Databricks Data Engineer Associate Exam Survival Guide

Window: Global | 45–60 Q / 90 min

Must-do topics

• Lakehouse concepts: Delta Lake (ACID, time travel), medallion architecture (bronze/silver/gold)
• Ingest & transform: Auto Loader, Structured Streaming, Delta Live Tables
• Optimization: Z-Ordering, OPTIMIZE/VACUUM, file sizes, partitions
• Governance: Unity Catalog (metastore, catalogs/schemas/tables), permissions, lineage
• Jobs/Orchestration: Workflows, clusters vs SQL warehouses, DBSQL basics

Top traps (avoid)

• Partitioning every column; prefer Z-Order on selective filters
• Forgetting checkpointing/watermarking in streaming
• Confusing jobs clusters vs all-purpose; SQL vs classic endpoints
• VACUUM retention breaking time travel rules

Time split

• ~1.5–2 min/Q; service-fit first, then command/syntax details

Last-48h checklist

• Delta operations (MERGE, OPTIMIZE, ZORDER, VACUUM)
• Auto Loader options; DLT expectations & expectations-as-tests
• Unity Catalog permission model + lineage view

Quick facts

• Delta = ACID on object storage; time travel via version/timestamp
• DLT manages pipelines + quality; Auto Loader handles schema drift

Speed tactics

• Tie answers to reliability + cost + simplicity (serverless when possible)
• Prefer lakehouse-native features over custom code

Day-of mini-plan

• Warm-up: 6 Q on Delta ops + 3 on DLT/Auto Loader
• Keep steady; flag syntax-heavy Qs for second pass