Data scientists are in high demand. Here’s our guide to Microsoft’s Azure Data Scientist Associate certification.
Data scientists discover insights from structured and unstructured data to help organizations improve revenue, reduce costs, increase business agility, improve customer experiences, and develop new products. Data scientist teams typically seek to identify key data assets that can be turned into data pipelines that feed maintainable tools and solutions, from credit card fraud monitoring solutions used by banks to tools used to optimize the placement of wind turbines in wind farms.
The data scientist role is in high demand as organizations seek to become more data-driven and extract business insights from their data. In August 2021, research firm IDC forecast worldwide spending on big data and business analytics solutions would reach $215.7 billion in 2021 and continue to gain strength over the next five years, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.8% through 2025. According to executive recruiters Smith Hanley Associates, 2021 was a banner year for data scientist hires and it expects the trend to continue in 2022.
With data scientists commanding salaries up to $167K per year, with an average of $117,212, according to Glassdoor, there is no better time to step into the field and prove your mettle. One way of doing so is to achieve the Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate certificate. Here’s a look at what the certification entails and how to earn it.
Microsoft Certified Azure Data Scientist Associates are subject matter experts who can plan and create a working environment for data science workloads on Microsoft Azure. They can run data experiments, train predictive models, and manage, optimize, and deploy machine learning models into production. The certification is intended for individuals who have expertise in applying data science and machine learning to implement and run machine learning workloads on Azure.
The certification requires passing the Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure certification exam. The exam measures the candidate’s ability to prepare, model, visualize, and analyze data, and to deploy and maintain deliverables.
The Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure exam costs $165 in the US (the price varies based on the country in which the exam is proctored). The exam measures the candidate’s ability to perform technical tasks, including:
Microsoft offers a thorough breakdown of the skills measured within each task.
Candidates have two options to prepare for the exam: free online courses or instructor-led, paid training.
For the free courses, Microsoft recommends a series of four learning paths that cover the necessary skills:
Microsoft also provides two instructor-led, paid training courses for the certification via its learning partners. The prices vary by country and learning partner. The courses are:
Numerous practice tests and training resources are also available for the exam, including:
Thor Olavsrud covers data analytics, business intelligence, and data science for CIO.com. He resides in New York.
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