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DE-ASSOC Study Plan (30 / 60 / 90 Days)

A practical DE-ASSOC study plan you can follow: 30-day intensive, 60-day balanced, and 90-day part-time schedules with weekly focus, suggested hours/week, and tips for using practice drills.

On this page

This page answers the question most candidates actually have: “How do I structure my DE‑ASSOC prep?”
Below are three realistic schedules built around what DE‑ASSOC rewards: Spark ETL fundamentals + Delta Lake correctness.

Use the plan that matches your available time, then follow the loop: Syllabus → drills → review misses → mixed sets → timed runs.

How long should you study?

Your starting point Typical total study time Best-fit timeline
You build Spark/Delta pipelines weekly 25–40 hours 30–60 days
You know SQL but are newer to Spark/Delta 40–70 hours 60–90 days
You’re new to Lakehouse patterns 70–100+ hours 90 days

Choose a plan based on hours per week:

Time you can commit Recommended plan What it feels like
8–10 hrs/week 30‑day intensive Fast learning + lots of practice
5–7 hrs/week 60‑day balanced Steady progress + remediation time
3–4 hrs/week 90‑day part‑time Slow-and-solid with repetition

30-Day Intensive Plan

Target pace: ~8–10 hours/week.
Goal: cover the syllabus quickly, then harden instincts through drills and mixed sets.

Week Focus What to do Links
1 Spark SQL + DataFrames fundamentals Joins, aggregations, windows, UDF caution, transformations vs actions. Do daily drills and write a miss log. Syllabus • Cheatsheet
2 Delta Lake fundamentals Read/write modes, schema enforcement/evolution, time travel, MERGE. Build “safe write” instincts (idempotency). Cheatsheet • Practice
3 Batch ETL patterns Incremental loads, CDC upserts, partitioning strategy, basic performance intuition. Do 2 mixed sets this week. Syllabus • Practice
4 Platform + review Jobs parameters, scheduling intent, basic troubleshooting. Finish with 2–3 timed mixed runs and remediation. Practice • FAQ

60-Day Balanced Plan

Target pace: ~5–7 hours/week.

Weeks Focus What to do
1–2 Spark fundamentals SQL + DataFrames, joins/windows, execution basics; steady drills.
3–4 Delta Lake correctness Schema rules, MERGE, time travel, table vs file thinking; practice-heavy.
5–6 ETL patterns Incremental loads, partitioning, file layout basics; mixed sets weekly.
7–8 Review + exam pacing Mixed sets under time; fix repeated miss themes; final cheat sheet pass.

90-Day Part-Time Plan

Target pace: ~3–4 hours/week.

Month Focus What to do
1 SQL + Spark foundations Build comfort with SQL + DataFrames; weekly drills.
2 Delta Lake Table behavior, merges, schema rules; small hands-on reps.
3 Pipelines + review Incremental patterns, basic tuning; mixed sets and remediation loop.

How to integrate practice effectively

  • Use Syllabus as a checklist: pick one section, then drill it.
  • Keep a “miss log”: convert every repeated mistake into a 1‑sentence rule.
  • Keep Cheatsheet open while practicing to reinforce defaults and trade-offs.
Overview
Syllabus