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Data Engineer Roadmap

Design and build the data infrastructure that companies depend on. Data engineering is the fastest-growing tech role in India — every company swimming in data needs engineers to make it useful.

6-8 months5-10 LPA → 28-55 LPA expected8 steps • 26 free resources
1

Python & SQL Mastery

4-5 weeks

Data engineering runs on Python and SQL. Master both deeply — advanced SQL (window functions, CTEs), and Python for scripting and data manipulation.

By the end, you'll be able to

  • Write advanced SQL: window functions, CTEs, recursive queries
  • Process data with Python: pandas, file handling, APIs
  • Understand data types, schemas, and normalization deeply
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Mini-project

Analyze a 1M+ row dataset with SQL: write 20 complex queries including window functions, CTEs, and performance optimization.

2

Data Warehousing

2-3 weeks

Learn how companies store analytical data. Understand dimensional modeling (star/snowflake schemas), slowly changing dimensions, and ETL vs ELT.

By the end, you'll be able to

  • Design star and snowflake schemas
  • Understand slowly changing dimensions
  • Choose between ETL and ELT approaches
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Mini-project

Design a data warehouse for an e-commerce company: fact tables for orders/payments, dimensions for products/customers/time.

3

Apache Spark & Big Data

4-5 weeks

Process massive datasets. Learn Spark (PySpark), understand distributed computing, and work with big data file formats (Parquet, Avro).

By the end, you'll be able to

  • Process large datasets with PySpark
  • Understand distributed computing concepts
  • Work with Parquet, Avro, and Delta Lake formats
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Mini-project

Process a 10GB dataset with PySpark: clean, transform, aggregate, and write to Parquet with partitioning.

4

Apache Kafka & Streaming

2-3 weeks

Real-time data is the future. Learn Kafka for event streaming, producers/consumers, and how to build real-time data pipelines.

By the end, you'll be able to

  • Set up Kafka topics, producers, and consumers
  • Build real-time streaming pipelines
  • Handle data serialization and schema evolution
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Mini-project

Build a real-time analytics pipeline: generate fake user events, stream through Kafka, process with Spark Streaming, and store results.

5

Airflow & Orchestration

2-3 weeks

Production pipelines need orchestration. Learn Apache Airflow to schedule, monitor, and manage complex data workflows.

By the end, you'll be able to

  • Build DAGs in Apache Airflow
  • Schedule and monitor complex data pipelines
  • Handle failures, retries, and alerting
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Mini-project

Build an Airflow DAG that: extracts from an API, transforms with Spark, loads to a database, and sends a Slack alert on completion.

6

Cloud Data Platforms

3-4 weeks

Learn cloud-native data tools: AWS (Redshift, Glue, S3), GCP (BigQuery), or Azure (Synapse). Companies are migrating everything to cloud.

By the end, you'll be able to

  • Build data pipelines on AWS/GCP/Azure
  • Use managed services: Redshift, BigQuery, or Synapse
  • Design cost-effective cloud data architectures
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Mini-project

Build a complete cloud data pipeline: S3 → Glue → Redshift → QuickSight dashboard for a sample business dataset.

7

Data Quality & Governance

1-2 weeks

Bad data is worse than no data. Learn data quality frameworks, testing, lineage, and governance practices.

By the end, you'll be able to

  • Implement data quality checks in pipelines
  • Set up data lineage and cataloging
  • Design data governance policies
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Mini-project

Add data quality checks to your pipeline: schema validation, null checks, freshness monitoring, and anomaly detection.

8

Interview Prep

3-4 weeks

Data engineering interviews test: SQL (hard), Python, system design for data pipelines, and tools knowledge. Practice daily.

By the end, you'll be able to

  • Solve hard SQL problems in 20 minutes
  • Design data pipeline architectures on a whiteboard
  • Explain trade-offs between batch and streaming approaches
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Mini-project

Solve 50 hard SQL problems on LeetCode/HackerRank. Design 5 data pipeline architectures. Do 3 mock interviews.

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Pick the path that fits you

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