; to recertify you take the current exam. Passing score: Not published. This outline is the version live since May 4, 2026.

From Databricks's certification page and exam guide, checked Oct 19, 2026.

Domains and weights

  • Domain 1: Databricks Intelligence Platform

    6%

  • Domain 2: Data Ingestion and Loading

    21%

  • Domain 3: Data Transformation and Modeling

    22%

  • Domain 4: Working with Lakeflow Jobs

    16%

  • Domain 5: Implementing CI/CD

    10%

  • Domain 6: Troubleshooting, Monitoring, and Optimization

    10%

  • Domain 7: Governance and Security

    15%

Practice

177 original practice questions, every option explained with the Databricks documentation page that proves it. Free, no sign-up; progress stays on this device.

Your results on this device →

More practice exams

The lessons, the sample questions on every task page and the first full practice exam are free and stay free. A pack adds the further timed Data Engineer Associate practice exams.

Data Engineer Associate exam pack

$6.99for 12 months

  • Every paid Data Engineer Associate practice exam, timed, with every option explained
  • The next version of this exam included when it changes within your 12 months
  • 12 months of access. One payment, nothing renews by itself.
  • 14-day refund, no conditions
  • 14-day refund, no conditions: ask within 14 days of buying and you get the whole payment back.
  • No pass guarantee. These are practice exams written by us from the exam guide and the Databricks documentation; a score here does not predict your result on the real exam.

Study path

One module per exam domain. Lessons that already exist on BytePatterns are linked; the rest are being written.

  1. Module 1: Databricks Intelligence Platform

    1. 1Control plane, compute plane, workspaces and the Unity Catalog metastoreTask 1.1

      Lesson coming

    2. 2Delta Lake: the transaction log, ACID writes, history and time travelTask 1.1

      Partly covered by: Transactions & ACID

    3. 3Unity Catalog: the three-level namespace and securable objectsTask 1.1

      Lesson coming

    4. 4Choosing compute: serverless, classic jobs and all-purpose compute, SQL warehousesTask 1.2

      Partly covered by: Vertical vs Horizontal Scaling

    5. 5Access modes, pools, Photon, and what each compute type costsTask 1.2

      Lesson coming

  2. Module 2: Data Ingestion and Loading

    1. 6Batch, streaming and incremental ingestion; triggered and continuous pipelinesTask 2.1

      Partly covered by: Message Queues

    2. 7Uploading local files to tables and volumesTask 2.1

      Lesson coming

    3. 8COPY INTO: idempotent loads, options, validation and privilegesTask 2.2

      Lesson coming

    4. 9Auto Loader: schema inference, evolution modes and the rescued data columnTask 2.3

      Lesson coming

    5. 10Auto Loader: directory listing, file notification and file eventsTask 2.3

      Lesson coming

    6. 11Lakeflow Connect managed connectors: connections, gateways, pipelines and schedulesTask 2.4

      Lesson coming

    7. 12JDBC reads and REST calls from a notebook, scheduled as a jobTask 2.5

      Partly covered by: Designing a REST API

    8. 13Choosing an ingestion method: managed connectors, Auto Loader, COPY INTO, partners, federationTask 2.6

      Lesson coming

    9. 14JSON, nested data and VARIANT; unstructured filesTask 2.7

      Lesson coming

  3. Module 3: Data Transformation and Modeling

    1. 15Cleaning bronze into silver: nulls, types and standard valuesTask 3.1

      Lesson coming

    2. 16Joins, broadcast joins, cross joins, union and union allTask 3.2

      Partly covered by: INNER and OUTER JOINs

    3. 17Adding, dropping, splitting and renaming columns; filters; explodeTask 3.3

      Lesson coming

    4. 18Deduplication and aggregation: dropDuplicates, groupBy, approx_count_distinct, summaryTask 3.4

      Partly covered by: Aggregations & GROUP BY, Window Functions

    5. 19Spark tuning parameters and measuring againTask 3.5

      Partly covered by: Reading a Query Plan

    6. 20Gold objects: views, materialized views, streaming tables and tablesTask 3.6

