A guide to achieving a DP-203 Certification

For years now, we’ve created highly specialized technologies to help us aggregate
and analyze disparate data sources and formats. These use-case specific solutions
are instrumental in harnessing data, but they have created numerous silos and
niches, making subsequent data collection efforts inefficient and disjointed.

With Azure Synapse Analytics, every data engineer has access to a unified
experience that enables them to leverage all of their data to unlock powerful
insights. This guide will show you how Azure Synapse brings together data
integration, enterprise data warehousing, and big data analytics at cloud scale.

By committing less than an hour each day, you’ll be able to better understand how
to ingest different data sources, transform the data, and optimize for analytics all
within a single platform. Each week you’ll watch a video on foundational concepts of
Azure data engineering, complete a step-by-step training, and try what you’ve
learned. When all is said and done, you will have the expertise you need to
successfully complete your DP-203 certification.
There’s so much to learn about Data Engineering on Azure. Don’t worry—we’ve curated
an easy-to-understand path to drive you towards certification in only 4 weeks. Each week
you’ll watch a video on foundational concepts, learn from step-by-step training, and try
skills for yourself with a self-guided exercise. Click on the icon to jump to that week’s
training.
Before you begin, click here to prepare for this path.

Complete
certification exam

WEEK 1 WEEK 2 WEEK 3 WEEK 4

Explore your data Optimize your data Transform your data Streamline your data pipelines
Learn about key data engineering warehouse Discover how to use Apache Spark for Discover how to use Azure Synapse
concepts and tools, and how to easily Find out how to create and augment Azure Synapse to simplify the ingestion to create efficient pipelines at cloud
get started querying your data lake an enterprise data warehouse using and transformation of your data scale with only one application
with Azure Synapse Azure Synapse
 Back to your Learning Path

Make sure to complete the following tasks before you hit the road. Then use the
navigation bar to return to your Learning Path and start your training or click
ahead to move to week 1.

Sign up for the 30 days Start an Azure Free Trial or use

challenge and after completing your existing Azure subscription.
all required modules, you’ll be You’ll need it for hands-on
eligible to receive 50 percent off learning.
a Microsoft certification exam*.

*Visit Terms and Conditions to

learn more.
 Back to your Learning Path

WEEK 1

Week 1
Explore your data
With the amount of data being amassed today, it is often hard to
figure out what data you have, let alone what is useful. Azure
Synapse is a central place where you can view and interact with the
data across your entire data estate. Instead of code switching
between languages, programs and technologies, Azure
Synapse helps you explore the breadth of your data lake and easily
query your data.

Spend this first week learning the essentials. Learn how to assess
your entire data estate, determine where pertinent data resides, build
a simple data warehouse, and easily query data in the data lake using
serverless SQL pools. By the end of the week, you’ll be able to
transform your data in the lake, secure it, and understand how to use
this newly formatted and queried data to drive meaningful insights.

Click ahead to access this week’s trainings >

 Back to your Learning Path

WEEK 1

Click the box to launch each module. Once completed, be sure to check the box to easily track your progress.

WATC H LEARN TRY

4 mins 3 hrs 16 mins 5 mins

Creating an Azure Realize Integrated Analyze data with a

Synapse workspace Analytical Solutions serverless SQL pool
See how quick and easy it is to start Learn how Azure Synapse enables you In this tutorial, you'll learn how to
your first project on Azure Synapse by to perform different types of analyze a data lake with serverless
leveraging the Knowledge Center analytics—from enterprise data SQL pool.
warehouses to big data analytics

2 hrs 44 mins

Build data analytics

solutions using serverless
SQL pools
Discover how to query and prepare
data in an interactive way on files
placed in Azure Data Lake

Use the navigation bar to return to your Learning Path and preview next week or click ahead to move to week 2.
 Back to your Learning Path

WEEK 2

Week 2
Optimize your data warehouse
The purpose of an enterprise data warehouse is to consolidate your
data at scale so you can derive meaningful insights. But ingesting
incongruent data types across silos can be mind-numbingly complex
and often presents serious performance constraints. Azure Synapse
helps you optimize your enterprise data warehouse at scale in one
service—enabling you to integrate structured and unstructured data,
transform the data, and serve insights.

