Build the pipelines that power every dashboard and ML model. Go from zero to job-ready in about six months, with real pipelines and a data platform capstone.
Data engineering is plumbing at scale — you learn it by moving real data. Every project below builds a pipeline that ingests, transforms, and serves data reliably.
Who it suits: You like building robust systems — the plumbing that powers every dashboard and AI model.
Indicative 2026 starting ranges in India — actual pay varies widely by city, company, and skill. Salary is an outcome of skill and a strong project portfolio, not a guarantee.
Python, SQL, and databases — deeply.
Scripting, files, APIs, virtualenvs.
Joins, aggregation, window functions.
Relational modeling, normalization, indexes.
Shell, cron, file handling.
Version control and reproducible setups.
Move and clean data on a schedule.
Extract, transform, load patterns.
pandas and data transformation at scale.
Scheduling pipelines with Airflow.
Pull from APIs, files, and databases.
Validation, tests, and monitoring.
API → clean → load into a database.
Store and process data at real scale.
Snowflake or BigQuery fundamentals.
Star schemas, facts and dimensions.
Distributed processing basics.
Partitioning, parallelism, big datasets.
Real-time data with Kafka.
Version-controlled SQL transformations.
Model a warehouse and transform with dbt.
Run pipelines in production, in the cloud.
AWS or GCP data services.
Containerize pipelines.
IaC and deployment for data.
Monitoring and alerting on pipelines.
Tuning queries and controlling spend.
An end-to-end ingest-to-serve platform.
Projects beat certificates. Do them in order — each builds on the last. Put every one on GitHub with a clear README.
Pull from a public API, clean it, load it into Postgres.
A scheduled pipeline that runs and monitors itself.
Model data in a warehouse and transform it with dbt.
Ingest real-time events with Kafka.
Ingestion → warehouse → transformation → serving layer.
Click any resource to open it — free and well-known first, then build something with it.
Universal (any field): roadmap.sh · freeCodeCamp · GitHub Student Pack · Coursera
Free — your local data engineering workbench.
Load sample data and query it. The core skill starts here.
Pull from a public API and save it to a table today.
PathAhead helps you choose the career that fits you — with guidance built for Intermediate students. Explore every roadmap in one place.
This roadmap is a free educational resource. Timelines are a guide — everyone learns at a different pace. Referenced resources (Data Engineering Zoomcamp, dbt Learn, DataCamp, freeCodeCamp, Mode SQL Tutorial) are for learning only and are not affiliated with PathAhead.