Cloud Certifications: Azure Data Engineer Associate

This guide provides information and resources to prepare for the Microsoft Certification, Azure Data Engineer Associate. It also gives you some tips and recommendations based on the experiences of engineers who are also certified in Microsoft Azure.

This certification is for data engineers and/or developers who want to demonstrate their expertise in designing and implementing data solutions that use Azure data services.

Microsoft's certifications are classified by a number of stars:

• One star for a Fundamentals certification
• Two stars for an Associate certification
• Three stars for an Expert certification

By obtaining this certification, you will earn a two-star Microsoft Azure Associate certification.

There are two required exams you need to pass to earn the Azure Data Engineer Associate certification:

• DP-200: Implementing an Azure Data Solution
• DP-201: Designing an Azure Data Solution

You must pass DP-200 and DP-201 to achieve the certification.

As with all Microsoft Exams, each exam will have between 40 and 50 questions (possibly including a few use cases to study), and the passing score is 700 over 1000. Assuming that all questions have the same weight, about 35 of the 50 questions need to be answered correctly.

The exams are available in English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), and Korean. Their lengths are between 180 and 210 minutes.

One to two years of experience in designing and implementing data solutions with Azure is recommended in order to best understand all the skills to be assessed during the exam.

As it is a two-star certification, it might ease your preparation if you are already proficient in Azure administration, development, or DevOps.

• The DP-200 exam measures the applicant's ability to accomplish these tasks :

  • Implement data storage solutions (40-45%)
  • Manage and develop data processing (25-30%)
  • Monitor and optimize data solutions (30-35%)

• The DP-201 exam measures the applicant's ability to accomplish these tasks :

  • Design Azure data storage solutions (40-45%)
  • Design data processing solutions (25-30%)
  • Design for data security and compliance (25-30%)

The exams change periodically, so these lists are not definitive or exhaustive.

Pluralsight offers relevant learning paths on Azure to help you prepare for the exams:

• Deploying Microsoft Azure Data Solutions
• Managing Microsoft Azure Storage
• Microsoft Azure Data Engineer (DP-200)
• Securing Microsoft Azure Data Solutions

Microsoft also offers some learning paths to gain the skills needed to become certified:

• Free online training :

  • Azure for the Data Engineer
  • Store data in Azure
  • Work with relational data in Azure
  • Work with NoSQL data in Azure Cosmos DB
  • Large-Scale Data Processing with Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
  • Implement a Data Streaming Solution with Azure Streaming Analytics
  • Implement a Data Warehouse with Azure Synapse Analytics

• These two Microsoft Official Instructor-led training courses are aligned to the exams :

  • DP-200 : Implementing an Azure Data Solution
  • DP-201 : Designing an Azure Data Solution

According to Microsoft:

Upon earning a certification, 23% of Microsoft certified technologists reported receiving up to a 20% salary increase. What’s more, certified employees are often entrusted with supervising their peers--putting them on the fast track for a promotion. On average, certified employees earn 15% more than those without certification and are nearly 20% more productive.

According to Indeed the average salary for a cloud engineer is US$120,000 per year in the United States. 

As you probably know, Microsoft certifications have been around for many years and are highly valued in the industry. Historically, they have taken place in approved and supervised examination centers, but for some time now it has also been possible to take them from home or the office with remote monitoring by a supervisor (you must be absolutely alone during the examination, have the webcam and microphone open at all times, no paper/pencil at your disposal, etc.). This option allows everyone to be able to take this exam regardless of health conditions, but in all cases, before you attend, make sure you are well prepared and able to check off all of the competencies that may be assessed during the exam.

This achievement requires a lot of effort on your part and you will have well deserved your badge!

I wish you all the best in your certification journey!