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Folks say it’s best to take into account worth for cash when shopping for issues. Nevertheless, the very best worth for cash is getting one thing good for free. However do such issues exist? Supposedly not, if we go by the saying, “No such factor as a free lunch.”
I declare there’s a free lunch, and I’m about to show it! I dug out 10 instructional ‘free lunches’ – free information engineering programs that additionally present high quality information. It’s true; there’s far more selection and selection in case you can or need to pay tens, a whole bunch, generally even 1000’s of {dollars}.
Many such programs are thought-about free on another free course lists. Paying $90 one-off or $45/month is free to some individuals. However many individuals don’t have that cash for a ‘free’ course, regardless of being very keen to study information engineering. (Additionally, let’s get actual! Free actually means, properly, free! Not ‘low-cost’, not ‘little or no cash’, or ‘inexpensive’. Free!)
From what I researched, these programs actually are free. Many are from edX. In the event you select free entry to the course, you should full it in a sure time, normally round six months. However that must be sufficient to finish each course comfortably. Additionally, free entry means you don’t get lifetime entry to all of the supplies (they’re deleted when you end) and don’t get a certificates. Regardless of this, it’s best to have the ability to use these programs to find out about information engineering.
Earlier than I discuss concerning the programs, let’s briefly overview the information engineer’s function. That method, understanding what to search for in programs can be simpler.
Understanding the Position of a Knowledge Engineer
Very merely, information engineers are answerable for making information accessible to information group members and different stakeholders. In doing so, they wrangle information and construct and keep information infrastructure, e.g., ETL course of, information pipelines, information storage.
Naturally, the programs ought to cowl all or a few of these abilities. Let’s take a better take a look at the programs – pun meant – that can comprise your instructional free lunch.
Free Knowledge Engineering Programs
1. Knowledge Engineering by ASU
Platform and hyperlink to the course: edX
Length: 5 weeks at 1-9 hours/week; study at your individual tempo
Description: This introductory-level course by Arizona State College focuses on working with databases in information engineering and learn how to work together with them utilizing SQL. You’ll find out about database construction, the star schema, and becoming a member of information from a number of tables. Within the remaining stage, you’ll discover ways to create studies with SQL and write scripts for information processing.
2. Python and Pandas for Knowledge Engineering by Pragmatic AI Labs
Platform and hyperlink to the course: edX
Length: 4 weeks at 3-6 hours/week; study at your individual tempo
Description: In yet one more introductory edX course, you’ll study Python and pandas for information engineering. The introduction to Python consists of subjects reminiscent of easy statements, if statements, whereas loops, and features. Then, you’ll find out about information manipulation in Pandas (significantly DataFrames) and its alternate options, reminiscent of NumPy, Spark, and PySpark. Within the final module, you’ll find out about Python growth environments and model management.
3. Scripting with Python and SQL for Knowledge Engineering by Pragmatic AI Labs
Platform and hyperlink to the course: edX
Length: 4 weeks at 3-6 hours/week; study at your individual tempo
Description: If you wish to study SQL and Python for information engineering concurrently, that is the course for you. You’ll use Python’s built-in information constructions to govern information and write Python scripts for information activity automation. The course additionally teaches you net scraping and utilizing SQLite to retailer and question information in Python. Relating to SQL, you’ll discover ways to import and export information from MySQL database and learn how to execute MySQL queries in VSCode.
4. Cloud Knowledge Engineering by Pragmatic AI Labs
Platform and hyperlink to the course: edX
Length: 4 weeks at 3-6 hours/week; study at your individual tempo
Description: This course will educate you information engineering within the cloud. You’ll find out about methodologies in information engineering, develop distributed methods, serverless information engineering methods, and cloud ETL pipelines, and find out about information governance. Within the course of, you’ll get in contact with applied sciences reminiscent of:
- CUDA
- Numba
- ASICs
- Colab Professional
- Colab API
- Google BigQuery
- AWS
- Databricks SQL
- Click on
- Python
- Rust
That is additionally an introductory course with no conditions wanted.
5. Constructing ETL and Knowledge Pipelines with Bash, Airflow and Kafka by IBM
Platform and hyperlink to the course: edX
Length: 5 weeks at 2-4 hours/week; study at your individual tempo
Description: This information engineering course focuses on constructing ETL and information pipelines. Through the course, you’ll study what ETL and ELT processes are, create ETL utilizing Bash shell scripts, use Apache Airflow to create batch information pipelines, and Apache Kafka for streaming information pipelines.
