Big Data AcademyQuery · move · process · govern

Databases · Data Engineering · Distributed Systems

Learn the systems behind data at scale.

A free, browser-native academy that starts with SQL and relational databases, then advances through NoSQL, Hadoop, Spark, Kafka, Flink, orchestration, lakehouse architecture, and managed analytics.

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Six courses currently availableNo paid software requiredStatic GitHub Pages architecture
learning_path.sql
SELECT course, stage, prerequisite
FROM academy.roadmap
WHERE access = 'free'
ORDER BY learning_sequence;
44course tracks
12learning stages
6available curricula
100%free learning path

One academy, complete progression

Databases are the entrance—not a separate detour.

The academy starts with SQL and data modeling, moves into SQLite and production database engines, then builds toward distributed storage, processing, streaming, orchestration, lakehouse systems, cloud analytics, and visualization.

Prerequisite-aware roadmap

Move from a single table to distributed data platforms.

SQL Fundamentals, Data Modeling, SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB are fully available. Every other course now has a permanent landing page and planned curriculum so future lessons can publish incrementally without changing the roadmap.

Complete catalogue

44 courses, grouped by what they teach.

SQL and Database Fundamentals, Data Modeling and Database Design, SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB are active today. Courses 07–44 expose their planned curricula and stable course URLs while lesson production continues.

44 courses shown

01

Data & SQL Foundations

2 courses

COURSE 01SQL
Available

SQL and Database Fundamentals

Learn data, databases, DBMS concepts, relational thinking, and portable SQL from first principles.

BeginnerStage 01Free learning path
Open curriculum
COURSE 02MODEL
Available

Data Modeling and Database Design

Entities, relationships, normalization, integrity, transactions, indexes, and workload-aware design.

BeginnerStage 01Free learning path
Open curriculum
02

Relational Databases

7 courses

COURSE 03SQLITE
Available

SQLite

Embedded relational databases, the sqlite3 CLI, files, types, transactions, and application integration.

BeginnerStage 02Free learning path
Open curriculum
COURSE 04MYSQL
Available

MySQL

Administration, SQL, indexing, transactions, replication, backup, security, and performance.

BeginnerStage 02Free learning path
Open curriculum
COURSE 05PG
Available

PostgreSQL

Advanced SQL, MVCC, JSONB, indexes, extensions, procedural SQL, operations, and optimization.

IntermediateStage 02Free learning path
Open curriculum
COURSE 06MARIA
Available

MariaDB

MariaDB architecture, MySQL compatibility, engines, replication, clustering, and administration.

IntermediateStage 02Free learning path
Open curriculum
COURSE 07MSSQL
Planned

Microsoft SQL Server

T-SQL, SQL Server Developer Edition, indexing, execution plans, administration, and high availability.

IntermediateStage 02Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 08ORACLE
Planned

Oracle Database

Oracle Database Free, SQL and PL/SQL, architecture, administration, performance, and recovery.

IntermediateStage 02Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 09EF
Planned

Entity Framework Core

A .NET ORM and data-access course covering models, migrations, LINQ, tracking, transactions, and performance.

IntermediateStage 02Free learning path
View planned curriculum
03

NoSQL, Search & Application Data

7 courses

COURSE 10NOSQL
Planned

NoSQL and Distributed Database Fundamentals

CAP, consistency models, replication, sharding, document, key-value, wide-column, and graph models.

BeginnerStage 03Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 11MONGO
Planned

MongoDB

Documents, collections, queries, aggregation, indexes, transactions, replication, sharding, and operations.

BeginnerStage 03Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 12REDIS
Planned

Redis

Data structures, caching, persistence, pub/sub, streams, clustering, and reliable application patterns.

BeginnerStage 03Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 13CASS
Planned

Apache Cassandra

Wide-column modeling, partition keys, consistency, replication, CQL, repair, and distributed operations.

IntermediateStage 03Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 14NEO4J
Planned

Neo4j

Property graphs, Cypher, graph modeling, traversal, indexing, algorithms, and application integration.

IntermediateStage 03Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 15SEARCH
Planned

Elasticsearch and OpenSearch

Inverted indexes, mappings, analyzers, queries, aggregations, clusters, observability, and search design.

IntermediateStage 03Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 16FIRE
Planned

Firebase and Cloud Firestore

Managed application data, document modeling, realtime listeners, rules, indexes, offline use, and free-tier labs.

BeginnerStage 03Free learning path
View planned curriculum
04

Warehousing & Analytical Databases

3 courses

COURSE 17DWH
Planned

Data Warehousing and Dimensional Modeling

OLAP, star schemas, facts, dimensions, slowly changing dimensions, marts, and warehouse architecture.

IntermediateStage 04Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 18DUCK
Planned

DuckDB

In-process analytical SQL over CSV, JSON, and Parquet with vectorized execution and local-first workflows.

BeginnerStage 04Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 19CLICK
Planned

ClickHouse

Columnar OLAP, MergeTree tables, partitions, materialized views, distributed queries, and event analytics.

IntermediateStage 04Free learning path
View planned curriculum
05

Data Formats, Storage & Distributed Systems

3 courses

COURSE 20FORMAT
Planned

CSV, JSON, Avro, Parquet and ORC

Serialization, schemas, row versus column storage, compression, partitioning, and interoperability.