This week we’ll build upon our basic data warehouse from week one,
and you’ll see how much time and effort can be saved by scaling your
data warehouse with analytical architecture patterns. We’ll focus on how
to optimize your data and load data in an enterprise data warehouse to
query and streamline system performance. Ultimately, you’ll learn how
powerful the SQL and Apache Spark integrations are in Azure Synapse,
and understand how to manage, secure, monitor, and analyze storage
in a modern data warehouse.
Click ahead to access this week’s trainings >
 Back to your Learning Path

WEEK 2

Click the box to launch each module. Once completed, be sure to check the box to easily track your progress.

WATC H LEARN TRY

5 mins 6 hrs, 52 mins 5 mins

Flexibility of SQL pools on Work with Data Analyze data with

Azure Synapse Warehouses using Azure dedicated SQL pools
Discover how to use T-SQL to explore Synapse Learn how to use T-SQL to explore and
and analyze data in Azure Synapse analyze data in Azure Synapse
Explore the tools and techniques that
can be used to work with enterprise
data warehouses productively and
securely within Azure Synapse

Use the navigation bar to return to your Learning Path and preview next week or click ahead to move to week 3.
 Back to your Learning Path

WEEK 3

Week 3
Transform your data
Because it’s a crowd favorite, we have fully integrated Apache Spark for
Azure Synapse. The integration is complete with security and fully
managed provisioning, ultimately simplifying the ingestion and
transformation of your data. To make collaboration with data scientists
easier, we’ve also created Apache Spark notebooks that have live code,
visualizations, and narrative text to run quick experiments and derive
preliminary insights.

This week, we’ll focus on how to ingest your data with Apache Spark
notebooks inside of Azure Synapse, then learn how transform that data,
all while integrating your SQL and Apache Spark pools. We’ll cap the week
off by learning how to monitor and manage our data engineering
workloads.

Click ahead to access this week’s trainings >

 Back to your Learning Path

WEEK 3

Click the box to launch each module. Once completed, be sure to check the box to easily track your progress.

WATC H LEARN TRY

22 mins 2 hrs 26 mins 1 hr.

Experience Apache Spark Perform data engineering Analyze with Apache

integration with Azure Synapse Spark
Understand how to use the integrated Apache Spark Pools Discover the basic steps to load and
Apache Spark for Azure Synapse Learn how to use Apache Spark Pools, analyze data with Apache Spark for
experience which enable you to boost the Azure Synapse
performance of big-data analytic
applications

Use the navigation bar to return to your Learning Path and preview next week or click ahead to move to week 4.
 Back to your Learning Path

WEEK 4

Week 4
Streamline Your Data Pipelines
In the past, moving data from different parts of the business proved difficult:
pipelines were incredibly complex and costly, requiring multiple languages,
time intensive scripts, and huge amounts of bandwidth. Azure Synapse,
enables you to create efficient pipelines at cloud scale with only one
application. In minutes, you can connect to external data storage services,
explore those files, create a pipeline with a data flow connecting to the
outside source, and route the pertinent data to your warehouse or lake.

This week we’ll break down just how easy it is to build and manage data
pipelines in the cloud using Azure Synapse. We’ll perform operational
analytics with Azure Synapse Link for Azure Cosmos DB. We’ll end with an
exercise that will show the culmination of your knowledge in which you’ll
integrate pipelines into your data lakes and data warehouse using Synapse.

Click ahead to access this week’s trainings >

 Back to your Learning Path

WEEK 4

Click the box to launch each module. Once completed, be sure to check the box to easily track your progress.

WATC H LEARN TRY

5 mins 5 hrs 48 mins 5 mins

Build Data Pipelines with Data integration at scale Integrate with Pipelines
Ease with Azure Synapse Learn how to integrate pipelines and
Learn how to create and manage data activities using Synapse
Learn how to easily create an Azure
Synapse pipeline to facilitate data pipelines in the cloud using Azure
integration Synapse and Azure Data Factory

2 hrs 26 mins

Work with Hybrid

Transactional and
Analytical Processing
Perform operational analytics using
Azure Synapse link for Azure Cosmos
DB

Use the navigation bar to click ahead to complete your learning path.
 Back to your Learning Path

Congratulations you’ve completed your training! Now, you’re

ready to perform data engineering on Microsoft Azure.

Schedule your D-203 certification exam

Show the world you’re equipped with the core skills for working on
Azure.

Engage with us on our Azure Synapse Analytics Page

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