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Data engineering is one of the most in-demand and lucrative fields in tech. If you’re looking to make a career change or want to upskill, now is the time to do it!

In this blog post, we will discuss the 5 best data engineering courses for 2023, including paid and free options. For each course, we’ll cover an overview, tools you’ll learn, pricing, and bottom line.

So whether you’re a beginner or an expert, there’s something for everyone here!

Let’s get started.

What are the Best Data Engineering Courses?

Here are the best data engineering courses and certifications online:

1. Data Engineer Nanodegree (Udacity)

best data engineering courses

Overview:

Udacity’s Data Engineer Nanodegree is one of the best data engineering courses online. The course covers all the essential topics, from data wrangling to building data pipelines.

You’ll work with real-world datasets and learn how to use popular tools as well!

Tools You’ll Learn:

  • Apache Airflow for data infrastructure
  • PostgreSQL
  • Apache Cassandra
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Spark

Key Features:

  • Premium BootCamp experience
  • Nanodegree certificate credential
  • Practical capstone
  • Covers basic data engineering skills and tools

Pricing:

The course prices are separated into two pricing plans:

Monthly Access: $549/month

5-month Access: $2345 for 5 months (Save 14%)

Bottom Line:

The Udacity Data Engineering Nanodegree is our top pick for the best data engineering course in 2023. It’s comprehensive and well-rounded, and you’ll learn from industry experts.

2. Data Engineer with Python Career Track (DataCamp)

Overview:

Next up on this list is the Data Engineer with Python Career Track from DataCamp. This course is ideal for those who want to learn how to use Python for learning data engineering fundamentals.

You’ll start with the basics of Python programming and then move on to more advanced topics like data wrangling, building data pipelines, and working with cloud services.

More than just a Python data engineering course, you’ll learn other essential data engineering skills such as interacting with big data tools, building data pipelines, building data warehouses, and data modeling.

Tools You’ll Learn:

  • Python
  • Pandas
  • Numpy
  • Shell
  • Bash Scripting
  • Apache Airflow
  • PySpark
  • PostgreSQL
  • Scala
  • MongoDB

Key Features:

  • Over 70 hours of content
  • Lifetime access to course materials
  • Focuses on Python for data engineering
  • Hands-on learning with real-world datasets
  • Taught by actual data engineers
  • DataCamp Certificate of Accomplishment upon completion

Bottom Line:

This course from DataCamp is an excellent choice for those looking to learn Python for data engineering. With over 70 hours of content, you’ll be sure to come away with a strong understanding of the subject matter.

The course is comprehensive and covers all the essential topics. Plus, it’s taught by actual data engineers!

Pricing plans are flexible, and there is even a free plan if you’re on a budget.

So if you’re looking to learn Python for data engineering, this is the course for you. If you’re one of those data scientists looking to convert into a data engineer, which is a good transition course too.

3. Google Cloud Data Engineer Professional Certification (Coursera)

Overview:

The Google Cloud Data Engineer Professional Certification from Coursera is a great choice for those looking to get certified in Google Cloud data engineering.

Designed as a prep course to attain the Google Cloud Certification: Data Engineer Professional Certificate, this course is offered by Google Cloud Training themselves!

It’s sure to help you learn all the data engineering fundamentals to get you started in this career!

This course focuses on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) data engineering ecosystem, with topics such as BigQuery, Cloud SQL, Cloud Spanner, Dataflow, Firebase and more.

Tools You’ll Learn:

  • Google BigQuery
  • Cloud Dataproc
  • Cloud Dataflow
  • Google Cloud Storage
  • Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
  • Pub/Sub
  • Tensorflow
  • MySQL
  • Hadoop

Key Features:

  • Taught by Google Cloud experts
  • Earn a Professional Certificate from Google Cloud
  • Hands-on learning with Qwiklabs labs
  • Access to GCP products and services
  • You’ll receive 20% off the Google Cloud Professional Data Engineer certification exam upon completion
  • Good prep for the Google Cloud Certified Data Engineer Exam
  • Has a 7-day free trial

Pricing:

This course has a 7-day free trial.

Subsequent monthly pricing: $49/month

You can also consider gaining access to thousands of courses on Coursera through Coursera Plus!

OFFER: Get $100 off Coursera Plus Annual Subscriptions – promo ends Sep 29

Bottom Line:

If you’re looking to get certified in Google Cloud data engineering, this is the course for you. Taught by Google Cloud experts, you’ll be sure to learn all the fundamentals you need to know.

Plus, you’ll receive 20% off the certification exam upon completion!

If you’re planning to take the Google Data Engineer Certification, you’ll need proper training. Therefore, the Google Cloud skills you’ll learn in this course will make your money worth the investment of only $49/month.

Check out this course if you’re serious about becoming a Google Cloud Certified Data Engineer.

However, this course requires 1 year of experience in SQL, ETL, and Python. Therefore, that makes this course more appropriate for intermediate learners.

4. IBM Data Engineering Professional Certificate (Coursera)

Overview:

The IBM Data Engineering Professional Certificate (Coursera) is an excellent choice for a data engineering course as well.

