SQL & Data Modeling Associate Certification
Query confidently and design schemas that hold up under load
Key facts
- Level: Associate
- Field: Data Engineering & Analytics
- Estimated study time: about 22 hours
- Credential price: $79
- Exam: 72 questions · 100 minutes · pass mark 72%
About the SQL & Data Modeling Associate certification
An associate-level certification that turns SQL syntax into real querying and modelling judgement. You will learn to write precise SELECT statements with filtering, ordering, and limiting; aggregate with GROUP BY and HAVING; combine tables with every JOIN type (INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, FULL, SELF, CROSS); decompose problems with subqueries and CTEs; rank, offset, and accumulate with window functions (ROWNUMBER, RANK, LAG, LEAD, running totals); combine result sets with UNION, INTERSECT, and EXCEPT; and modify data safely with INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE. On the design side you will master the relational model, entity-relationship modelling (entities, attributes, relationships, cardinality), the constraints that protect integrity (primary keys, foreign keys, UNIQUE, CHECK, NOT NULL), indexes and the basics of query performance, transactions and ACID, the subtleties of NULL, normalization through 1NF/2NF/3NF/BCNF and deliberate denormalization, star versus snowflake schemas for analytics, and surrogate versus natural keys. The skills are engine-neutral — every concept maps cleanly onto PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, and Oracle — so they transfer wherever your data lives.
What you will learn
The official SQL & Data Modeling Associate study course covers:
- Querying with SELECT — Reading data precisely: SELECT/WHERE/ORDER BY/LIMIT, operators and NULL handling, and the logical order the database actually evaluates a query in.
- Aggregation and Joins — Summarising data with GROUP BY/HAVING and combining tables with every JOIN type — the heart of multi-table SQL.
- Subqueries, CTEs, Windows, and Sets — Composing advanced queries: nested and correlated subqueries, CTEs (including recursion), window functions, and set operations.
- Relational Design and Integrity — The relational model and ER modelling, the constraints that protect data, indexes and performance, and transactions with ACID.
- Normalization and Analytics Modeling — Normal forms 1NF-BCNF and when to denormalize, plus dimensional modelling: fact and dimension tables, star vs snowflake schemas.
Prerequisites
Frequently asked questions
- Is the SQL & Data Modeling Associate certificate verifiable?
- Yes. Every issued Hootix Academy certificate carries a unique credential code that anyone can verify online.
- How is the SQL & Data Modeling Associate exam structured?
- It is a 100-minute proctored multiple-choice exam of 72 questions; you need 72% to pass.
- Do I need to buy the course to take the exam?
- You can purchase the certification exam on its own, or bundle it with the full study course at a reduced price.
- How long does the SQL & Data Modeling Associate course take?
- About 22 hours of self-paced study.