Big Data Roadmap for 2025

A Guide to Navigating the Future of Big Data

Phase 1: Solidify Your Foundation (6-
12 months)

This phase focuses on building the essential skills that will

underpin your entire Big Data journey.

Swipe to
Next Slide
1. Programming
Python:
Core Python: Master data structures (lists, dictionaries, sets),
algorithms, object-oriented programming (OOP), file handling, and
exception handling.
Data Science Libraries: Become proficient in NumPy for numerical
computing, Pandas for data manipulation and analysis, and Dask
for parallel computing with larger-than-memory datasets.
API Development: Learn to build robust and efficient data APIs
using frameworks like FastAPI or Flask.
Testing: Adopt testing practices early on with libraries like pytest to
ensure code quality and reliability.

Java:
Core Java: Deep dive into JVM internals (garbage collection,
memory management), concurrency (threads, synchronization),
and performance optimization techniques.
Data Structures and Algorithms: Strengthen your understanding of
fundamental data structures and algorithms for efficient data
processing.
Frameworks: Explore popular frameworks like Spring Boot for
building enterprise-grade data applications.

Scala (Optional but Recommended):

Functional Programming: Grasp the core concepts of functional
programming, which are essential for working with Spark
effectively.
Scala with Spark: Learn how to leverage Scala's conciseness and
expressiveness for Spark development.

Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA
2. Database
SQL:
Advanced SQL: Go beyond basic CRUD operations.
Master window functions, common table expressions
(CTEs), analytical functions, and query optimization
techniques (indexing, query planning). Database
Design: Learn about database normalization, schema
design, and data modeling best practices.
NoSQL:
Document Databases (MongoDB, Couchbase):
Understand schema design, indexing strategies,
aggregation pipelines, and data modeling for document
databases.
Key-value Stores (Redis, Memcached): Explore their use
cases for caching, session management, and high-speed
data retrieval.
Graph Databases (Neo4j, Amazon Neptune): Learn how
to model and query relationships in data using graph
databases, and their applications in social networks,
recommendation systems, and knowledge graphs.
Wide-Column Stores (Cassandra, HBase): Understand
their distributed nature, data replication strategies,
consistency levels, and suitability for time-series data and
high-write workloads.

Swipe to
Next Slide
3. Linux Proficiency
Command-Line Mastery: Become fluent in navigating the file
system, managing processes, and using essential commands
for file manipulation, system monitoring, and network
configuration.
Shell Scripting: Automate repetitive tasks, manage data
pipelines, and improve your efficiency in a Linux environment
by writing shell scripts.
System Administration Fundamentals: Gain a basic
understanding of user and permission management, service
management, and system monitoring tools.
4. Data Warehousing and ETL Fundamentals
Data Warehousing Concepts: Learn about dimensional
modeling (star schema, snowflake schema), data partitioning,
slowly changing dimensions (SCDs), and data warehouse
design best practices.
ETL (Extract, Transform, Load): Understand the different stages
of ETL, data quality checks, and data validation techniques.
Modern ETL Tools: Get hands-on experience with cloud-based
ETL services like:
AWS Glue: A serverless ETL service that makes it easy to
prepare and load data for analytics.
Azure Data Factory: A visual ETL tool for creating and
managing data pipelines in the Azure cloud.
Google Cloud Dataflow: A fully managed service for batch
and stream data processing

Swipe to
Next Slide
Actionable Steps:
Set up a Development Environment: Install Python, Java, and
essential IDEs (VS Code, IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm).
Practice Coding: Work through coding challenges on platforms
like LeetCode, HackerRank, and Codewars to improve your
problem-solving skills.
Database Practice: Install and work with different database
systems (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra). Create
sample databases, write queries, and experiment with different
data modeling techniques.
Linux Practice: Set up a virtual machine with a Linux distribution
(Ubuntu, CentOS) and practice using the command line and
shell scripting.

