Understanding Data Engineering
Learn the role of a data engineer, the types of problems they solve and the full data workflow from sources to analytical models.
YOUR LEARNING PATH
Data Engineer
Build pipelines and systems that collect, transform and deliver data.
A free self-paced learning path with curated external learning resources.
Skills to learn
Data Engineering Fundamentals
The role of a data engineer, typical tasks and the complete data workflow — from sources to analytical models.
Professional Database Engineer
Official Google Cloud course. Some hands-on labs may require paid access, but the free content is still worth exploring.
Python
Learn Python, clean and analyze data with pandas, and work in notebooks.
Kaggle — Python
Learn Python fundamentals through short explanations and hands-on notebook exercises.
Kaggle — Pandas
Practice selecting, filtering, grouping, combining and transforming tabular data.
Kaggle — Data Cleaning
Handle missing values, inconsistent formats, encodings and other common data-quality problems.
Kaggle — Data Visualization with Python
Create clear exploratory charts with Python and communicate patterns in data.
Google Colab
Practice Python in a free cloud-based notebook.
SQL
Retrieve, filter, aggregate and combine data, then use CTEs and window functions.
SQLBolt
Learn SQL through short interactive lessons and browser-based exercises.
ThoughtSpot SQL Tutorial
Learn SQL for data analysis from basic through intermediate and advanced topics.
Kaggle — Intro to SQL
Practice basic queries, GROUP BY, CTEs and JOINs using BigQuery.
Kaggle — Advanced SQL
Learn JOINs, UNIONs, window functions, nested data and query optimization.
Neon Postgres
Start a free database, load a CSV and write queries in the built-in SQL Editor.
SQLite Quick Start
Install SQLite, create a database and run queries without setting up a database server.
Data Warehousing and Architecture
Data warehouse architecture, data modeling, OLAP systems and organization of analytical data.
Data Warehouse & Analytics Engineering
Learn the architecture, modeling and tools used to build modern data warehouses and analytical pipelines.
Data Modeling Strategies
Explore different data modeling approaches and techniques for building effective data architectures.
Data Modeling & dbt
Design analytical models and build tested, documented SQL transformations.
dbt Fundamentals
Take dbt Labs’ free course on models, sources, tests, documentation and deployment.
dbt Developer Guides
Build a working dbt project by following official hands-on guides.
Kimball Dimensional Modeling
Study facts, dimensions and common warehouse modeling techniques.
Pipelines & Orchestration
Build reliable batch pipelines with dependencies, retries, schedules and monitoring.
Apache Airflow Tutorials
Build workflows, TaskFlow DAGs and a complete data pipeline with official tutorials.
Astronomer Academy
Take free courses on Airflow fundamentals, DAG authoring and operations.
Data Engineering Zoomcamp
Follow an open course covering ingestion, orchestration, warehouses and streaming.
Docker, Git & Delivery
Containerize data services, version your code and automate quality checks.
Docker Get Started
Learn images, containers, volumes, networks and multi-container applications.
Pro Git
Read the free official Git book and learn branches, remotes and collaboration.
GitHub Actions Tutorial
Create a free CI workflow that runs whenever your repository changes.
End-to-End Data Engineering Project
Apply the skills from this learning path by building complete data pipelines with Docker, cloud infrastructure, orchestration, dbt and modern data engineering tools.
Data Engineering Zoomcamp
Follow an open course covering ingestion, orchestration, warehouses and streaming.