Acedify

Databricks certifications

See where you stand before your Databricks exam

Databricks doesn't publish a pass mark, so we draw an assumed line and mark it as ours. Practise by domain, take realistically weighted mocks, and get a readiness range that becomes more precise as you answer more questions. Start free.

  • Written to the current exam guide, with a check date on cards we have re-read
  • Domain-weighted mocks, so a domain worth a third of the exam is a third of your practice
  • See your accuracy by domain and exactly where to focus next
Start practicing for freeSee what's included

Free practice across every Databricks exam we cover. No card required.

Data Engineer AssociateData Ingestion and LoadingMedium

A partner drops JSON files into a cloud storage location on no fixed schedule. Some days it is 50 files; some days it is 50,000. The partner adds fields to the JSON without warning. The pipeline must process only files it has not already processed, and it must not fail when an unexpected field appears. Which ingestion approach meets both requirements?

Select one.

Auto Loader skips files it has already seen and, in rescue mode, does not fail when an unexpected field appears. COPY INTO would be right for a smaller, predictable batch; the file-count constraint is what rules it out.

One choice only. Your earliest pick was dropped.

Where this question sits in the exam

Data Ingestion and Loading is 21% of the Data Engineer Associate exam. Our mocks use the same mix.

0 of 1 selected

Every option is explained, including the wrong ones — that's what the free tier is. Original items written against each exam's published guide, not real exam questions.

Scoring

Databricks doesn't publish a pass mark

Most vendors tell you the line. Databricks publishes the domains, the question count and the time limit, and stops there. The figure you'll see quoted in most places isn't in the exam guide.

We still have to put a line somewhere, because a readiness read means nothing without one. So we assume 80% weighted accuracy and mark it as an assumption every time it appears. We set it high on purpose: too strict costs you a week, too lenient costs you the fee.

What to know before you book

Some questions on your form aren't scored. Databricks includes unscored items to gather statistics for future exams, doesn't identify them, and builds extra time into the limit to account for them — so answer everything and don't try to spot them.

Code on these exams appears in SQL wherever SQL can express the concept, and in Python where it can't. Scala isn't required.

Retakes are charged at the full fee. There's no reduced second attempt.

Data Engineer Associate45 questions · 90 min

Accuracy by domain, weighted as the exam weights them · assumed 80% — ours, not Databricks'

Intelligence Platform6%82%
Ingestion and Loading21%74%
Transformation and Modeling22%71%
Lakeflow Jobs16%68%
CI/CD10%77%
Troubleshooting10%Furthest behind54%
Governance and Security15%61%

The line on the chart is ours, because Databricks doesn't publish one. What you can also see is which domain is furthest behind the others, which is the actionable half anyway.

The exam you recertify into isn't the exam you passed

Two years is short for a platform that ships this fast. Databricks requires recertification to keep your status, and recertifying means sitting the current version — for some exams there's a shorter renewal exam covering the same ground, for others it's the full thing again.

Either way the guide will have moved. Features that didn't exist when you certified are on the form, and topics you revised for may be gone. Recertification isn't a refresher on what you already knew; it's a new exam with your old credential attached to it.

That's the case we're built for. Practice stays free between attempts, so the two years before your next sitting cost you nothing.

Where to start

Pick the role, then the level

Data engineering

Building and running pipelines on the platform.

Data Engineer Associate · Data Engineer Professional

Analytics

Databricks SQL, dashboards, AI/BI Genie spaces and governed access to data you didn't model yourself. English only — unlike the data engineering exams.

Data Analyst Associate

Machine learning

Training, tracking and deploying models with MLflow and the platform's ML tooling.

Machine Learning Associate · Machine Learning Professional

Generative AI

Retrieval, evaluation and deployment of LLM applications on Databricks.

Generative AI Engineer Associate

Spark

The DataFrame API itself, rather than the platform around it.

Associate Developer for Apache Spark

Exams

Grouped by track

Databricks revises these guides often. Cards we have re-checked against the official guide show that date, and the practice behind them follows whatever that guide said on that date.

Databricks also offers accreditations — free, unproctored, shorter. They're worth doing and they aren't certifications; they don't carry the same weight with employers and they aren't what this page covers.

Pricing

Practice free. Pay when you want to know where you stand.

Free

  • Untimed practice across every Databricks exam we cover
  • Every question explained against the objective it's testing
  • Domains by name and weight

Pro

  • Timed mocks at each exam's own length
  • Domain-weighted accuracy across every mock you've sat
  • Your readiness range, and how it moves

Everything on every exam, one subscription

One subscription covers the Databricks certifications, AWS, the Microsoft certifications, the Salesforce certifications, the Claude certifications, TOEFL, IELTS and the SAT.

Exam fees are separate and go to Databricks. We're prep, not registration.

Start practicing for free

FAQ

Databricks questions

Find out which domain is furthest behind

Free practice across every Databricks exam we cover, no card. The timed mocks and the readiness read are there when you want them.

Start practicing for free

View all exams