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Data Engineering Roadmap

A comprehensive macro-level view of the entire Data Engineering landscape, from basic scripting to modern data architectures.

1. Programming & Scripting

The core languages to write your data pipelines.

SQL (Essential)Python (Standard)Scala / Java (Big Data)Bash / Shell Scripting

2. Databases & Storage

Where the data lives at rest.

Relational (PostgreSQL, MySQL)NoSQL (MongoDB, Cassandra)Object Storage (S3, GCS, ADLS)File Formats (Parquet, ORC, Avro)

3. Data Warehousing & Modeling

Structuring data for analytical workloads.

SnowflakeBigQuery / RedshiftKimball (Star Schema)Data VaultMedallion Architecture (Bronze/Silver/Gold)

4. Data Processing

Transforming and moving data (ETL/ELT).

Batch ProcessingStream ProcessingApache Spark (PySpark)Apache Flink / Kafkadbt (Data Build Tool)Pandas / Polars

5. Orchestration

Scheduling and monitoring your pipelines.

Apache AirflowDagsterPrefectCron (Basics)Cloud Native (Step Functions, Composer)

6. DataOps & Infrastructure

Deploying and managing data systems reliably.

Git (Version Control)Docker & KubernetesCI/CD (GitHub Actions)Terraform (IaC)Data Quality (Great Expectations)

7. Advanced Concepts

Scaling and modern data architectures.

Data Mesh & Data FabricLakehouse ArchitectureStreaming AnalyticsData Governance & CatalogingFinOps (Cost Management)