Learn To Code

Why this is important: Without coding you cannot do much in data engineering. I cannot count the
number of times I needed a quick Java hack.

The possibilities are endless:

• Writing or quickly getting some data out of a SQL DB • Testing to produce messages to a Kafka topic •
Understanding the source code of a Java Webservice • Reading counter statistics out of a HBase key
value store So, which language do I recommend then?

I highly recommend Java. It’s everywhere!

When you are getting into data processing with Spark you should use Scala. But, after learning Java this
is easy to do.

Also Python is a great choice. It is super versatile.

Personally however, I am not that big into Python. But I am going to look into it

Where to Learn? There’s a Java Course on Udemy you could look at: https://www. udemy.com/java-
programming-tutorial-for-beginners

• OOP Object oriented programming • What are Unit tests to make sure what you code is working •
Functional Programming • How to use build management tools like Maven • Resilient testing (?) I talked
about the importance of learning by doing in this podcast: https://anchor.fm/
andreaskayy/episodes/Learning-By-Doing-Is-The