Ultimate guide to getting certified in Tableau
By: Sumit Gupta
Tags: Tableau, Data Science, Business Intelligence, Data Analytics, Marketing

For someone who has been a vocal supporter of Tableau and who thinks Tableau is the best product in BI and Visualization space, it was natural for me to look at ways to enhance my tableau knowledge so that I can always be the go-to person for any tableau related query. While enhancing the knowledge there comes a moment where you are in a dilemma if you shall go for a recognition now which is more public and not just limited to your “Work Recognition” or you shall stick to just work-related recognition.

While work recognitions are always good and something that we work very hard for, getting a certificate allows us to be heard in the community and contribute to constructive discussions around Data Science, Analytics and BI. Certificates are not universally vouched for when thinking it in terms of value-add to overall profile because if you talk with 10 managers about “If they value Certifications while reviewing/selecting resumes for the job interview”, pretty sure you’d get 5 as Yay’s and 5 as Nays. Hence more often then not students and entry-level professionals are in a big dilemma but I wasn’t one of them considering my love for the tableau 😊.

I have been thinking about getting certified in tableau since I joined the iSchool at Syracuse University and how most of the job postings required one who knew about at least one of the standard BI tool, be it Tableau, Microstrategy, PowerBI or others. All these job postings, talks and blogs on BI Tools kindled my curiosity to keep learning and I decided that I wanted to get certified in Tableau. I decided this in September 2016 but such was the schedule and sequence of events that I failed to prioritize this over other commitments. But finally, I did it after being all rejuvenated post thanksgiving break last year(2017) and booked the dates. If you have been on the fence for some time about the value of this and whether you will get time or not, You should and just book the dates for the exam. If you DON’T book dates, YOU will never get time! Simple.

What inspired me to write a blog about Tableau certificate?

There are tons of blogs and resources available around the internet and having scouted through quite a bit over the last month, I feel, I have the resources which helped me secure over 90% marks in the exam. Pretty sure the following resources will not allow you to be certified in Tableau but also help you grow as a Tableau developer.

Before we dive into the plans and how to learn from available free/paid resources, let's talk about housekeeping first for someone who has never heard about Tableau Certification.

Here we are talking about Tableau Desktop Certifications, take a note that Tableau also as Tableau Server certificates but that is for another day.

Even in Tableau Desktop suite of certifications, we have a couple of options based on the level of your understanding and expertise of the tool.

1) Tableau Desktop Qualified Associate (TDQA)

Recommended for people with at least 5 months of Hands on experience using the tool and someone who understands the basics of SQL and understands Databases, Joins and standard Data Analytics terminologies (Even if you don’t have prior experience of Tableau but willing to learn, you can get certified).

Cost: $250 (No student discounts available, unfortunately)

Time Limit: 2 hours (extra 30 mins for setup and surveys)

Number of Questions: 36

The split of Questions: 70 Hands on/30 Theory based on the tool itself

Passing Score: 75% (Note: Each question has different weight depending on the difficulty level, hands-on has more value)

Tableau Exam Guide: Download Tableau Exam Guide

2) Tableau Desktop Certified Professional:

Recommended for people who have considerable Tableau Desktop experience. More than 9+ months of experience is recommended. Unlike TDQA, this certificate includes Hands-on, written response and building/saving solutions in Tableau desktop

Cost: $600 (again, no discounts)

Time Limit: 3 hours (similarly, extra 30–45 mins for setup and surveys)

Passing and grading: Manually graded based on the detailed scoring rubric

Preparing for the exam:

The blog safely assumes that you have never used Tableau or have limited access to the tool. If you are a student and don’t have access to the tool, tableau offers free 1 year access to their Desktop tool for students. For non-students and professionals, tableau offers 14 days trial which may not be enough. But at the end of the blog post, I’ll share ways to get Tableau Desktop access for 6 months for free. Keep reading!