Online Courses:
Coursera:
"Python for Everybody Specialization" by University of
Michigan (Excellent for Python beginners)
"Java Programming and Software Engineering
Fundamentals Specialization" by Duke University
(Comprehensive Java foundation)
"Data Warehousing for Business Intelligence
Specialization" by University of Colorado Boulder
(Solid introduction to data warehousing)
"SQL for Data Science" by UC Davis (Focuses on SQL
for data analysis)
edX:
"Introduction to Linux" by Linux Foundation (Great
starting point for Linux)
Swipe to
Next Slide
 Phase 2: Master the Big Data Ecosystem
(12-18 months)
This phase focuses on gaining in-depth knowledge and practical
experience with the key tools and technologies that form the backbone
of modern Big Data systems.

1. Hadoop
Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS):
Architecture: Understand HDFS's architecture, including
NameNode, DataNodes, and how data is distributed and
replicated across the cluster.
File Formats: Learn about different file formats used in Hadoop,
such as Avro, Parquet, and ORC, and their advantages in terms
of storage efficiency and query performance.
Data Ingestion: Explore ways to ingest data into HDFS from
various sources (databases, filesystems, streaming platforms).
YARN (Yet Another Resource Negotiator):
Resource Management: Understand how YARN manages
resources (CPU, memory) in a Hadoop cluster and schedules
different types of applications (MapReduce, Spark).
Capacity Scheduler: Learn how to configure YARN to allocate
resources effectively and prioritize different applications.
MapReduce:
Fundamentals: Grasp the core concepts of MapReduce
(mapping, shuffling, reducing) and how it processes data in
parallel across a cluster.
MapReduce with Java: Learn to write MapReduce programs in
Java to process data in HDFS.

Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA POWERED BY:

BEGINNERSBLOG.ORG
Hive:
Data Warehousing with Hive: Understand how
Hive provides a SQL-like interface for querying
data stored in HDFS. HiveQL: Master HiveQL,
Hive's SQL dialect, including data definition
language (DDL) and data manipulation language
(DML) statements. Performance Optimization: Learn
techniques like partitioning, bucketing, and
indexing to optimize Hive queries for faster
execution. Hive with Spark: Explore how to use
Spark as the execution engine for Hive queries to
improve performance.

HBase:
NoSQL on Hadoop: Understand how HBase
provides a low-latency, high-throughput NoSQL
database built on top of HDFS.
Data Modeling for HBase: Learn how to design
efficient data models for HBase, considering row
keys, column families, and data access patterns.
HBase API: Learn how to interact with HBase using
its Java API for data storage and retrieval.

Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA POWERED BY:

BEGINNERSBLOG.ORG
2. Spark - The Powerhouse of Big Data
Processing
Spark Core:
Resilient Distributed Datasets (RDDs): Master the fundamental data
structure in Spark, understanding its immutability, transformations,
and actions.
Spark Execution Model: Learn how Spark executes jobs, including
stages, tasks, and data shuffling.
Spark with Python (PySpark): Become proficient in using PySpark
for data processing and analysis.
Spark SQL:
DataFrames and Datasets: Understand these higher-level
abstractions in Spark that provide a more structured and
optimized way to work with data. SQL for Big Data: Learn how to
use SQL to query and manipulate data within Spark. Performance
Optimization: Explore techniques like caching, data partitioning,
and bucketing to optimize Spark SQL queries.

Spark Streaming:
Real-time Data Processing: Learn how to process real-time data
streams using Spark Streaming, including windowing operations
and stateful transformations.
Integration with Kafka: Build pipelines to ingest and process data
from Kafka using Spark Streaming.
MLlib (Machine Learning Library):
Machine Learning at Scale: Explore Spark's machine learning
library for building and deploying models on large datasets.
Algorithms: Learn about various machine learning algorithms
available in MLlib, including classification, regression, clustering,
and recommendation systems.

Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA POWERED BY:

BEGINNERSBLOG.ORG
Actionable Steps:
Set up a Hadoop Cluster: Start with a single-node
cluster on your local machine using a virtual machine.
Then, explore multi-node clusters using cloud services
(AWS EMR, Azure HDInsight, GCP Dataproc).
Work with Hadoop Tools: Practice using Hadoop
commands, write MapReduce jobs, create Hive tables,
and explore HBase.
Spark Projects: Develop Spark applications using
PySpark for data processing, analysis, and machine
learning tasks.
Online Courses:
Coursera:
"Big Data Specialization" by UC San Diego
(Covers Hadoop, Spark, and other Big Data
technologies)
edX:
"Apache Spark for Data Engineering" by IBM
(In-depth Spark course)
Udemy:
"Complete Apache Spark Developer Course"
certification by Databricks
"Learn Big Data: The Hadoop Ecosystem
Masterclass" by Edward Viaene (Covers
Hadoop, Hive, Pig, HBase)

Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA POWERED BY:

BEGINNERSBLOG.ORG
 Phase 3: Toolkit (12-18 months)

In this phase, you'll broaden your skillset by exploring essential

tools and technologies that complement the core Big Data
ecosystem and enable you to build more sophisticated and
robust data solutions.

Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA POWERED BY:

BEGINNERSBLOG.ORG
1. Real-time Streaming and Messaging
Kafka:
Deep Dive into Kafka: Understand Kafka's architecture
(brokers, topics, partitions), its role in distributed
streaming platforms, and its guarantees (ordering,
durability).
Kafka Connect: Learn how to integrate Kafka with
various data sources (databases, APIs, message queues)
and sinks (data lakes, databases) using Kafka Connect.
Kafka Streams: Explore Kafka's stream processing
library for building real-time data processing
applications, including windowing, aggregations, and
joins.
Schema Registry: Understand the importance of schema
management in Kafka and how to use a schema registry
(e.g., Confluent Schema Registry) to ensure data
consistency.
Other Streaming Technologies:
Apache Pulsar: Explore this cloud-native distributed
messaging and streaming platform, known for its
scalability and multi-tenancy features.
Amazon Kinesis: Learn about this managed streaming
service offered by AWS, including Kinesis Data
Streams, Kinesis Firehose, and Kinesis Analytics.
Azure Stream Analytics: Explore this real-time analytics
service on Azure for processing high-volume data
streams. Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA POWERED BY:

BEGINNERSBLOG.ORG
2. Workflow Orchestration and Scheduling
Apache Airflow:
Data Pipeline Orchestration: Master Airflow for
defining, scheduling, and monitoring complex data
pipelines with dependencies and different task
types.
DAGs (Directed Acyclic Graphs): Learn how to
define workflows as DAGs in Airflow, specifying
tasks, dependencies, and schedules.
Operators and Sensors: Explore Airflow's built-in
operators for common tasks (BashOperator,
PythonOperator, EmailOperator) and sensors for
triggering tasks based on conditions.
Alternatives to Airflow:
Prefect: A modern dataflow orchestration tool with
a focus on ease of use and dynamic workflows.
Dagster: A data orchestrator designed for complex
data pipelines and machine learning workflows.

Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA
3. Advanced Data Processing Engines
Apache Flink:
Stream Processing with Flink: Learn how to use Flink for
stateful stream processing, handling high-volume data streams
with low latency.
Flink SQL: Explore Flink's SQL capabilities for querying and
processing both batch and streaming data.
Use Cases: Understand Flink's applications in real-time
analytics, fraud detection, and event-driven architectures.
Presto:
Distributed SQL Query Engine: Learn how Presto enables fast
interactive queries on large datasets distributed across various
data sources.
Query Optimization: Understand Presto's query optimizer and
techniques for improving query performance.
Connectors: Explore Presto's connectors to connect to different
data sources (Hive, Cassandra, MySQL).

