Would you believe it if I tell you that you are a part of one of the sources generating big data? A layperson may instantly disagree, but it is, in fact, valid for most people using smartphones. Whether you are using social media, sending money to someone online, or using a variety of mobile applications, all of your web activity leads to data generation. This data is precious to companies who want to understand their customers better and provide personalized services. For example, eCommerce giant Amazon uses your shopping history and past product search data to recommend you related products you are most likely to buy.
Research shows that we generate around 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day, which is quite huge! Well, you may wonder how can such a massive amount of data be handled. This is where Hadoop comes into the picture. Apache Hadoop is one of the earliest open-source tools to offer storage and large-scale processing of big data. As mentioned in Apache.org, Hadoop is a framework that allows for distributed processing of large data sets across clusters of computers using simple programming models. Various companies and organizations use Hadoop for research as well as production.
Hadoop is one of the most sought-after skills for job roles in big data. So, if you are embarking on a career in this promising field, it becomes inevitable to learn Hadoop basics. The popularity f Hadoop has led many eLearning providers to offer courses in it, and professionals aren’t letting go of this opportunity. Through this article, we have tried to reduce your effort spent in looking for a reliable training course in Hadoop what’s more! We have listed the courses that are absolutely free to take.
So, let’s dive in!
Top 3 Free Hadoop Courses for Beginners
Here are some of the best options you can get to learn Hadoop fundamentals for free. Along with the course details, we have mentioned the next steps you can take with each course. This part is to make you aware of how you can enroll in a paid program and learn the advanced concepts of Hadoop.
Big Data Hadoop and Spark Developer by Simplilearn
Simplilearn is one of the world’s leading certification training providers. This Hadoop basics course gives you a clear understanding of Spark basics and how multiple elements of the Hadoop ecosystem fit into the big data processing cycle. Offered free of cost, this program by Simplilearn gives access to 11 hours of high-quality self-paced learning for 90 days.
Top skills covered – real-time data processing, functional programming, spark applications, parallel processing, spark RDD optimization techniques, and Spark SQL.
Ideal for – BI professionals, analytics professionals, senior IT professionals, project managers, software developers, and aspiring data scientists.
Prerequisites – Familiarity with Core Java and SQL is recommended before taking this program.
Next Steps – After learning the basics with this course, you can upgrade to a paid course named Simplilearn Big Data Engineer Master’s Program to enhance your Hadoop skills further.
Intro to Hadoop and MapReduce by Udacity
This comprehensive program by Udacity helps you learn the fundamentals of Apache Hadoop, the principles behind it, and how it can be used to make sense of Big Data. It is a self-paced learning program that includes rich course material, interactive quizzes, and highly-qualified mentors. The course takes around 1 month to complete.
Top Skills covered – Big data, HDFS, how Apache Hadoop addresses Big Data problems, MapReduce code, MapReduce design patterns.
Prerequisites – Basic programming skills in Python is recommended.
Next Steps – Udacity’s Introduction to Programming is a nanodegree paid program that you can upgrade to after learning the Hadoop and MapReduce basics.
Managing Big Data with R and Hadoop by FutureLearn
FutureLearn is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) learning platform that offers online courses to help you learn tomorrow’s digital skills. This Big Data course makes you capable of managing and analyzing big data with R programming and the Hadoop programming framework. This 5-week course can be completed by spending 6 hours per week.
Top Skills covered – Linux with RHadoop, using AWK with Hadoop, achieving the performance of modern supercomputing, and the basic functionality of Bash terminal window.
Ideal For – people interested in data science, computational statistics, and machine learning; Ph.D. students in data analysis; advanced undergraduate students.
Prerequisites – Basic knowledge of Linux and Bash along with R and matrix operations is recommended.
Next Steps – If you upgrade to an annual plan, you get access to hundreds of other short courses in the FutureLearn platform and earn a printable digital certificate of achievement upon completing any of them.
Bottom Line
The above list is by no means exhaustive, and you may find other good-quality tutorials as well. Whatever path you take, you will not regret learning Hadoop. Big data analytics is the driving force behind all the emerging technologies these days – artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and robotics. Hadoop is here to stay,, and companies need skilled professionals to process big data in the future effectively. So, why not take up a course today and gain a strong foundation of Hadoop.