Catalog Management and Data Organization

In this course, you will learn how to design, implement, and govern catalog structures and large-scale data organization on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform. It offers a comprehensive view of Unity Catalog as the centralized governance layer for an enterprise lakehouse. Divided into five modules, it begins by placing Unity Catalog within the cloud deployment model — covering the Account Console, metastore creation, and the administrator role hierarchy. You will then translate organizational topology (business units, regions, and dev/QA/prod environments) into a scalable catalog and schema design using naming conventions, ownership patterns, and MANAGE delegation. The course then covers secure storage integration with storage credentials, external locations, the managed-storage hierarchy, managed versus external tables, and UC Volumes for non-tabular data. Next, you will apply access patterns and isolation strategies — the three-level GRANT chain, workspace-catalog binding, and schema-level Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) policies — to enforce fine-grained data protection at scale. Finally, the course closes with best practices for catalog design, automation, least-privilege permissions, and group-based access management.

Note: For SCORM lecture files, please ensure that you close the SCORM window after completing the content. Do not click the ‘Next Lesson’ button, as doing so may prevent the SCORM module from being marked as complete.

Skill Level

Associate

Duration

Prerequisites

In this course, the content was developed for participants with these skills/knowledge/abilities:

• Familiarity with the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform and basic workspace operations (creating clusters and SQL warehouses, running SQL and Python in notebooks, basic notebook navigation)

• Working knowledge of Unity Catalog fundamentals, including the three-level namespace (metastore → catalog → schema → table) and the core securable objects (tables, views, volumes, models)

• Hands-on experience with Unity Catalog–enabled workspaces, including creating and managing catalogs, schemas, and tables via SQL

• Solid understanding of identity and access management concepts (users, groups, service principals, authentication, authorization) and the difference between account-level and workspace-level administration

• Working knowledge of data governance principles — access control, data classification, compliance, and audit — and how they map to platform features

• Familiarity with cloud object storage concepts (S3, ADLS, or GCS), including IAM roles, bucket-level paths, and the role of storage credentials in cross-service access

• Introductory familiarity with Delta Lake (managed vs external tables, Delta lifecycle) and Lakeflow for orchestrating data workflows

• Practical experience with enterprise architecture in larger organizations — multi-business-unit topology, regional data residency, and dev/QA/prod environment separation

Self-Paced

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Upcoming Public Classes

Data Engineer

Data Ingestion with Lakeflow Connect

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to Lakeflow Connect, a scalable and simplified solution for ingesting data into Databricks from a wide range of sources. You’ll begin by exploring the different types of Lakeflow Connect connectors (Standard and Managed) and learn various data ingestion techniques, including batch, incremental batch, and streaming ingestion. You'll also review the key benefits of using Delta table and the Medallion architecture

Next, you’ll develop practical skills for ingesting data from cloud object storage using Lakeflow Connect Standard Connectors. This includes working with methods such as CREATE TABLE AS SELECT (CTAS), COPY INTO, and Auto Loader, with an emphasis on the benefits and considerations of each approach. You’ll also learn how to append metadata columns to your bronze-level tables during ingestion into the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform. The course then covers how to handle records that don’t match your table schema using the rescued data column, along with strategies for managing and analyzing this data. You’ll also explore techniques for ingesting and flattening semi-structured JSON data.

Following this, you’ll explore how to perform enterprise-grade data ingestion using Lakeflow Connect Managed Connectors to bring in data from databases and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. The course also introduces Partner Connect as an option for integrating partner tools into your ingestion workloads.

Finally, the course wraps up with alternative ingestion strategies, including MERGE INTO operations and leveraging the Databricks Marketplace, equipping you with a strong foundation to support modern data engineering use cases.

Note: Databricks Academy is transitioning from video lectures to a more streamlined PDF format with slides and notes for all self-paced courses. Please note that demo videos will still be available in their original format. We would love to hear your thoughts on this change, so please share your feedback through the course survey at the end. Thank you for being a part of our learning community!

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Associate

Generative AI Engineer

Get Started with Databricks for Generative AI

This course offers a practical introduction to the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform, focusing on its key components and features for building and deploying generative AI systems. Participants will learn how Databricks facilitates the development of scalable generative AI solutions and explore tools such as AI Search, the Agent Framework, and MLflow's generative AI capabilities for model tracking and logging. This course includes hands-on experience in constructing and evaluating Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines, deploying generative AI agents, and leveraging evaluation frameworks to optimize performance. By the end of the course, learners will be equipped with the skills to design, deploy, and monitor common generative AI applications on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.

Languages Available: English | 日本語 | Português BR | 한국어