4. NoSQL Deep Dive

Advanced NoSQL Concepts:
Data Modeling Patterns: Explore different data modeling
patterns for NoSQL databases, including key-value, document,
graph, and column-family.
Consistency and Availability: Understand the trade-offs
between consistency and availability in distributed databases
(CAP theorem).
Database Administration: Learn about NoSQL database
administration tasks, including performance tuning, backup
and recovery, and security.
Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA POWERED BY:

BEGINNERSBLOG.ORG
Actionable Steps:
Kafka Cluster: Set up a Kafka cluster (using Confluent
Platform or a cloud-managed service) and practice
producing and consuming messages, using Kafka
Connect, and building streaming applications with Kafka
Streams.
Airflow for Orchestration: Install Airflow and create data
pipelines with different tasks (data extraction,
transformation, loading) and schedules.
Flink and Presto: Explore Flink and Presto by running
sample applications and queries on your data.
Online Courses:
Udemy:
"Apache Kafka Series - Learn Apache Kafka for
Beginners" by Stephane Maarek (Excellent
introduction to Kafka)
"Learn Apache Flink" by (Comprehensive Flink
course)
Udacity:
"Data Streaming" Nanodegree program (Covers
Kafka, Spark Streaming, and Flink)

Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA
 Phase 4: Learn Cloud and Modern Data
Architectures (12-18 months)

This phase focuses on leveraging the power of cloud computing and

adopting modern data architectures to build scalable, reliable, and
cost-effective Big Data solutions.

Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA POWERED BY:

BEGINNERSBLOG.ORG
1. Cloud Platforms
Amazon Web Services (AWS):
Core Services: Gain a deep understanding of core AWS services, including:
EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud): For provisioning virtual machines.
S3 (Simple Storage Service): For object storage.
IAM (Identity and Access Management): For security and access control.
VPC (Virtual Private Cloud): For networking.
Big Data Services: Master AWS services specifically designed for Big Data, such as:
EMR (Elastic MapReduce): For running Hadoop and Spark clusters.
Redshift: A cloud-based data warehouse.
Kinesis: For real-time data streaming.
Athena: For querying data in S3 using SQL.
Glue: For serverless ETL and data cataloging.
Lake Formation: For building and managing data lakes.
Microsoft Azure:
Core Services: Familiarize yourself with Azure's core services, including:
Virtual Machines: For provisioning virtual machines.
Blob Storage: For object storage.
Azure Active Directory: For identity and access management.
Virtual Network: For networking.
Big Data Services: Explore Azure's Big Data offerings:
HDInsight: For running Hadoop and Spark clusters.
Synapse Analytics: A unified analytics platform that brings together data warehousing,
big data analytics, and data integration.
Data Lake Storage Gen2: For building data lakes.
Databricks: A managed Spark platform.
Stream Analytics: For real-time stream processing.
Data Factory: For visual ETL and data pipeline orchestration.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP):
Core Services: Learn GCP's fundamental services:
Compute Engine: For virtual machines.
Cloud Storage: For object storage.
Cloud IAM: For identity and access management.
Virtual Private Cloud: For networking.
Big Data Services: Dive into GCP's Big Data services:
Dataproc: For running Hadoop and Spark clusters.
BigQuery: A serverless, highly scalable data warehouse.
Pub/Sub: A real-time messaging service.
Dataflow: For batch and stream data processing.
Cloud Composer: A managed Apache Airflow service. Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA
2. Modern Data Architectures
Data Lakes:
Data Lake Fundamentals: Understand the concepts of data lakes,
including schema-on-read, data variety, and their suitability for
diverse analytics and machine learning use cases.
Data Lake Design: Learn best practices for designing data lakes,
including data organization, partitioning, security, and metadata
management.
Data Lakehouse:
The Best of Both Worlds: Explore the data lakehouse architecture,
which combines the flexibility of data lakes with the data
management and ACID properties of data warehouses.
Delta Lake: Learn how Delta Lake provides an open-source storage
layer that brings reliability and ACID transactions to data lakes.
Data Mesh:
Decentralized Data Ownership: Understand the principles of data
mesh, a decentralized approach to data management where
domain teams own and manage their data as products.

3. Serverless Computing
Serverless Fundamentals: Grasp the concepts of serverless computing,
including event-driven architectures, automatic scaling, and pay-per-use
pricing.
AWS Lambda: Learn how to use AWS Lambda to run code without
provisioning or managing servers.
Azure Functions: Explore Azure's serverless compute service for event-
driven applications.
Google Cloud Functions: Learn about GCP's serverless compute
platform for running code in response to events.

Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA POWERED BY:

BEGINNERSBLOG.ORG
Actionable Steps:
Cloud Platform Selection: Choose a cloud platform
(AWS, Azure, or GCP) and create a free tier account
to explore its services.
Hands-on Cloud Projects: Build data pipelines, deploy
applications, and experiment with different Big Data
services on your chosen cloud platform.
Data Lake Implementation: Design and implement a
data lake using cloud storage and related services.
Serverless Data Processing: Build serverless data
processing functions using Lambda, Azure Functions,
or Google Cloud Functions.
Online Courses:
Coursera:
"Data Engineering with Google Cloud
professional certification" by Google Cloud
(Covers BigQuery, Dataflow, Dataproc)
"DP-203: Data Engineering on Microsoft
Azure" (Prepares for the Azure Data Engineer
Associate certification)
AWS Training:
"Big Data on AWS" (Comprehensive course
on AWS Big Data services)

Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA
 Phase 5: Become a Well-Rounded Big Data
Engineer
This phase is all about hands-on learning and building real-world
projects to solidify your skills and demonstrate your capabilities.
1. Mastering the Art of Data Engineering
Data Modeling:
Advanced Techniques: Deepen your understanding of data modeling
techniques, including dimensional modeling, data vault modeling, and
NoSQL data modeling patterns.
Schema Design and Evolution: Learn how to design schemas for flexibility
and scalability, and how to manage schema evolution in your data systems.

Data Quality:
Data Quality Fundamentals: Understand the importance of data quality and
the different dimensions of data quality (accuracy, completeness,
consistency, timeliness, validity).
Data Quality Tools and Techniques: Explore tools and techniques for data
profiling, data cleansing, data validation, and data quality monitoring.

Data Governance:
Data Governance Principles: Learn about data governance frameworks,
data ownership, data access control, and data lineage.
Data Security and Privacy: Understand data security best practices,
including encryption, access control, and compliance with regulations like
GDPR and CCPA.

Performance Optimization:
Query Optimization: Master techniques for optimizing queries in SQL and
NoSQL databases, including indexing, partitioning, and query tuning.
Performance Tuning: Learn how to identify and address performance
bottlenecks in your data pipelines and applications.

Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA
2. Building Real-World Experience
Project Ideas:
Beginner:
Build a Data Pipeline for a Blog: Create a pipeline to ingest
blog posts from an RSS feed, process them (extract keywords,
sentiment analysis), and store them in a database.
Analyze Website Traffic Data: Collect website traffic data
using Google Analytics, process it with Spark, and visualize
key metrics like page views, bounce rate, and user
demographics.
Build a Simple Recommendation System: Use a collaborative
filtering algorithm to build a basic recommendation system
for movies or books using a small dataset.
Intermediate:
Develop a Real-time Fraud Detection System: Use Kafka and
Spark Streaming to process real-time transactions and identify
potentially fraudulent activities based on predefined rules or
machine learning models.
Create a Data Lake for E-commerce Data: Design and
implement a data lake to store various types of e-commerce
data (product catalogs, customer data, orders, reviews) and
build dashboards to analyze sales trends and customer
behavior.
Implement a Data Warehouse for a Social Media Platform:
Design a data warehouse schema to store and analyze
social media data (user profiles, posts, interactions) and use
Hive or Spark SQL to answer business questions.

Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA
Advanced:
Build a Scalable Data Platform for IoT
Sensor Data: Develop a platform to
ingest, process, and analyze high-
volume sensor data from IoT devices
using Kafka, Spark, and a time-series
database (e.g., InfluxDB).
Implement a Machine Learning Pipeline
for Image Recognition: Build a pipeline
to ingest images, pre-process them, train
a deep learning model (e.g., using
TensorFlow or PyTorch), and deploy the
model for real-time image recognition.
Design a Data Mesh for a Large
Enterprise: Implement a data mesh
architecture to decentralize data
ownership and management across
different business domains within a
large organization.

Swipe to
Next Slide

By SHAILESH SHAKYA POWERED BY:

BEGINNERSBLOG.ORG