Top 12 Big Data Certifications in Demand For 2020

There are immense job opportunities in the professional industry, and data science is undoubtedly one of the most exciting jobs amongst young professionals. The Harvard Business Review had already declared in 2012 that data science is the “sexiest job of the 21st Century”, which intrigued many to look for certifications and work on the latest tools and technologies to grab excellent job opportunities. The Software and IT industry are evolving rapidly, which brings along tremendous job opportunities for skilled professionals. By getting in-depth knowledge in their domains, they can become specialists in the preferred job profile. Big Data offers many jobs and continues to grow around the world.

With the growing number of internet-connected mobile devices, the data needs to be stored in scalable and cost-effective data platforms. Thanks to the Big Data professionals, the stored information is accessed and analyzed for effectively using it for decision making and other benefits. The certified professionals have a broad scope, with lucrative salary packages, like data scientists, data engineers, developers, analysts, system administrators, and managers. Certifications help you get better recognition, and employers can realize your true potential to offer you specialized roles and responsibilities.

Let us see the major Big Data Certifications, and how professionals can prepare for better job prospects.

IBM Certified Data Architect – Big Data

It is designed for data architects, and the certification requires passing a test that consists of 5 sections containing a complete of 55 multiple-choice questions. It demonstrates a knowledge architect can work closely with customers and solutions architects to translate customers’ business requirements into a giant data solution.

Organization: IBM Professional Certification Program

Course fee: $200

Course Pre-requisites: To prepare for the test, it is recommended to deeply go through a series of courses on SPSS Modeler to InfoSphere Big Insights.

IBM Certified Data Engineer – Big Data

This certification is meant for giant data engineers who wish to convert an architect’s big data vision into reality. They work directly with data architects and are hands-on developers for them. To switch to a Data engineer, it is essential to understand how to apply technologies to unravel big data problems and have the power to meet large-scale enterprises’ requirements by creating processing systems. Their primary role is to provide architects with input on the required hardware and software by developing, maintaining, testing, and evaluating big data solutions within the organizations. The candidates need to pass a test that consists of 5 sections containing a complete of 53 multiple-choice questions.

Organization: IBM Professional Certification Program

Course Fee: $200

Course Pre-requisites: IBM recommends a series of nine multi-day courses to prepare for the test.

SAS Certified Big Data Professional

This program is for people seeking to create programming skills by learning different techniques to analyze big data in SAS. The program mainly focuses on SAS programming skills; accessing, transforming, and manipulating data; improving data quality for reporting and analytics; fundamentals of statistics and analytics; working with Hadoop, Hive, Pig, and SAS; and exploring and visualizing data. The program includes two certification exams, both of which the participants must pass.

Organization: SAS Academy for Data Science

Course Fee: $9,000 for the classroom (Cary, NC), $4,725 for blended learning (a combination of 24/7 online access and instructor-led training)

MongoDB Certified DBA Associate

The MongoDB Certified DBA Associate credential is meant to demonstrate that operations professionals understand the concepts and mechanics required to administrate MongoDB. It requires a 90 minute, multiple-choice exam.

Organization: MongoDB University

Course Fee: $150

Course pre-requisites: MongoDB suggests candidates to complete an in-person training or one amongst its online courses (M102: MongoDB for DBAs; M202: MongoDB Advanced Deployment Operations). MongoDB also provides the MongoDB Certification Exam Study Guide, available to people who have registered for a certification exam.

MongoDB Certified Developer Associate

The MongoDB Certified Developer Associate credential is meant for software engineers who want to demonstrate a solid understanding of the basics of designing and building applications using MongoDB. It requires a 90 minute, multiple-choice exam.

Organization: MongoDB University

Course Fee: $150

Course pre-requisites: MongoDB suggests candidates to complete an in-person training or one in each of its online courses (M101J: MongoDB for Java Developers; M101JS: MongoDB for Node.js Developers; M101N: MongoDB for .NET Developers; M101P: MongoDB for Developers). MongoDB also provides the MongoDB Certification Exam Study Guide, available to people who have registered for a certification exam.

Cloudera Certified Associate (CCA) Data Analyst

This certification is useful for an SQL developer as he can demonstrate core analyst skills that help in loading, transforming, and modeling Hadoop data. This is useful in defining relationships and extracting meaningful results from the raw data.

