Introduction to Apache Spark (edX)

This statistics and data analysis course will teach you the basics of working with Spark and will provide you with the necessary foundation for diving deeper into Spark. You’ll learn about Spark’s architecture and programming model, including commonly used APIs. After completing this course, you’ll be able to write and debug basic Spark applications. This course will also explain how to use Spark’s web user interface (UI), how to recognize common coding errors, and how to proactively prevent errors. The focus of this course will be Spark Core and Spark SQL.

This course covers advanced undergraduate-level material. It requires a programming background and experience with Python (or the ability to learn it quickly). All exercises will use PySpark (the Python API for Spark), but previous experience with Spark or distributed computing is NOT required. Students should take this Python mini-quiz before the course and take this Python mini-course if they need to learn Python or refresh their Python knowledge.

What you'll learn:

- Basic Spark architecture

- Common operations

- How to avoid coding mistakes

- How to debug your Spark program