Starting the preparation:

The first thing that you are recommended to do is go through each word in Tableau Desktop Certificate Guide. The pdf does an amazingly good job listing down the know-how of the certificate, detailed skills that are measured in the exam as well as providing sample questions and solutions for you to verify your understanding of the skills asked. I cannot stress enough as to how much important that guide is for getting the grasp of the certificate. Literally, while I was preparing, I used to go through the pdf every week and tick mark the skills which I had absolute confidence in and skills which still needed work. Once you are done reviewing the exam guide, its time to note down the areas where you lack the requisite knowledge and start working through it.

I have tried segmenting the resources into Beginner and Advanced level so that right resources can be accessed at the right time.

Beginner Resources:

1) Tableau Learning: Words won’t do justice as for how much the free training on Tableau’s official website helped me in preparation for the exam. If you have reviewed the exam guide, you’d know that the skills measured section has been divided into Data Connections, Organizing & Simplifying Data… respectively and Tableau Learning does a pretty good job of organizing their training in a similar way. Go through all the videos under Tableau Desktop TWICE, yes twice because just going through it once won’t be enough and when you re-watch like I did, you’ll learn some more tips and tricks while watching and improve your understanding of the tool.

Cost: Free

2) Tableau 10 A-Z Beginner by Kirill Eramenko: The beginner course by Kirill Eramenko is not very niche focused on Tableau certificate as Tableau Learning and Tableau For Beginners by Lukas Halim(description below) but the course does a pretty good job going through all the features of Tableau 10 and the best part about the course is that it’s pretty hands on. Once you are done with the course, you will have learned tableau from a perspective of a professional, not as a student who is just looking to learn tableau for certifications.

Cost: Usually costs $199.99 but you always get 90–95% discount coupon for Udemy online, one of them being “JNY1202”

3) Tableau for Beginners by Lukas Halim: Unlike Kirill’s course, this course is specifically designed for getting certified in Tableau Desktop. The video lectures are pretty average at best and I won’t blame Lukas because the major focus for the course was for students to get certified not become an expert in Tableau. The good thing about this course is that it follows the “Skills Measures” section from exam guide pretty closely which allows you to follow the structure of the exam and become more confident about the skills/questions that is asked.

The best part of the course?

Quizzes and TWO Full-Length Practice Test for Tableau Desktop Qualified Associate Exam. I’ll talk about the exams in the advanced sections because it really doesn’t make sense to talk about the Practice tests if you are yet not comfortable with the tool itself.

Cost: Similar to the above suggestions, you can get access to the course for $10–12 using code like “JNY1202”

4) Tips for preparing for the Tableau QA Exam by Andy Kriebel: If you follow tableau closely and don’t yet know Andy, you have been living under the rocks! Andy is the head coach at Data School and has been responsible for training more than 1000 individuals on tableau and alteryx. He is Tableau Zen Master and an amazing teacher. In this video, Andy and his team of tableau/data school students share their experiences of Tableau QA exam and talk about skills sections individually and share some tips & tricks on how to learn them quickly and what to expect in the exam. A pretty good hour-long video I must say.

Cost: 1 hour of your time

5) Tableau Knowledge Base: Although there ain’t a particular format for following these suggestions but I used to just copy paste one of the lines from “skills measured” into google and read articles on Tableau Knowledge Base. Considering the exam contains 30% theory questions/weight and we are allowed to use the internet for searching answers, it’s a good cultivating habit to read Tableau Knowledge Base.

Cost: Free

That’s it for beginner section. If you follow the pattern of first completing Tableau Learning then moving onto Tableau 10 A-Z by Kirill and then to Lukas Halim’s course, you shall be confident enough now and be able to attempt more than 50–60% of the questions in Tableau QA Exam guide.

Advanced Resources:

Once you have attempted the questions in Tableau QA Guide, its time to move on to Advanced Sections which will cover advanced topics like Level of Detail Calculations, Sets/Groups, Analytics Pane:

1) Tableau 10 Advanced Training by Kirill Eremenko: I am a big fan of Kirill’s way of teaching and his hands-on approach to even the most simple of the concepts. In this Advanced training, Kirill walks you through 5 dashboards covering some pretty advanced stuff like Level of Detail Calculations, Advanced Calculations like String handling, Data handling, advanced joins, data blending, dashboard actions, sets and groups! Again, like the previous course by Kirill, he is not teaching the course with a mindset of getting you certified, he teaches from a perspective of a professional analyst and how an analyst will tackle the data questions that are asked by end stakeholders. A must watch video course on tableau for sure.

