Databricks guides
Field notes from production engagements — not rewritten documentation. Each guide comes from problems I've worked on in production: DBU bills that doubled overnight, Unity Catalog migrations stuck at 80%, engineers unsure which certification is worth their weekends. Read them free; the mistakes were already paid for.
The guides
Start with the problem you have today
Three guides, each written to be actionable in one sitting. No sign-up, no gated PDF.
Databricks Cost Optimization: The 23-Point DBU Checklist
Where DBU spend actually hides: oversized clusters, always-on all-purpose compute, and jobs paying for Photon they don't use. Twenty-three checks you can run on your own bill this week.
14 min read Read the guide →How to Hire a Databricks Consultant in 2026
Real market rates, the interview questions that expose genuine Databricks depth, and the red flags that predict a burned budget. Written by a consultant with no reason to flatter the industry.
12 min read Read the guide →Databricks Certification Guide: Which Cert, in What Order
Data engineering, machine learning, or GenAI: what each exam actually tests and how to prepare without wasting weekends. Written by someone who holds three current Databricks certifications.
9 min read Read the guide →Why trust these
Written from engagements, not press releases
The recommendations here are drawn from production work — real clusters, real Delta tables, real bills. Where the honest answer is "it depends", the guide says so and tells you what it depends on. Nothing is gated, and nothing is padded to hit a word count.
- Databricks Certified Data Engineer Professional
- Databricks Certified Machine Learning Professional
- Databricks Certified Generative AI Engineer Associate
- 28 Microsoft certifications
- Creator of DailyDatabricks.tips
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Guides cover the patterns. Your workspace has specifics — the job that fails at 3am, the bill that doubled, the migration nobody scoped. A 1:1 consulting session gets a certified senior on your actual problem, usually this week.
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