      Lesson coming

    7. 21Data quality: expectations, constraints and quarantineTask 3.7

      Lesson coming

  4. Module 4: Working with Lakeflow Jobs

    1. 22Retries, If/else, Run if and For each tasksTask 4.1

      Partly covered by: Design a Job Scheduler

    2. 23Task types, dependencies, parameters and task valuesTask 4.2

      Lesson coming

    3. 24Schedules, file arrival triggers, table update triggers and continuous jobsTask 4.3

      Lesson coming

    4. 25Time-based or data-driven: picking the triggerTask 4.4

      Lesson coming

  5. Module 5: Implementing CI/CD

    1. 26Git folders: clone, branch, commit, push, pull and mergeTask 5.1

      Lesson coming

    2. 27Bundle variables, substitutions and target overridesTask 5.2

      Lesson coming

    3. 28Deploying bundles: resources, targets, modes and run_asTask 5.3

      Lesson coming

    4. 29The Databricks CLI in a CI/CD workflowTask 5.4

      Lesson coming

  6. Module 6: Troubleshooting, Monitoring, and Optimization

    1. 30Run history, the matrix view and job system tablesTask 6.1

      Partly covered by: Observability Basics

    2. 31Job and task states, run graphs, notifications and duration alertsTask 6.2

      Partly covered by: Observability Basics

    3. 32Reading the Spark UI: skew, shuffle and spillTask 6.3

      Partly covered by: Database Sharding

    4. 33Liquid clustering and predictive optimizationTask 6.4

      Lesson coming

    5. 34Cluster start failures, library conflicts and out-of-memory errorsTask 6.5

      Lesson coming

  7. Module 7: Governance and Security

    1. 35Managed and external tables: create, alter, drop, undrop and convertTask 7.1

      Lesson coming

    2. 36Privileges: GRANT, REVOKE, inheritance, ownership and denyTask 7.2

      Partly covered by: Shared Responsibility & IAM

    3. 37Row filters, column masks and dynamic viewsTask 7.3

      Lesson coming

    4. 38ABAC policies with governed tagsTask 7.4

      Lesson coming

Every task in the exam guide

The exam guide splits each domain into task statements. Each one has a page with a short summary, the lessons that teach it and open sample questions.

Domain 1: Databricks Intelligence Platform

Domain 2: Data Ingestion and Loading

Domain 3: Data Transformation and Modeling

Domain 4: Working with Lakeflow Jobs

Domain 5: Implementing CI/CD

Domain 6: Troubleshooting, Monitoring, and Optimization

Domain 7: Governance and Security

How these questions are made

  • Written by us from the exam guide's task statements and the Databricks documentation — never from real exam content.
  • Every option carries its own explanation and a link to the Databricks page that proves it.
  • A question enters a timed exam only after an independent check; until then it is a practice question.
  • Results are a plain percentage, per domain too — not an imitation of Databricks's scaled score.

Questions about the Data Engineer Associate practice exam

Is the Data Engineer Associate practice exam free?
Yes. The full practice exam (45 questions, 90 minutes) is free with no sign-up, and so are the 177 practice questions, the task pages and the study path. Your attempts are saved in this browser, on this device.
How many questions does it have, and is it timed?
45 questions in 90 minutes: the real Data Engineer Associate pace, scaled to this form. When the time runs out, the exam is submitted as it stands.
Are the answers explained?
After you submit, not during: like the real exam, the timed exam gives no feedback until the end. Then you get your score overall and per exam domain, and every question with each option explained and a link to the Databricks documentation page behind it. In practice mode an answer is explained as soon as you check it.
What does the Data Engineer Associate exam pack add?
3 more timed practice exams (Practice exam 1: 45 questions, 90 minutes; Practice exam 2: 45 questions, 90 minutes; Practice exam 3: 45 questions, 90 minutes), each scored and explained the same way, and the next version of this exam if it changes within your 12 months. 12 months of access. One payment, nothing renews by itself. Everything above stays free. See the pack.
Can I get a refund?
Yes, with no conditions: ask within 14 days of buying and you get the whole payment back. The details are in the terms.
Is this an official Databricks practice exam?
No. BytePatterns is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Databricks. Every question is written by us from the public exam guide and the Databricks documentation, never from real exam content, and a score here does not predict your result on the real exam. Databricks lists its own preparation resources on its certification page.