Level up with Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate

Posted on by

In today’s fast-paced business environment, agility requires seamless data collaboration across the organization—and data engineers are key to an organization’s success. These professionals know that cloud analytics is a critical first step to resilient business transformation, and they spend their days unlocking data and putting it to work for key insights and ground-breaking value. If you have these skills and want to prove them, check out this certification.

The Azure Data Engineer Associate certification validates that you have subject matter expertise in designing and implementing the management, monitoring, security, and privacy of data solutions using the full stack of Azure data services to successfully support business needs.

You earn the certification by passing Exam DP-200: Implementing an Azure Data Solution and Exam DP-201: Designing an Azure Data Solution, which are live through June 30, 2021. Or, after February 23, 2021, you can earn the certification by passing Exam DP-203: Data Engineering on Microsoft Azure, which will eventually replace both Exam DP-200 and Exam DP-201. Data expertise is essential to the digital revolution, and the updated exam better aligns to the evolving skills of real-world data engineer roles.

Passing either the first set of exams or the new exam will earn you the certification. If you’ve been preparing for Exam DP-200 and Exam DP-201, you still have time to take them before they retire on June 30, 2021. If you’re just beginning your exam prep, consider taking the new exam instead, after the beta version is available on February 23, 2021. For more details, please read our blog post, We’re taking Azure certifications for data and AI to the next level.

What kind of knowledge and experience should you have?

Azure data engineers integrate, transform, and consolidate data from various systems into structures that are suitable for building analytics solutions. They explore and investigate specific data questions posed by stakeholders, and they build and maintain secure and compliant processing pipelines by using different tools and techniques. These professionals use various Azure data services and languages to store and produce cleansed and enhanced datasets for analysis.

Data engineers help ensure that data pipelines and stores are high-performing, efficient, organized, and reliable, given a specific set of business requirements and constraints. They deal with unanticipated issues swiftly, and they minimize data loss. They also design, implement, monitor, and optimize platforms to meet the pipeline needs.

These professionals must have solid knowledge of data processing languages, such as SQL, Python, or Scala, and they need to understand parallel processing and data architecture patterns.

To see how the required knowledge and experience will change with the new version of the exam, review the Exam DP-203 skills outline guide.

How can you get ready?

To help you plan your journey, check out our infographic, The journey to Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate. You can also find it in the resources section on the certification and exam pages, which contains other valuable help for Azure data engineers.

The journey to Azure Data Engineer AssociateThe journey to Azure Data Engineer Associate

To map out your journey, follow the sequence in the infographic. First, decide whether this is the right certification for you.

Next, to understand what you’ll be measured on, review the Exam DP-200 skills outline guide and the Exam DP-201 skills outline guide on the exam pages. To understand the skills measured by the new exam, check out the Exam DP-203 skills outline guide.

Sign up for training that fits your learning style and experience:

Complement your training with additional resources, like Microsoft Docs or the Azure Architecture Center. Don’t miss the Data Exposed show on Channel 9, which explores everything about data—relational and non-relational, on-premises and in the cloud, big and small.

Then take a trial run with Microsoft Official Practice Test DP-200: Implementing an Azure Data Solution or Microsoft Official Practice Test DP-201: Designing an Azure Data Solution. All objectives of the exam are covered in depth, so you’ll find what you need to be ready for any question.

After you pass the exam and earn your certification, check out the many other training and certification opportunities. Want to increase your knowledge and experience around Azure data engineering? Consider taking additional self-paced learning, like Migrate SQL workloads to Azure, or more in-depth instructor-led training, like Migrate Open Source Data Workloads to Azure.

Note: Remember that Microsoft Certifications assess how well you apply what you know to solve real business challenges. Our training resources are useful for reinforcing your knowledge, but you’ll always need experience in the role and with the platform.

Keep your certification up to date

If you’ve already earned your Azure Data Engineer Associate certification, but it’s expiring in the near future, we’ve got good news. You’ll soon be able to renew your current certifications by passing a free renewal assessment on Microsoft Learn—anytime within six months before your certification expires. For more details, please read our blog post, Stay current with in-demand skills through free certification renewals.

It’s time to level up!

Many organizations today have petabytes of data, and analytics and AI play pivotal roles in putting this data to work—as do data engineers. These professionals work with data from many sources, and they know how to do this quickly and securely to deliver cost savings, new insights, improved business processes, and ground-breaking value. Ready to prove your worth to your team—and to current and future employers? Roll up your sleeves, and get started earning your Azure Data Engineer certification.

Related announcements

Understanding Microsoft Azure certifications

Finding the right Microsoft Azure certification for you

Master the basics of Microsoft Azure – cloud, data, and AI

We’re taking Azure certifications for data and AI to the next level

Stay current with in-demand skills through free certification renewals

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-learn-blog/level-up-with-microsoft-certified-azure-data-engineer-associate/ba-p/2096458 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-learn-blog/level-up-with-microsoft-certified-azure-data-engineer-associate/ba-p/2096458 2021-01-26 16:00:00Z