Level up with Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate
Published Feb 25 2021 08:24 AM 16K Views
Microsoft

Updated September 7, 2021

 

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 your ability to integrate, transform, and consolidate data from various systems into structures that are suitable for building analytics solutions.

 

You earn the certification by passing the newly available Exam DP-203: Data Engineering on Microsoft Azure, which is replacing both Exam DP-200: Implementing an Azure Data Solution and Exam DP-201: Designing an Azure Data Solution. Data expertise is essential to the digital revolution, and the updated exam better aligns to the evolving skills of real-world data engineer roles.

 

If you’re just beginning your exam prep, the new exam is your best path. For more details, please read our blog post, We’re taking Azure certifications for data and AI to the next level. (Note: 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.)

 

What kind of knowledge and experience should you have?

Azure data engineers 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..

 

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.

 

Azure Data Engineer certfication journey v2.png

 

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-203 skills outline guide on the exam page.

 

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 data 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.

 

Celebrate your Azure talents with the world

When you earn a certification or learn a new skill, it’s an accomplishment worth celebrating with your network. It often takes less than a minute to update your LinkedIn profile and share your achievements, highlight your skills, and help boost your career potential. Here’s how:  

  • If you’ve earned a certification already, follow the instructions in the congratulations email you received. Or find your badge on your Certification Dashboard, and follow the instructions there to share it. (You’ll be transferred to the Acclaim website.)
  • To add specific skills, visit your LinkedIn profile and update the Skills and endorsements section. Tip: We recommend that you choose skills listed in the skills outline guide for your certification.

 

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!

Your Microsoft Certification can help validate that you have the skills to stay ahead with today’s technology. It can also help empower you with a boost in confidence and job satisfaction—and maybe even a salary increase. Want to know more? In our blog post, Need another reason to earn a Microsoft Certification?, we offer 10 good reasons to earn your certification.

 

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

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9 Comments
Copper Contributor
Copper Contributor

@SandraMarin Can we expect any expert level cert in Data side apart of all associate level cert??

For eg earlier we had MCSE in Data management and analytics

Microsoft

Hi @sbhagwat2712,

Thanks for your question.

I don't have any news to share right now, but you should know that as part of our regular portfolio review we are exploring possible expert-level certs in the Data & AI space. We consider feedback from industry analysts, our customers and partners, and individuals like you, so stay tuned to this blog for updates to our portfolio. 

 

Regards,

SandraMarin

Copper Contributor

Hi @SandraMarin ,

 

Thanks for the blog.

 

I was wondering, I like to start the learning path for the DP-203. But this is not yet on Microsoft learning. Any idea when this will be available? I would like to prevent starting studying the DP-200 and DP-201 material when the learning path for DP-203 appears. 

 

Because if I compare the skills outline guides, the DP-203 looks way more extensive than DP-200 and DP-201 combined. 

 

Thanks in advance! 

 

Kind regards,

Nick

Copper Contributor

Exciting updates!

 

It appears the "To start preparing for the new exam, check out some of the content on Microsoft Learn that we’re working on." section has a bad link for me.  As someone interested in exploring what might become available, if there is a better link to use I would appreciate it!

Microsoft

Hi @NdZeeuw and @charliesmith,

 

Exam DP-203 includes some of the objective domains in Exam DP-200 and Exam DP-201, but it expands emphasizing more on preparing the data for analytics solutions.

 

Check out this link for the content to help prepare for Exam DP- 203: aka.ms/AzureLearn_DataEngineer (it's updated, fresh from the oven).

 

If you're still preparing for Exam DP-200 or Exam DP-201, check out this content: aka.ms/AzureLearn_ExamsDP-200_DP-201.

 

Let me know how you like the new content, and good luck in your exams!

Copper Contributor

@SandraMarin Great thanks, just wat I was looking for!

Copper Contributor

Thanks for sharing such an amazing article. 
#AzureEngineers

Copper Contributor
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