dbt Learn
The official, free, self-paced courses for dbt, the most common tool for transforming data inside a warehouse with SQL. Start with dbt Fundamentals: it covers models, sources, tests, documentation and deployment, which is most of what a junior role uses day to day.
Course
Other
dbt Labs
Self paced
Beginner
Free
What it is
dbt Learn is the free course catalogue from dbt Labs. dbt (data build tool) lets you write transformations as SQL SELECT statements, organised into models that reference each other. dbt works out the order to build them, runs them in your warehouse, tests the results and generates documentation with a lineage graph. It is the core of what is often called analytics engineering.
Where to start
- dbt Fundamentals: models, sources, data tests, documentation and deployment. It is the course most people take first, and there is a version that uses VS Code locally as well as one that uses dbt's hosted Studio.
- Then the courses on Jinja and macros, materialisations (including incremental models), and advanced testing, as you need them.
Courses mix short videos, quizzes and hands-on exercises against a sample project. You need a free account.
What changed in 2026
The dbt world moved quickly in 2026. dbt Labs and Fivetran completed their merger on 1 June 2026. dbt v2, built on the Rust-based engine previously called Fusion, reached general availability in September 2026: the engine is now simply called dbt, and the Apache 2.0 open source distribution is called dbt OSS. Many courses, books and blog posts still show dbt Core 1.x. The core ideas (models, ref, sources, tests, materialisations, the DAG) are the same, so older material still teaches the concepts, but check the current docs for commands and configuration details.
Prerequisites
Good SQL, including joins, CTEs and GROUP BY. A basic idea of what a data warehouse is. Git helps, because dbt projects live in repositories.
Is it worth your time?
Yes. dbt is one of the most frequently requested tools for data engineering and analytics engineering roles, and the Fundamentals course is short, free and practical. The trap is stopping at the course: build your own dbt project on a public dataset, with staging, intermediate and mart models, tests on every key and a README.
Free versus paid
The courses are free. dbt's hosted platform has paid plans, and the open source distribution is free to run yourself with a warehouse such as DuckDB, PostgreSQL, BigQuery, Snowflake or Databricks. dbt Labs also sells certification exams; they are optional.
Common questions
Do I need the hosted platform? No. You can learn entirely with the open source CLI and a local DuckDB database, which costs nothing.
How long does Fundamentals take? It depends on your SQL. Plan a few focused sessions, and budget extra time to repeat the exercises on your own dataset.
Ready to start?
Opens on dbt Labs in a new tab.
Stuck on something specific?
Writing only gets you so far. If you want an answer to your situation rather than the general case, book a session and we will work through it together. Sessions are free for approved Sefism members, and a few slots open each week.
Follow along
New writing, resources and project ideas land here first.