DataTalksClub/data-engineering-zoomcamp
Data Engineering Zoomcamp is a free 9-week course on building production-ready data pipelines. Join the course here 👇🏼
What it is
A free, open-source course by DataTalks.Club. Over 9 weeks you build an end-to-end data pipeline using industry-standard tools. All videos, materials, and homework are free.
Who it's for
Developers, analysts, and data scientists who want to learn data pipelines and the modern data engineering stack. No prior data engineering experience required — just basic coding, some SQL familiarity, and (helpful but not required) Python.
How it works
Two ways to take it:
- Live cohort (starts January 2027): pre-recorded lectures, but you follow along with other learners — deadlines, scored homework, a leaderboard, peer reviews, and a completion certificate. Register on the course platform.
- Self-paced: start anytime, all materials on GitHub. Homework is available but not graded, no certificate. Still free.
⚠️ “Live” doesn't mean live classes. All lectures are pre-recorded in both options. “Live” only means the cohort structure: deadlines, grading, peers, certificate.
Syllabus (7 modules + workshops + final project)
| Module | Focus | Tools taught |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Containerization & Infrastructure as Code | Docker, Docker Compose, PostgreSQL, Terraform, Google Cloud Platform |
| 2 | Workflow Orchestration | Data Lakes, Kestra |
| Workshop 1 | Data Ingestion | API reading, data normalization, incremental loading |
| 3 | Data Warehousing | BigQuery, partitioning, clustering, ML in BigQuery |
| 4 | Analytics Engineering | dbt (data build tool) with DuckDB & BigQuery, testing, documentation |
| 5 | Data Platforms | Bruin (end-to-end pipelines), deployment to BigQuery |
| 6 | Batch Processing | Apache Spark, DataFrames, SQL, GroupBy and Joins internals |
| 7 | Streaming | Kafka, Kafka Streams, KSQL, Avro schema management |
The final project applies everything learned in a real-world scenario, with peer review and feedback.
Certificate
Awarded only to learners who complete the final project and peer reviews during a live cohort. Self-paced learners don't get one.
Instructors (current)
Alexey Grigorev, Michael Shoemaker, Will Russell, Anna Geller, Juan Manuel Perafan, Arsalan Noorafkan — plus a list of past instructors.
Community & support
- Slack: join the
#course-data-engineeringchannel on DataTalks.Club Slack for discussions, troubleshooting, networking. - Telegram: announcements.
- YouTube: lecture playlist.
- Guidelines for asking questions and learning in public are provided.
Sponsors
Kestra, Bruin, and dlthub — they help make the course possible.
Testimonials
Several learners report the course helped land their first tech job, called it “hard but worthwhile,” and praised the focus on fundamentals over trendy tools.
Organization behind it
DataTalks.Club — a global online community of data enthusiasts. Besides this course they run events, community activities, and other free courses.
Bottom line: a free, hands-on, structured intro to data engineering. Take the live cohort for deadlines, community pressure, and a certificate — or go self-paced and just learn materials at your own speed.
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