Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate

Exam format

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Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate Exam Format

PR000054

Everything the official exam blueprint specifies: question count, time limit, scoring and the weight each domain carries. The Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate certification validates a candidate's ability to perform core data engineering tasks on the Databricks Lakehouse Platform. The exam covers ingestion, transformation, job scheduling, CI/CD implementation, monitoring, and security. Candidates must demonstrate proficiency with Delta Lake, Spark , Auto Loader, Delta Live Tables, Unity Catalog, and Lakeflow Jobs. This certification is designed for data professionals who have 1-2 years of hands-on experience with Databricks and understand the fundamentals of data engineering.

45 questions
90 min
70% to pass
7 domains

Exam facts at a glance

The published specifications for this certification.

SpecificationValue
Questions45
Time limit90 minutes (120s per question)
Passing score70% — Not published by the provider
Domains7
LevelAssociate
Question bank here45 questions
Published format45 scored multiple-choice questions, 90 minutes
SourceOfficial exam specification, published by the vendor

Official domain weights

The percentage of the exam each domain carries. Weight your revision by these numbers, not by what you find hardest.

DomainWeightTopicsPractice Qs
Implementing CI/CD10%
  • Version control integration (Git)
  • Creating and managing Databricks repos
  • Automating deployments with Databricks CLI and APIs
  • +1 more
5
Governance and Security15%
  • Implementing Unity Catalog for data governance
  • Managing permissions and access control
  • Using data masking and row-level security
  • +2 more
7
Data Ingestion and Loading21%
  • Ingesting data from cloud storage (AWS S3, Azure Blob, GCS)
  • Using Auto Loader for incremental ingestion
  • Streaming ingestion with Structured Streaming
  • +2 more
9
Working with Lakeflow Jobs16%
  • Creating and configuring jobs in Databricks
  • Scheduling jobs and setting dependencies
  • Monitoring job runs and setting up alerts
  • +2 more
7
Databricks Intelligence Platform6%
  • Understanding Databricks workspace architecture
  • Navigating the UI and using the Databricks CLI
  • Managing clusters and warehouses
  • +1 more
3
Data Transformation and Modeling22%
  • Creating and managing Delta tables
  • Writing and optimizing ETL pipelines with Delta Live Tables
  • Using and Python for data transformations
  • +2 more
10
Troubleshooting, Monitoring, and Optimization10%
  • Analyzing Spark UI and query plans
  • Monitoring cluster and warehouse performance
  • Identifying and resolving data skew and shuffle issues
  • +2 more
4

The heaviest domain is Implementing CI/CD at 10%, and that is where lost points cost you the most. Certilum scores you per domain so you can see the difference between a knowledge gap and a formatting problem.

Note from the vendor record: Passing scores are set statistically and Databricks explicitly does not publish them. Exam code PR000054, delivered via Kryterion WebAssessor (online or test center), not Pearson VUE. 14-day wait between attempts; no free retakes. Official exam page

More about the Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate exam

Explore the rest of this page series: format, cost, difficulty, requirements and how to prepare.

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Frequently asked questions

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