https://community.databricks.com/t5/certifications/is-the-data-engineer-learning-plan-enough-to-pass-the-databricks/m-p/172093#M5083 <P>Hi everyone,</P><P>I'm currently preparing for the Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate exam and have started the <STRONG>Data Engineer Learning Plan</STRONG> on Databricks Academy (11 e-learning courses, about 16 hours in total). It covers topics like:</P><UL><LI>Data Ingestion with Lakeflow Connect</LI><LI>Deploy Workloads with Lakeflow Jobs</LI><LI>Build Data Pipelines with Lakeflow Spark Declarative Pipelines</LI></UL><P>I'd love some advice from those who have already taken the exam:</P><OL><LI>Is completing this learning plan enough to clear the Associate exam, or are there gaps I should cover separately?</LI><LI>How much hands-on practice in a Databricks workspace would you recommend alongside the courses?</LI><LI>Are there any other resources you found helpful, such as the official exam guide, practice tests, or documentation sections?</LI><LI>Were there any topics on the exam that felt less covered in the learning plan?</LI></OL><P>Any tips or study strategies would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance!</P><P>Best regards</P><P>&nbsp;</P> Wed, 07 Oct 2026 04:53:05 GMT Payal_Pa 2026-10-07T04:53:05Z https://community.databricks.com/t5/certifications/is-the-data-engineer-learning-plan-enough-to-pass-the-databricks/m-p/172093#M5083 <P>Hi everyone,</P><P>I'm currently preparing for the Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate exam and have started the <STRONG>Data Engineer Learning Plan</STRONG> on Databricks Academy (11 e-learning courses, about 16 hours in total). It covers topics like:</P><UL><LI>Data Ingestion with Lakeflow Connect</LI><LI>Deploy Workloads with Lakeflow Jobs</LI><LI>Build Data Pipelines with Lakeflow Spark Declarative Pipelines</LI></UL><P>I'd love some advice from those who have already taken the exam:</P><OL><LI>Is completing this learning plan enough to clear the Associate exam, or are there gaps I should cover separately?</LI><LI>How much hands-on practice in a Databricks workspace would you recommend alongside the courses?</LI><LI>Are there any other resources you found helpful, such as the official exam guide, practice tests, or documentation sections?</LI><LI>Were there any topics on the exam that felt less covered in the learning plan?</LI></OL><P>Any tips or study strategies would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance!</P><P>Best regards</P><P>&nbsp;</P> Wed, 07 Oct 2026 04:53:05 GMT https://community.databricks.com/t5/certifications/is-the-data-engineer-learning-plan-enough-to-pass-the-databricks/m-p/172093#M5083 Payal_Pa 2026-10-07T04:53:05Z https://community.databricks.com/t5/certifications/is-the-data-engineer-learning-plan-enough-to-pass-the-databricks/m-p/172246#M5090 <P>Hi! Good question. I've been through the Databricks certification path myself, up to Data Engineer Professional. The learning plan is a solid base, but I wouldn't rely on it alone.</P><P>What worked for me:</P><OL><LI>Download the current exam guide: <A href="https://www.databricks.com/sites/default/files/2026-05/databricks-certified-data-engineer-associate-exam-guide-may-2026-000.pdf" target="_blank">www.databricks.com/sites/default/files</A>. Go through every objective and mark it green, yellow or red based on how confident you are.</LI><LI>For every yellow or red objective, build a small notebook that actually does it. The Free Edition is enough for this. Reading about Auto Loader is one thing, but debugging it once makes it stick.</LI><LI>Focus your time where the points are. Ingestion (21%) and Transformation &amp; Modeling (22%) carry the most weight.</LI><LI>Practice the timing. It's 45 questions in 90 minutes, so about 2 minutes each. Flag the long ones and come back to them.</LI></OL><P>Good luck, and feel free to post here if a specific topic is giving you trouble!</P> Thu, 08 Oct 2026 07:19:58 GMT https://community.databricks.com/t5/certifications/is-the-data-engineer-learning-plan-enough-to-pass-the-databricks/m-p/172246#M5090 VladTamas 2026-10-08T07:19:58Z