Neo4j GraphAcademy

What GraphAcademy is

GraphAcademy is Neo4j's own learning site. Every course is self-paced and, in Neo4j's words, 100% free. Courses mix short lessons, quizzes and hands-on challenges against a real database, so you write Cypher queries rather than just reading about them.

Where to start

• Neo4j Fundamentals: what a graph database is, nodes, relationships and properties, and when a graph model fits.
• Cypher Fundamentals: reading and writing data with Cypher, Neo4j's query language, which draws relationships as arrows: (a:Person)-[:FOLLOWS]->(b:Person).
• Graph Data Modeling Fundamentals: turning a domain into nodes and relationships, refactoring a model and avoiding common mistakes.

After those, there are courses on importing data, using Neo4j from Python, Java, JavaScript, .NET and Go, and graph-backed AI features such as knowledge graphs for RAG. Neo4j also offers two certifications: Neo4j Certified Professional and a Graph Data Science certification.

Is it worth it?

As a way to learn whether you need a graph database, very much so. Graph databases shine when the questions are about connections several hops deep: friends of friends, people who bought this also bought, fraud rings that share phone numbers, or dependencies between services. If your questions are mostly "get this record and its children", a relational or document database is simpler. A few hours here lets you judge that from experience.

Cypher and GQL

Neo4j says it supports GQL, the ISO standard graph query language, with Cypher and openCypher as mature implementations. Learning Cypher therefore prepares you for the standard as more databases adopt it.

Prerequisites and time

No graph background needed; basic programming and some SQL help. Each beginner course takes a few hours. You can practise on AuraDB Free, Neo4j's free hosted tier, or a local install.

Common questions

Do I need Neo4j to use graphs at all? No. Small graph questions, such as a follower list or one level of "related items", work fine in SQL with joins or a recursive CTE. A graph database earns its place when queries go many hops deep or the shape of the connections is the point.

Best for: students and developers who want to try a graph database properly before choosing one for a project.