BeginnerStage 05Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 21S3
Planned

Object Storage, S3 Concepts and MinIO

Buckets, objects, consistency, multipart operations, policies, lifecycle management, and local S3-compatible labs.

IntermediateStage 05Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 22DIST
Planned

Distributed Systems Fundamentals

Faults, replication, consensus, clocks, partitioning, consistency, coordination, and engineering tradeoffs.

IntermediateStage 05Free learning path
View planned curriculum
06

Hadoop Ecosystem

5 courses

COURSE 23HADOOP
Planned

Apache Hadoop

HDFS, YARN, MapReduce, architecture, fault tolerance, administration, and performance.

IntermediateStage 06Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 24ZK
Planned

Apache ZooKeeper

Coordination, znodes, watches, sessions, leader election, recipes, and operational reliability.

IntermediateStage 06Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 25HIVE
Planned

Apache Hive

HiveQL, metastore, tables, partitions, file formats, query engines, optimization, and data-lake integration.

IntermediateStage 06Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 26HBASE
Planned

Apache HBase

Region-based wide-column storage, row-key design, consistency, compaction, operations, and Hadoop integration.

AdvancedStage 06Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 27PIG
Planned

Apache Pig

Pig Latin and dataflow concepts for maintaining or understanding legacy Hadoop pipelines.

LegacyStage 06Free learning path
View planned curriculum
07

Distributed Compute & Federated SQL

2 courses

COURSE 28SPARK
Planned

Apache Spark

DataFrames, Spark SQL, PySpark, structured streaming, tuning, deployment, and ecosystem integration.

IntermediateStage 07Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 29TRINO
Planned

Trino

Distributed SQL, connectors, federation, catalogs, cost-based optimization, security, and operations.

IntermediateStage 07Free learning path
View planned curriculum
08

Event Streaming & Real-Time Processing

5 courses

COURSE 30KAFKA
Planned

Apache Kafka

Topics, partitions, producers, consumers, groups, replication, retention, delivery semantics, and operations.

IntermediateStage 08Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 31CONNECT
Planned

Kafka Connect and Schema Management

Source and sink connectors, converters, transforms, distributed workers, schemas, compatibility, and registries.

IntermediateStage 08Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 32FLINK
Planned

Apache Flink

Stateful streaming, event time, watermarks, windows, checkpoints, savepoints, SQL, and exactly-once processing.

AdvancedStage 08Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 33STORM
Planned

Apache Storm

Topologies, spouts, bolts, reliability, state, deployment, and maintenance of Storm-based systems.

SpecializedStage 08Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 34BEAM
Planned

Apache Beam

Portable batch and streaming pipelines, windows, triggers, state, timers, and runner-independent design.

AdvancedStage 08Free learning path
View planned curriculum
09

Integration, CDC & Orchestration

4 courses

COURSE 35DBZ
Planned

Debezium

Change data capture, database logs, connectors, snapshots, event envelopes, Kafka integration, and operations.

IntermediateStage 09Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 36NIFI
Planned

Apache NiFi

Visual dataflows, processors, queues, back pressure, provenance, security, clustering, and integration.

IntermediateStage 09Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 37AIRFLOW
Planned

Apache Airflow

DAGs, tasks, scheduling, sensors, executors, testing, deployment, and production workflow design.

IntermediateStage 09Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 38DBT
Planned

dbt Core

SQL transformations, models, tests, documentation, lineage, macros, incremental processing, and CI.

IntermediateStage 09Free learning path
View planned curriculum
10

Lakehouse Table Formats

3 courses

COURSE 39ICE
Planned

Apache Iceberg

Snapshots, manifests, partition and schema evolution, time travel, catalogs, and engine integration.

AdvancedStage 10Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 40DELTA
Planned

Delta Lake

Transaction logs, ACID tables, schema enforcement, time travel, change data, optimization, and Spark integration.

AdvancedStage 10Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 41HUDI
Planned

Apache Hudi

Copy-on-write and merge-on-read tables, upserts, indexing, incremental queries, clustering, and ingestion.

AdvancedStage 10Free learning path
View planned curriculum
11

Cloud & Managed Data Platforms

2 courses

COURSE 42BQ
Planned

Google BigQuery

Serverless SQL, partitioning, clustering, nested data, ingestion, optimization, ML, and governance.

IntermediateStage 11Free learning path
View planned curriculum
COURSE 43DBX
Planned

Databricks Free Edition

Notebooks, serverless compute, Spark, Delta, SQL, pipelines, governance concepts, and free-edition labs.

IntermediateStage 11Free learning path
View planned curriculum
12

Exploration & Visualization

1 courses

COURSE 44SUPER
Planned

Apache Superset

Datasets, charts, dashboards, SQL Lab, semantic layers, security, caching, and deployment.

IntermediateStage 12Free learning path
View planned curriculum

Learning method

Concept → evidence → lab → operations.

Each course is designed to progress from mental models and local experiments to production tradeoffs, diagnostics, security, reliability, and a capstone.

01

Understand

Build precise vocabulary and system models before memorizing commands.

02

Practice

Use free or open tooling and reproducible labs to make behavior observable.

03

Operate

Study failure modes, performance, security, backup, monitoring, and recovery.

Keep knowledge open

Help the academy stay free and grow.

If these curricula save you planning time, a small donation supports new lessons, technical review, diagrams, examples, and long-term maintenance.

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