That is an introductory course to those subjects however requires expertise working with relational databases, SQL, and Bash shell scripting.
6. Knowledge Warehousing and BI Analytics by IBM
Platform and hyperlink to the course: edX
Length: 6 weeks at 2-3 hours/week; study at your individual tempo
Description: This intermediate course by IBM teaches you the necessities of knowledge warehouses, information marts, and information lakes. You’ll discover ways to design, mannequin, and implement information warehouses. Extra particularly, you’ll use CUBEs, ROLLUPs, materialized views, and tables. You’ll additionally find out about info and dimensional modeling, information modeling with star and snowflake schemas, staging areas for information warehouses, information high quality, and populating an information warehouse with information. Within the third module, you’ll work on information warehouse analytics in Cognos Analytics.
The course requires expertise with SQL and relational databases.
7. Apache Spark for Knowledge Engineering and Machine Studying by IBM
Platform and hyperlink to the course: edX
Length: 3 weeks at 2-3 hours/week; study at your individual tempo
Description: One more intermediate course. It focuses on educating Apache Spark. It’s an essential instrument in information engineering, so that you’ll find out about Spark Structured Streaming, GraphFrames, ETL course of, and ML pipelines. As well as, you’ll study ML fundamentals, reminiscent of regression, classification, and clustering.
The course requires foundational Apache Spark information. It’s additionally urged that you simply full the Large Knowledge, Hadoop and Spark Fundamentals course by IBM.
8. DE Zoomcamp
Platform and hyperlink to the course: DataTalks.Membership
Length: 10 weeks; study at your individual tempo
Description: Lastly, a course from a distinct platform! This on-line boot camp will offer you complete information engineering information. It’ll educate you containerization and infrastructure, workflow orchestration, information warehousing, analytics engineering, batch processing, and streaming. You’ll be launched to applied sciences reminiscent of Google Cloud Platform, Terraform, Docker, SQL, Mage, dbt, Apache Spark, and Apache Kafka.
The conditions for this bootcamp are the SQL fundamentals. Additionally, it’s preferable that you’ve expertise with Python or, if not, another programming language.
9. DE Finish-to-Finish Tasks
Platform and hyperlink to the course: DE Academy
Length: No information.
Description: This can be a project-based undertaking wherein you’ll discover ways to use AWS, Snowflake, Python,Kafka, Azure, Databricks, Airflow, and Tableau. You’ll analyze and remodel information, migrate it, and streamline workflows.
10. Scala Programming for Knowledge Science
Platform and hyperlink to the course: Cognitive Class AI
Length: 20 hours; study at your individual tempo
Description: This studying path consists of three programs. The primary is Scala 101, which is able to educate you the fundamentals of object-oriented programming, case objects & courses, collections, and idiomatic Scala. Within the second course, Spark Overview for Scala Analytics, you can be launched to Apache Spark, RDDs, DataFrames for large-scale information science, and superior Spark subjects (e.g., Hive with Spark, Spark streaming). The third course is about Scala in information science, the place you’ll study fundamental statistics and information sorts, learn how to put together information, engineer options, match a mannequin, construct a pipeline, and carry out grid search.
Conclusion
No shock that it’s simpler when you could have cash – you get entry to extra programs which are extra numerous. Yeah, it sucks not having cash! However this doesn’t imply you should say goodbye to your dream of touchdown an information engineer function.
It’s a lot more durable to search out them, however there are nonetheless some good programs that may educate you fundamental and extra superior information engineering. I discovered ten of them. Another free assets, reminiscent of blogs or YouTube movies, can assist you attain the required degree of data.
In the event you’re industrious sufficient, devoted, and chronic, I’m positive you may land an information engineering function free of charge.
Nate Rosidi is an information scientist and in product technique. He is additionally an adjunct professor educating analytics, and is the founding father of StrataScratch, a platform serving to information scientists put together for his or her interviews with actual interview questions from prime corporations. Nate writes on the most recent traits within the profession market, provides interview recommendation, shares information science tasks, and covers all the pieces SQL.