In a world where business decisions happen in seconds, is your data fast enough? Traditional batch processing creates a critical "insight lag," forcing you to react to yesterday's news. This hands-on course empowers you to design, build, and optimize high-speed data pipelines that serve as the nervous system of modern business. Working in a ready-to-use cloud environment with industry-standard Apache Spark, you will master the complete lifecycle of real-time data engineering. Through practical, real-world case studies from e-commerce, IoT, and FinTech, you'll learn to build live operational dashboards, apply window functions to analyze trends over time, and design a sophisticated, real-time fraud detection engine. You will leave this course with the skills to transform massive, high-speed data streams into immediate, actionable business value and become the go-to expert for creating low-latency solutions that give companies their competitive edge.
Process & Analyze Real-Time Data Fast
Process & Analyze Real-Time Data Fast
This course is part of Real-Time, Real Fast: Kafka & Spark for Data Engineers Specialization
Instructors: Jairo Sanchez
Included with
Recommended experience
What you'll learn
Architect a streaming data solution by differentiating between batch, micro-batch, and streaming patterns to solve a specific business problem.
Develop real-time analytics pipelines using window functions and watermarking to aggregate and analyze streaming data.
Optimize a production streaming application by diagnosing performance bottlenecks like data skew and implementing mitigation techniques.
Skills you'll gain
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February 2026
1 assignment
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There are 3 modules in this course
In this module, learner will step into the role of a data analyst at a fast-growing e-commerce company. Learner will tackle their biggest challenge: replacing slow, nightly reports with a live dashboard to monitor a critical flash sale. Learner will master the fundamentals of stream processing and learn why real-time data is a competitive necessity. This module demonstrates these concepts using Apache Spark.
What's included
4 videos2 readings1 peer review
As an IoT Engineer for a smart city initiative, you are responsible for making sense of hundreds of traffic sensors generating chaotic, often delayed data. In this module, you will explore the critical distinction between event time and processing time, master stateful analytics using window functions, and apply watermarking to handle late-arriving data. By the end, you'll be able to design robust real-time pipelines that reveal trends and actionable insights from complex, continuous streams.
What's included
3 videos1 reading1 peer review
This module will guide you through identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks using techniques like salting, and then applying stateful analytics to build a prototype for real-time fraud detection. In your role as a Platform Engineer at a fast-growing FinTech company, you are challenged with stabilizing a critical payment pipeline crippled by data skew and tasked with defending against rapidly evolving fraud threats. By the end, you will have mastered the skills needed to optimize and operationalize production-grade streaming applications in high-stakes environments.
What's included
4 videos1 reading1 assignment2 peer reviews
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When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile.
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