Top 5 Books for Data Engineers in 2024
Key books to become a successful data engineer
2024 continues the AI trend and increases the trend towards roles such as data scientists and ML engineers.
Among these popular positions is Data Engineering, which provides a strong foundation for the above-mentioned roles.
In this article, you will find the top 5 books for DE, regardless of whether you are just at the beginning of your journey as a DE or already seasoned engineer.
Without further ado, let’s review these books!
Fundamentals of Data Engineering
Maybe only people living under rocks haven’t heard of this book.
It is without exaggeration a masterpiece. One of the best books I’ve ever read.
It contains everything you need to know about the work of a data engineer, features of work, pitfalls, non-obvious things to remember, basic concepts, and much, much more.
This book is definitely fundamental for data engineers and serves as a good mentor for you.
Even if you are already an experienced engineer, believe me, you will enjoy reading this book and you will be able to discover and rethink some parts of your job.
I know, I know, a lot of words and no specifics, but believe me, after reading this book, you will understand what I am talking about.
In this book you will learn:
- Basic processes of receiving, storing, and converting data
- Data security
- Data orchestration
- Data governance
- Cooperation with different departments
- The architecture of different tools
- DE role details
- Details of roles under the curtains (My favorite parts)
And most importantly, with this book, you will learn to make your own decision based on your situation, because there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all technology.
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
What do you see in front of you? This is a treasure!
Every engineer should read this book, whether they are a software engineer, a data engineer, or someone else.
Data has always been the center of many challenges in system design. After reading this book you will be able to figure out difficult issues, such as scalability, consistency, reliability, efficiency, and maintainability.
In this guide, the author will help you navigate the diverse data landscape by examining the pros and cons of various technologies for processing and storing data.
Yes this book is a bit old for the IT world nevertheless
Software keeps changing, but the fundamental principles remain the same.
With this book, you will be able to:
- Look under the hood of the systems you already use and learn how to use and manage them more effectively
- Make informed decisions by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of different tools
- Choose tradeoffs for consistency, scalability, fault tolerance, and complexity
- Understand the research on distributed systems on which modern databases are built
- Take a look behind the scenes of major online services and learn about their architectures
Learning SQL, 3rd Edition
If we are already talking about the fundamentals, then it is also important to have basic skills for working with data and believe me, data engineers work with a lot of data!
In the data world, there are many different tools and different languages for data manipulation, but the gold standard will always be SQL.
And of course, every data platform, be it Redshift or Snowflake, has its features related to SQL, but the basis is always the same.
And probably the best book from which to start learning (or improving your skills) is this treasure.
In it, the author will guide you from basic queries to complex analytical functions.
I highly recommend working with this book, actually working, not just reading.
With this book you will:
- Quickly familiarize yourself with SQL basics and advanced features
- Use SQL data statements to create, manipulate, and retrieve data
- Create database objects such as tables, indexes, and constraints using SQL schema statements
- Learn how datasets interact with queries; understand the importance of subqueries
- Transform and manipulate data using built-in SQL functions and use conditional logic in data statements
Data Engineering with AWS — Second Edition
The world has been moving towards cloud environments for a long time, and for me personally there is no better platform than AWS.
The modern data engineer must learn how to work with cloud environments and their tools.
And it is not enough to get a certificate, you need to have practical knowledge, not jagged answers for the tests.
But if you still want to pass the AWS certification, I have some tips for you.
So what am I talking about? Exactly!
It is important to get practical knowledge somewhere and here we get into an eternal circle. I have no experience. I need to go to work. To go to work, I need experience.
This book will break that cycle. In it, the author with many years of experience will tell and show all the nuances of working with AWS and its tools.
Individual tasks will help you better understand your own experience working with cloud environments.
There are many beautiful things in this book and it is easier to say what is not in it:
- A lot of water
- Boring theories
- Unintelligible guides
- Theories about Azure and GCP :D
Cracking the Data Engineering Interview
The ability to pass an interview is a separate skill that needs to be acquired.
It has many nuances and pitfalls, and especially in the profession of a data engineer, from position to position, from company to company, the main responsibility, platform tools, and work in a team will differ.
This book will help you be more confident before, during, and after the interview, and it will help you build the foundation of your brand.
In this book you will learn about:
- Basics of DE
- How to build a project portfolio
- Building a personal brand through LinkedIn
- Preparation for the interview
Conclusion
These books are fantastic and a big thanks to the authors who put in a titanic effort to write them for us.
The main thing is to remember that it is important not just to read books, but to work with them and use the acquired knowledge in practice.
I hope you enjoyed this article, and if you like to read more about data technology written in simple language, then subscribe and read my other articles!
Thanks for reading this far,
See you!