Organization: Cloudera

Course fee: $295

Course Pre-requisites: Cloudera recommends the candidates to take the Cloudera Data Analyst Training course. Also, it is essential to pass the CCA Data Analyst Exam (CCA159), a remote-proctored set of tasks on a CDH 5 cluster, and the candidates have to implement a technical solution for every job. The candidates need to analyze the matter and hit an optimal approach within the time allowed.

Cloudera Certified Associate (CCA) Spark and Hadoop Developer

This particular course certifies that an expert has proven core skills for ingesting, transforming, and processing data using Apache Spark and other core tools related to the Cloudera enterprise.

Organization: Cloudera

Course fee: $295

Course Pre-requisites: There are no pre-requisites required, but Cloudera says the exam follows the identical objectives because the Cloudera Developer Training for Spark and Hadoop course, making it excellent preparation for the exam. Also, it is essential to pass the remote-proctored CCA Spark and Hadoop Developer Exam (CCA175), which consists of various performance-based, hands-on tasks on a Cloudera Enterprise cluster. Each question requires the candidate to resolve a selected scenario. Candidates have to finish the job in the assigned time, using different suitable tools.

Cloudera Certified Professional (CCP): Data Engineer

The CCP: Data Engineer credential certifies the power to data scientists so that they can perform core competencies required for the ingestion, transformation, storage, and analyzing data in the CDH environment of Cloudera.

Organization: Cloudera

Course fee: $400

Course Pre-requisites: It is recommended that the professionals have hands-on experience within the field and are adequately trained as the Cloudera Developer Training for Spark and Hadoop course. It is also essential to pass the remote-proctored CCP: Data Engineer Exam (DE575), a hands-on, practical exam within which each user is given five to eight customer problems, each with a novel, extensive data set, a CDH cluster and 4 hours. It is expected from the candidate to deliver a precise technical solution for every problem.

Mining Massive Data Sets Graduate Certificate

Designed for software engineers, statisticians, predictive modelers, market researchers, analytics professionals, and data miners, the Mining Massive Data Sets Graduate Certificate requires four courses. It demonstrates mastery of efficient, powerful techniques and algorithms for extracting information from large datasets like the Web, social network graphs, and enormous document repositories. The certificate usually takes one to 2 years to complete.

Organization: Stanford Center for Professional Development

Course Fee: $18,000 tuition

Course Pre-requisites: A Bachelor’s degree with an undergraduate GPA of three.0 or better is required, along with basic programming skills

Analytics: Optimizing Big Data Certificate

This program is basically for undergraduates who want to become data analysts or professionals and use it for business growth, marketing, or operations. The program makes you proficient in statistics, analytics, along with written and oral communication skills. The certification makes the students acquainted with the latest tools used in the industry for data analytics, including topics mentioned below:

  • data analysis
  • exploratory graphs
  • building analytics models
  • identifying the best models for correlation

Organization: University of Delaware

Course Fee: $2,895

Course pre-requisites: Basic knowledge of statistics, and some prior college coursework.

Certificate in Engineering Excellence Big Data Analytics and Optimization or CPEE

This certification comprises of mainly, 10 courses, including the labs and lectures for students, covering all the aspects of analytics, including working with big data using Hadoop. It is an intensive 18-week program. The course mainly focuses on R and Hadoop skills, statistical modeling, data analytics, machine learning, text mining, and optimization. The assessment and evaluation of students is based upon a real-world capstone project and a series of quizzes.

Organization: International School of Engineering (INSOFE)

Course Fee: Application fee – ₹3000 (INR)

Program fee – ₹3,25,000 + 15% service tax.

Course Pre-requisites: An entrance exam is conducted by INSOFE or the Institute of Engineering. Also, prior academic background and work experience is considered for admission.

Certification of Professional Achievement in Data Sciences

It is a non-degree program intended to develop facility with foundational data science skills. The Data Sciences program consists of four major modules:

  • Algorithms for Data Science (CS/IEOR)
  • Probability & Statistics (STATS)
  • Machine Learning for Data Science (CS)
  • Exploratory Data Analysis and Visualization (STATS).

Organization: Columbia University

Course Fee: Application fee (non-refundable) – $85 (for on-campus program); $150 (for the online program – also includes an additional technology fee of $395 per course)

Course fee – $1,858 per credit (a minimum of 12 credits, including the four courses, are required to complete the program)

Course Pre-requisites: An undergraduate degree, and basic knowledge of computer programming

So, professionals who are looking for lucrative job opportunities and want to join the elite group of data analysts and become Big Data Certified professionals, just go ahead by choosing an appropriate course and certification for yourself.