Cost: $10–12

2) Data Visualization and Communication with Tableau by Coursera: This course by Duke University is one of my favorite course available online for learning Tableau. The best part of this course is that the data sets that the instructor use are pretty well thought out and hands on. Data sets include H1B Work Visa application data and real business data set provided by Dognition, a dog training company which were happy to provide students the data about their company.

By enrolling in the course you also get free access of tableau for 6 MONTHS, even if you don’t enroll for their paid certificate options. Go for it if you have been holding yourself because you don’t have tableau access

Cost: Free if you audit it or $49 if you need certificate of completion

3) Practice Tests by Simplilearn: After you are done with the advanced video course from the above link, you now are ready to test your knowledge and learn where your weakness lies. If you google online for tableau sample practice test for the tableau exam, you will be more than just disappointed. There ain’t many resources out there to test your knowledge before you attempt the final exam. Simplilearn offers 2 sample practice test, Test 1 is publicly available after you submit your personal details whereas if you need to access Test 2, you will have to signup for their free trial of Tableau Course by Simplilearn. As you are attempting the questions in this practice test, you will slowly realize that the level of the questions is a notch below the exam guide. The real exam matches the exam guide level but owing to the fact that there isn’t much practice test available, any test which allows you to test your knowledge is worth much more. Don’t get too happy if you score above 90% in these tests, the real practice test is described below.

Cost: Free or 7 Days free trial

4) Learning Tableau Practice Test 1: The de-facto practice test for the Tableau Desktop Qualified Associate Exam. Once you have gone through all the course links, the quiz from Lukas Halim’s course and practice test from Simplilearn and worked on your chinks after reviewing the tests, its TIME to take the REAL TEST! I’d be lying if I say this TEST is not worth it. It’s the closest you can get to Tableau exam(Practice 2 included, described below). It’s a must if you are really serious about the certification. Lukas does an amazing job by really providing datasets and questions which resonate the exam pretty well. Its challenging enough to make you think unlike Simplilearn tests but easy enough to make you feel good about your preparation. Kudos to Lukas for creating these tests.

Another excellent aspect of this test is that Lukas provides an excellent solution for all the questions, which simplilearn fails to do so. These solution guides help you understand the solution for your mistakes and help you learn things in a better way

Cost: Included in your purchase of Lukas Halim course, if you are not interested in buying the course, Lukas also has standalone test package(which is more expensive than the course). LearningTableau.com has the details

5) Advanced Concepts:

If I have to rate the tableau exam based on different level of difficulty, I’d say 25% of the questions were advanced concepts which I’d be listing below. These concepts are part of the courses mentioned above but the blogs/videos of individual concepts allow you to focus on them more and accordingly get more curious about them. Not only will you be preparing these advanced concepts for the exam, but being a heavy tableau user, I personally use some of the concepts in my daily tableau work too.

a. Level of Detail Calculations: This is one of the most important concepts for the exam. You won’t get more than 2–3 questions on the concept but considering its use case and how powerful LOD’s are, you are certainly recommended to learn about them as much as you can. If you go through below links, you’ll get enough knowledge about LOD and their use case. In the exam, you can expect questions on Cohort Analysis (Or How much revenue/sales was contributed by each cohort), Customer Order Frequency, Customer Acquisition.

Here is a TIP which will help you in the exam: Just study FIXED LOD, don’t even bother about INCLUDE or EXCLUDE LOD, what INCLUDE and EXCLUDE can do, FIXED can do it too. So become an expert in FIXED LOD. Here are some Good resources on them

b. Top N/Nested N/Nested Sorting: Another important concept and you can easily expect a couple of questions on Top N/Nested N. It ain’t difficult but something which can easily be ignored if not given proper due respect. The following resource will help you understand it.

c. Table Calculations: Most of the new tableau users know about the Calculated field which are sum, average, datediff, datepart etc but another important aspect of calculation in tableau is Table Calculation. Here are some good resources on them:

d. Parameters and its use-case: Although you won’t be asked to “specifically” create a parameter to solve any of the questions, but its a feature that you will like to add in your tableau directory. End stakeholders love the ability to play with data and control the data point/parameter. Parameters in tableau gives them this SUPERPOWER.