Made for data engineering beginners, the IBM Data Engineering certificate is worth getting for its 211 hours of broad coverage of data engineering content, hands-on projects with common databases, and ETL tools for an affordable cost of USD $49/month.

One thing that really makes the IBM Data Engineering certificate worth buying is its use of unique assessment methods.

Throughout the entire certificate program, you’ll be going through a unique blend of assessment methods that can help boost your learning.

This certificate is designed to teach you how to code and use the hands-on labs to practice so.

This is perfect for any aspiring data engineer as data engineering is a HIGHLY technical career!

You’ll need to be accustomed to practicing the right essential tools through a hands-on approach.

Tools You’ll Learn:

  • Python
  • SQL
  • Jupyter Notebook
  • MySQL
  • PostgreSQL
  • Linux
  • Bash Shell Scripting
  • IBM Cognos Analytics
  • IBM Db2 Warehouse
  • Apache Kafka
  • Apache Airflow
  • MongoDB
  • Apache Cassandra
  • IBM Cloudant
  • Hadoop
  • Docker
  • Apache Spark
  • Elyra
  • SparkML
  • IBM Watson Machine Learning

Key Features:

  • Focuses on hands-on practice
  • Online, self-paced
  • Increases your exposure to essential engineering skills (data warehouses, data lakes)
  • Professional Certificate credential by IBM
  • Has unique assessment methods

Pricing:

The IBM Data Engineering Professional Certificate has a 7-day free trial on Coursera.

The certificate is priced in 3 ways:

  • Subsequent monthly pricing: $49/month
  • Subsequent fixed price of a 3-month plan: $98
  • Subsequent fixed price of a 6-month plan: $147.

Bottom Line:

The IBM Data Engineering Professional Certificate is a great choice for beginners and has a broad coverage of data engineering content and tools.

It also has unique assessment methods that can help boost your learning.

The only drawback is that the one-off pricing can be expensive for some people. However, you can also choose to get a monthly plan of $49/month and complete faster to save more.

Overall, the IBM Data Engineering Professional Certificate is a great choice for anyone looking to get into data engineering. I also like how their focus is on designing and building systems across so many different tools.

5. Data Engineering with AWS Machine Learning (Pluralsight)

Overview:

The Data Engineering with AWS Machine Learning course by Pluralsight is a great choice for data engineers who want to learn how to use AWS machine learning services.

This course is designed to teach you how to build and deploy machine learning models on AWS.

You’ll learn how to use Amazon SageMaker, which is a powerful tool that can help you train and deploy machine learning models.

The course is also designed to help you understand the different types of data that can be used for machine learning, and how to prepare it for use in a model.

Tools You’ll Learn:

  • Amazon S3
  • Amazon Kinesis
  • Amazon Redshift data warehouse
  • Amazon Aurora for AWS ML
  • Apache Spark

Key Features:

  • Learn how to use Amazon Web Services (AWS) tech stack
  • Understand different types of data used for machine learning
  • Prepare data for use in a machine learning model

Bottom Line:

The Data Engineering with AWS Machine Learning course is a great choice for data engineers who want to learn how to use AWS machine learning services.

You’ll learn how to use AWS, which is a common ecosystem for big data engineering where you can deploy machine learning models.

The course is also designed to help you understand the different types of data that can be used for machine learning, and how to prepare it for use in a model.

The only drawback is that the monthly premium price can be expensive for some people. However, you can get a 20% discount if you choose to pay yearly.

Overall, the Data Engineering with AWS Machine Learning course is a great choice for anyone looking to learn about machine learning on AWS.

Related Questions

Why Take Data Engineering Courses?

Data engineering is a field that is growing exponentially. With the increasing demand for data analysts and scientists, there is a corresponding increase in the need for data engineers.

Data engineering courses teach you the skills necessary to design, build, maintain, and monitor complex data processing systems.

What Will You Learn From Data Engineering Courses?

The best data engineering courses will teach you how to use the most popular tools and technologies.

These may include:

  • Hadoop
  • Spark
  • Google Cloud Platform
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • IBM Cloud

You’ll also learn best practices for data warehousing, data mining, and data visualization.

In addition, you’ll get an introduction to big data applications such as machine learning and streaming analytics.

Which degree is best for big data engineers?

A bachelor’s degree in data science and analytics is best for big data engineers. However, a bachelor’s degree is not necessary. Big data engineer jobs can also be offered to self-taught learners through online data engineering courses such as the Udacity Data Engineer Nanodegree.

Is IBM Data Engineering worth it?

The IBM Data Engineering Professional Certificate is worth it. Made for data engineering beginners, the IBM Data Engineering certificate is worth getting for its 211 hours of broad coverage of data engineering content, hands-on projects with common databases, and ETL tools for an affordable cost of USD $49/month.

Conclusion

There are the 5 best data engineering courses I’ve found to give you the best content to pick up all the necessary data engineering skills.

All the best in your learning and thanks for reading!

I'm a tech nerd, data analyst, and data scientist hungry to learn new skills, tools, and software. I love sharing content with my years of experience in data science, marketing, and tech startups.