Databricks Apache Spark Associate Developer vs. Data Engineer Associate: Which Should You Get First?

This being a person on the path to getting Databricks certified, it has been the most common question asked and the order does matter more than you think.

The certification that forms the foundation is the Databricks Apache Spark Associate Developer. The exam tests your knowledge about developing and debugging distributed data pipelines with PySpark DataFrame transformations and actions, along with the concepts of Spark job execution. It is language/engine-based rather than being tool-based.

If you are considering this certification, CertBoosters has a solid breakdown of the Databricks Apache Spark Associate Developer certification career path, like career trajectory, salary ranges, and where demand is growing globally

Though Delta Data Engineer provides information on the role of data engineers, Data Engineer Associate explores in greater detail such issues as Databricks Delta Lake, Lakehouse Architecture, orchestration and building production pipelines on Databricks.

My take: get the Spark Associate Developer cert first. It builds the underlying skill (Spark itself), which makes the Data Engineer Associate material click faster since you're not learning Spark fundamentals and the Databricks platform at the same time. Going Data Engineer Associate first often means backfilling Spark basics mid-way through, which slows you down.