Databricks Certified Machine Learning Associate

Exam format

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Databricks Certified Machine Learning Associate Exam Format

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Everything the official exam blueprint specifies: question count, time limit, scoring and the weight each domain carries. The Databricks Certified Machine Learning Associate exam validates a candidate ability to build, manage, and deploy machine learning workflows on the Databricks Lakehouse Platform. It covers the core components of Databricks Machine Learning, including MLflow, cluster management, AutoML, feature storage, and model serving. The exam emphasizes practical skills: candidates must demonstrate how to prepare data, train models, track experiments, manage the model lifecycle, and deploy models for batch or real-time inference. The syllabus is balanced between Databricks platform knowledge (38%) and model development (31%), with substantial attention to ML workflows (19%) and deployment (12%). This distribution reflects a role that involves both hands-on model building and operationalization. Successful candidates show a solid understanding of MLflow experiment tracking and the model registry, the role of the Feature Store, and how to use Databricks jobs to automate production ML pipelines. The exam is designed for data scientists, machine learning engineers, and ML practitioners who use Databricks in their daily work. The passing score and question count make it a focused but challenging assessment, and preparation should include practical labs on the Databricks platform.

48 questions
90 min
70% to pass
4 domains

Exam facts at a glance

The published specifications for this certification.

SpecificationValue
Questions48
Time limit90 minutes (113s per question)
Passing score70% — Not published by the provider (official FAQ: "Databricks passing scores are set through statistical analysis and are subject to change as exams are updated with new questions. Because they can change, we do not publish them.")
Domains4
LevelAssociate
Question bank here48 questions
Published formatTotal number of scored questions: 48; Time limit: 90 minutes; Question types: Multiple choice (exam guide: "48 scored multiple-choice or multiple-selection questions")
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
ML Workflows19%
  • Building reproducible multi-step ML pipelines
  • Feature engineering and feature table management
  • Scheduling and orchestrating ML jobs
  • +2 more
9
Model Deployment12%
  • Batch inference pipelines and Delta Lake output
  • Real-time model serving endpoints
  • Registering models and promoting stages
  • +1 more
6
Model Development31%
  • Data preparation, cleaning, and transformation at scale
  • Training models with scikit-learn, XGBoost, and Spark MLlib
  • Hyperparameter tuning and cross-validation
  • +2 more
15
Databricks Machine Learning38%
  • Databricks workspace navigation and administration for ML
  • Databricks Runtime for Machine Learning and cluster configuration
  • Repos, notebooks, and collaborative development
  • +2 more
18

The heaviest domain is ML Workflows at 19%, 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: Issuer: Databricks, Inc. Status: active - not listed among deprecated exams (only Professional Data Scientist and Azure Databricks Associate Platform were deprecated on August 22, 2022). Current exam guide is the version covering "the currently live version as of Mar 1, 2025" (guide PDF dated 1-mar-2025); domain weights: Databricks Machine Learning 38%, ML Workflows 19%, Model Development 31%, Model Deployment 12%. Prerequisites: none required, 6+ months hands-on experience recommended. Delivery: online proctored or test center (Kryterion/WebAssessor), languages English, Japanese, Portuguese (BR), Korean; code is Python (SQL for non-ML data tasks). Validity: 2 years; recertification requires taking the full current live exam; retake wait 14 days, each attempt charged. Caveat: exams may include unidentified unscored items; question/time figures should be re-checked against the exam guide shortly before testing. Official exam page

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