DBX-DEP study plan

Week 1chapters 1–6 · about 10 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 1. Compute for data engineering
  • 2. Python projects, libraries and dependencies
  • 3. UDFs and advanced Spark transformations
  • 4. Structured Streaming: state and recovery
  • 5. Lakeflow Pipelines and Auto Loader
  • 6. Change data capture
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: Choosing Databricks compute for a workload, Where each Databricks environment takes its libraries, Streaming table or materialized view?, Lakeflow Pipelines expectations: warn, drop, fail and quarantine.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the DBX-DEP glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Section 1: Developing Code for Data Processing using Python and SQL · 23%Section 2: Data Ingestion & Acquisition · 12%Section 3: Data Manipulation · 12%

Week 2chapters 7–12 · about 11 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 7. Ingesting files and streams
  • 8. Sharing and federation
  • 9. VARIANT and AI functions
  • 10. Lakeflow Jobs
  • 11. Testing, Git folders and bundles
  • 12. Monitoring and alerting
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the DBX-DEP glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Section 1: Developing Code for Data Processing using Python and SQL · 23%Section 2: Data Ingestion & Acquisition · 12%Section 3: Data Manipulation · 12%Section 4: Monitoring and Alerting · 10%Section 8: Debugging and Deploying · 10%

Week 3chapters 13–17 · about 11 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 13. Delta table optimisation
  • 14. Finding performance problems and errors
  • 15. Unity Catalog access and governance
  • 16. Privacy, PII and data retention
  • 17. Data modelling on the lakehouse
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: Liquid Clustering against partitioning and ZORDER, Unity Catalog privilege inheritance, Fulfilling a right-to-erasure request on Delta Lake.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the DBX-DEP glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Section 5: Cost & Performance Optimization · 15%Section 6: Ensuring Data Security and Compliance · 8%Section 7: Data Governance · 5%Section 8: Debugging and Deploying · 10%Section 9: Data Modeling · 5%

Week 4review Done

• Go back through every chapter’s key takeaways. Anything you can’t explain without looking, re-read that section.
• Re-read the common-trap callouts: they mark the answers that look right but aren’t.
• Check the exam coverage map against Databricks’s own outline, in case it has changed since the book was checked.
• Read the official DBX-DEP exam guide once more and tick off every objective.

Week 1chapters 1–4 · about 5 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 1. Compute for data engineering
  • 2. Python projects, libraries and dependencies
  • 3. UDFs and advanced Spark transformations
  • 4. Structured Streaming: state and recovery
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: Choosing Databricks compute for a workload, Where each Databricks environment takes its libraries.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the DBX-DEP glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Section 1: Developing Code for Data Processing using Python and SQL · 23%Section 3: Data Manipulation · 12%

Week 2chapters 5–6 · about 5 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 5. Lakeflow Pipelines and Auto Loader
  • 6. Change data capture
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: Streaming table or materialized view?, Lakeflow Pipelines expectations: warn, drop, fail and quarantine.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the DBX-DEP glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Section 1: Developing Code for Data Processing using Python and SQL · 23%Section 2: Data Ingestion & Acquisition · 12%Section 3: Data Manipulation · 12%

Week 3chapters 7–8 · about 4 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 7. Ingesting files and streams
  • 8. Sharing and federation
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the DBX-DEP glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Section 2: Data Ingestion & Acquisition · 12%

Week 4chapters 9–11 · about 5 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 9. VARIANT and AI functions
  • 10. Lakeflow Jobs
  • 11. Testing, Git folders and bundles
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the DBX-DEP glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Section 1: Developing Code for Data Processing using Python and SQL · 23%Section 3: Data Manipulation · 12%Section 4: Monitoring and Alerting · 10%Section 8: Debugging and Deploying · 10%

Week 5chapters 12–13 · about 5 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 12. Monitoring and alerting
  • 13. Delta table optimisation
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: Liquid Clustering against partitioning and ZORDER.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the DBX-DEP glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Section 4: Monitoring and Alerting · 10%Section 5: Cost & Performance Optimization · 15%

Week 6chapters 14–15 · about 5 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 14. Finding performance problems and errors
  • 15. Unity Catalog access and governance
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: Unity Catalog privilege inheritance.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the DBX-DEP glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Section 5: Cost & Performance Optimization · 15%Section 6: Ensuring Data Security and Compliance · 8%Section 7: Data Governance · 5%Section 8: Debugging and Deploying · 10%

Week 7chapters 16–17 · about 4 hours Done

• Read these chapters:
  • 16. Privacy, PII and data retention
  • 17. Data modelling on the lakehouse
• After each chapter, cover its key takeaways and explain each one out loud. Re-read any you can’t.
• Free study notes for this week: Fulfilling a right-to-erasure request on Delta Lake.
• Look up any unfamiliar term in the DBX-DEP glossary.

Exam skill areas this week: Section 6: Ensuring Data Security and Compliance · 8%Section 9: Data Modeling · 5%

Week 8review Done

• Go back through every chapter’s key takeaways. Anything you can’t explain without looking, re-read that section.
• Re-read the common-trap callouts: they mark the answers that look right but aren’t.
• Check the exam coverage map against Databricks’s own outline, in case it has changed since the book was checked.
• Read the official DBX-DEP exam guide once more and tick off every objective.