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Optimizing Spark and Cloud Data Storage for Analytics

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Coursera

Optimizing Spark and Cloud Data Storage for Analytics

Included with Coursera Plus

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
Beginner level

Recommended experience

1 week to complete
at 10 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace
Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
Beginner level

Recommended experience

1 week to complete
at 10 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

  • Optimize Spark job performance through strategic partitioning and caching, achieving 30%+ runtime improvements using data access analysis.

  • Implement transactional data lakes with Delta format, enabling versioning, ACID operations, and schema evolution for reliable datasets.

  • Provision secure cloud data infrastructure using IAM policies, private networks, and encrypted storage following security best practices.

  • Evaluate and benchmark storage formats (Parquet, ORC, Avro) to select optimal solutions for analytical workloads and cost efficiency.

Details to know

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Recently updated!

March 2026

Assessments

20 assignments¹

AI Graded see disclaimer
Taught in English

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Build your Data Analysis expertise

This course is part of the Open source Data Engineering with Spark, dbt & Airflow Professional Certificate
When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Professional Certificate.
  • Learn new concepts from industry experts
  • Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
  • Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
  • Earn a shareable career certificate from Coursera

There are 11 modules in this course

You will discover why systematic performance analysis beats random configuration changes and master reading Spark UI metrics to identify bottlenecks.

What's included

3 videos1 reading1 assignment

You will implement partitioning and caching strategies to achieve measurable performance improvements in distributed data processing.

What's included

3 videos1 reading2 assignments1 ungraded lab

You will develop foundational skills for analyzing distributed execution plans to identify performance bottlenecks caused by data shuffle and skew patterns in Spark applications.

What's included

3 videos3 readings1 assignment1 ungraded lab

You will apply advanced optimization strategies to resolve identified performance bottlenecks through partition tuning, broadcast joins, and configuration optimization techniques.

What's included

1 video1 reading3 assignments

You will understand why transactional features are essential for data lake reliability, explore the fundamental concepts of ACID transactions and versioning, and learn how to convert existing Parquet tables to transactional Delta format.

What's included

2 videos1 reading2 assignments

You will execute atomic write and delete operations with conditions, query historical table versions for audit purposes, verify rollback capabilities through version history, and demonstrate mastery through hands-on lab work and comprehensive assessment.

What's included

2 videos2 assignments1 ungraded lab

You will understand fundamental cloud security principles, encryption methods, and access control concepts needed to provision secure data infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code.

What's included

3 videos1 reading2 assignments

You will implement secure cloud data infrastructure using Terraform, creating encrypted storage with proper access controls and network isolation that demonstrates practical application of security principles.

What's included

2 videos1 reading2 assignments1 ungraded lab

You will establish foundational understanding of storage format trade-offs and begin evaluating columnar versus row-oriented approaches for analytical workloads.

What's included

3 videos1 reading1 assignment

You will conduct hands-on performance benchmarking of storage formats and create evidence-based recommendations that mirror professional data engineering decision-making processes.

What's included

1 video2 readings3 assignments

You will create a comprehensive data infrastructure optimization project that integrates Spark performance tuning, cloud security provisioning, and storage architecture evaluation. This project synthesizes distributed computing optimization, cloud infrastructure design, and data warehousing principles into a realistic enterprise solution.

What's included

4 readings1 assignment

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Instructor

Professionals from the Industry
307 Courses 44,329 learners

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Frequently asked questions

¹ Some assignments in this course are AI-graded. For these assignments, your data will be used in accordance with Coursera's Privacy Notice.