Machine Learning Model Development

This comprehensive course provides a practical guide to developing traditional machine learning models on Databricks, emphasizing hands-on demonstrations and workflows using popular ML libraries. Participants will explore key ML techniques, including regression and clustering, while leveraging Databricks' powerful capabilities. The course covers MLflow integration for model tracking, Databricks Feature Store for feature management, and Optuna for hyperparameter tuning. Additionally, participants will learn how to accelerate model development with Genie Code, Databricks' AI-powered coding assistant that uses natural language, MCP connections, instructions, and skills to guide the full ML lifecycle. By the end of the course, learners will have real-world, practical skills to develop, optimize, and deploy machine learning models efficiently in the Databricks environment.

Note:

This is the second course in the 'Machine Learning with Databricks’ series.
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

At a minimum, you should be familiar with the following before attempting to take this content:

• Familiarity with the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform and basic workspace operations (create clusters, run code in notebooks, use basic notebook operations, import repos from git)

• Intermediate programming experience with Python, including data manipulation libraries (pandas, numpy) and working with APIs (databricks-sdk, REST endpoints)

• Basic knowledge of MLflow for experiment tracking, model logging, model registry operations, and model versioning

• Understanding of machine learning fundamentals, including model training, evaluation, batch inference, and real-time deployment concepts

• Intermediate experience with Unity Catalog for data governance and model registry management

• Basic familiarity with Feature Engineering concepts, including feature tables, feature lookups, and offline vs online feature stores

• Understanding of Delta Lake operations (create tables, perform updates, optimize files, and liquid clustering) and data storage optimization techniques

• Basic knowledge of Apache Spark and PySpark for distributed data processing and User Defined Functions (UDFs)

Self-Paced

Custom-fit learning paths for data, analytics, and AI roles and career paths through on-demand videos

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Databricks has a delivery method for wherever you are on your learning journey

Self-Paced

Custom-fit learning paths for data, analytics, and AI roles and career paths through on-demand videos

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Public and private courses taught by expert instructors across half-day to two-day courses

Blended Learning

Self-paced and weekly instructor-led sessions for every style of learner to optimize course completion and knowledge retention. Go to Subscriptions Catalog tab to purchase

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Skills@Scale

Comprehensive training offering for large scale customers that includes learning elements for every style of learning. Inquire with your account executive for details

Upcoming Public Classes

Data Analytics Fundamentals - Mandarin Chinese

Analytics Fundamentals 是一门入门课程，旨在帮助从业者熟悉 Databricks Platform 上的现代分析。本课程涵盖现代分析的五大支柱：湖仓架构、数据转换（重点介绍使用 Databricks SQL 进行基于 SQL 的 ETL）、统一语义、AI 驱动的仪表盘，以及与 Genie 的对话式分析。

注意：Databricks Academy 正在将 Databricks 环境中的课堂课程转为基于 notebook 的形式，并停止在讲座中使用幻灯片。您可以在 Vocareum 实验环境中访问课程 notebook。

Free

Onboarding

Data Analytics Fundamentals

Analytics Fundamentals is an introductory course that orients practitioners to modern analytics on the Databricks Platform. This course covers the five pillars of modern analytics: lakehouse architecture, data transformation with an expanded focus on SQL-based ETL using Databricks SQL, unified semantics, AI-powered dashboards, and conversational analytics with Genie.

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.

Free

Onboarding

Model Development at Scale

In this course, you will learn to design and implement machine learning workflows that scale from a single machine to distributed compute on Databricks. The curriculum is organized into three modules: foundations of model development (when and why to distribute, and how Spark executes work), scalable model development with Spark ML and MLflow, and distributed model training with Ray and PyTorch — closing with a framework for choosing the right tool for a given workload.

Through hands-on demos and labs, you will build distributed Spark ML pipelines using Transformers, Estimators, and the fit/transform paradigm; scale existing pandas code with the Pandas API on Spark; and track, compare, and govern experiments with MLflow 3 and Unity Catalog. You will then train models across a cluster with Ray Train and PyTorch (TorchDistributor and DeepSpeed), and learn to match each workload to the right framework based on data size, model size, hardware, and cost.

The course concludes with a capstone that takes a problem end to end — engineering features, training a model at scale, tracking it with MLflow, and registering it in Unity Catalog with a governance alias. (Production deployment, serving, and monitoring are covered in the separate Advanced MLOps course.)

By the end, you will be able to choose, build, and justify distributed, reproducible, and governed model-development workflows on Databricks.

Free

Professional