Data Detective Series | Ready to crack a case with data? 🕵️‍♀️

[Tushar_Parekar]

We’re getting ready to pilot the Databricks Detective Series ahead of its launch at Data + AI Summit 2026, and we’re looking for Community members to help test it. 

Databricks Detective Series is a free, gamified, hands-on experience where you become a data detective in Lakeview City. In this 30-minute interactive session, you’ll jump into Databricks Free Edition and work with Genie, Databricks’ natural language AI assistant, to investigate real-world-inspired cases across the city.

No SQL expertise required and no code to memorize. Just ask sharp questions, follow the clues, review evidence like witness statements and badge scans, and submit your findings.

How it works:

• Brief: each case mirrors a real business problem inside a detective storyline
• Investigate:  use Genie and Lakeview dashboards to explore the data in plain English
• Resolve: submit your findings, close the case, and unlock new neighborhoods across Lakeview City

As you progress from Lakeview Library to Delta Vaults Bank to Pipeline Plant, you’ll uncover new mysteries, build new skills, and climb the leaderboard.

If you enjoy hands-on learning and want to help test this pilot before the broader launch, this is for you!

• To participate, start with the game instructions.
• Once you complete it, there’s also a form to share your feedback.

Have fun!

[Brahmareddy]

I'm in!

[Brahmareddy]

This was super fun to investigate using SQL and Genie.

I really liked how the Databricks Detective Series turns learning into a real hands-on experience. Instead of just reading concepts, we get to ask questions, follow clues, validate evidence, and solve a case like a real data engineer.

Genie makes it even more interesting because it shows how natural language can help users explore data faster, while SQL thinking still helps us validate and trust the findings.

Great initiative by the Databricks team. This is a brilliant way to help learners build confidence with Databricks Free Edition, Lakeview dashboards, and real-world data investigation. Excited to see this launch at Data + AI Summit 2026.

[Brahmareddy]

I encourage all our community members to give it a try, investigate the cases, and have fun learning with Databricks!

[BS_THE_ANALYST]

Okay, I'm totally sucked in now 🤣. This looks really intriguing. I'll give this a go tonight or tomorrow and post my experience with it. Thanks for providing your write-up @Brahmareddy!

 @Tushar_Parekar Absolutely love the concept. Kudos to you guys.

All the best,
BS

[Brahmareddy]

Thanks a lot, BS! Sure, Please give it a try and share your thoughts too. Happy investigating!

[BS_THE_ANALYST]

@Brahmareddy not going to lie, this was insanely fun. I have only solved one of the cases but it was so fun 🤣. It actually felt like I was playing a game!

Clearly I'm a slow detective based on some of those times @Tushar_Parekar 🤣.

Feedback from solving the first Case
This is just seriously cool. It didn't feel like a situation where "here's some tables, go look at them; same old stuff". I was pulled in to explore the tables because I wanted to solve this detective case haha. Somehow this "detective" theme creates intrinsic motivation to really get stuck in with it. 
I thought it was really cool that there was an evidence pad on the screen where I could type notes, manually. I could also query the tables, manually, with a really slick code editor. After sometime, I thought it'd be faster to just use GENIE (AI) to help me with solving some of the clues once I understood the data. I loved that it queried the tables and also showed me the SQL it was writing, it let me check we were aligned in the process. The follow-up suggestions on next steps were a really nice touch with Genie as-well. However, since it's a game, it'd be cool if I could toggle that suggestion part off so it doesn't lead me during the investigation (i.e. tuning the difficulty of the game from easy to hard 😎🤓).

Really enjoyed the experience of solving Case 1 & was just blown away by the interactivity of it all. Hats off to the Databricks team for this! @Tushar_Parekar. As an avid gamer, this is right up my street. I love gamification!

I'll have to solve the next cases over the upcoming days or I need to up my game and solve faster using Genie 🤣.

All the best,
BS

[Sumit_7]

Amazing experience -- must try for all the members. The best way to learn is to treat it like a game with points, levels, scoreboard. And this just nailed it.

Thanks @Tushar_Parekar, keep bringing more such series.

[Akash_Nimbalkar]

WOW!!! Feeling like a detective today (something I have always wanted to be 🙂 ). Loved every bit of it.
Thanks @Tushar_Parekar !