(I revisit this video literally every other week to get ideas on how I can use Parameters in my dashboards, it is so GOOD! Just bookmark it for future purpose too)

e. Analytics Pane: Analytics pane covers over 15% of your total marks in the exam and its one of those sections where it’s a crime to lose marks. If you know what mean, median, mode, standard deviation and regression means, you should not lose marks here. Some good resources:

f. Other important concepts: Although I don’t have any recommended resources for the list of concepts, but courses above cover them well:

Sets, Groups and Creating Combined Sets

Advanced Filtering

Data Blending

How to utilize cross tables

Pivot Table

Split, Custom Split

Join Calculations

Difference between green pill and blue pill

5) Learning Tableau Practice Test 2: Enough of the Learnings already, time to get ready for the exam. How do you know if you are ready for the exam or not? By attempting Lukas Halim’s practice test 2. Both the tests were the closest to the real test. If you buy the course from udemy directly, you get direct access to both tests automatically, saving you some $20 overall. When attempting this test make sure that try to replicate the real exam environment, which essentially means giving the test in one sitting of two hours, no mobile phone, no distractions. Just you and the practice test with access to the internet but NO EMAIL and CHAT apps. Once you are done, even if you score less than 75% don’t worry, I have friends who scored less than 50% in the 2nd test and yet cleared the exam. Just make sure you take things on your chin and carefully review the solution guide. You are READY now! Carpe Diem!

Miscellaneous Tips:

The exam is a proctored exam which can be attempted at your convenience, which means that you can give the exam from anywhere only thing is that it will be proctored.

The exam will be conducted in a Virtual Machine which has relevant data files and tableau desktop installed. Make sure you review the data files.

Another very important tip that I have been giving to others who studied with me is that, always RENAME your WORKSHEET with your question number. Do NOT keep it as SHEET 1, Sheet 2… when its time to review, you’ll waste time trying to find the worksheet for the question.

Before you start solving the questions, add a Dashboard in your Workbook and drag a TEXT element in the view and start noting questions/points which needs review and come back later.

I was surprised with the questions at the start. The difficulty level of the questions took me aback and it took me almost 20 mins to solve 3 questions. So if it happens to you too, don’t worry the questions after the initial trickiness are rather straightforward and can be easily managed.

NEVER mark theory questions without googling about it, even if you are 100% confident about it. The questions are asked in a such a way that they exploit your negligence and you lose marks there.

Dashboard questions are easy but minute details of the questions can so easily be ignored. Take care of that.

Make use of split screen so that you save some time when you are switching between chrome and tableau. The chrome exam tab is mobile adaptive, so if you resize the exam tab, you will still read all the text in the smaller chrome tab without the need to scroll. It helped me a lot and also allowed me to read questions multiple times while executing the questions asked.

Continuing your learning:

Done with the exam? Certified already? CONGRATS! You did it. But what next, what if you want to keep learning Tableau and growing from this point. Following resources have been pretty helpful for me and pretty sure you can learn a lot from them too.

Tableau Conference Live: #Data17 which was Tableau Conference is one of the biggest Data conferences that tableau conducts every year. It’s expensive to attend if you are a student but what if YOU could get access to the stuff that was talked about in the conference, what if you could get access to the hands on workbook that was taught in the conference?

Yesss! You can! Head over to tclive.tableau.com to learn from the best! Every year they update the content with the latest #Data videos and handson workbook.

#MakeoverMonday: Need some constant inspiration and data to challenge yourself? There couple of very good social projects that happens every week around the web, one of them is #MakeOverMonday by Andy Kriebel and Eva Murray, head over to #MakeOverMonday and learn more about community dashboards and get blown away!

Viz for social good: Similar to #MakeOverMonday, but with unique challenges. Learn more about them here

Tableau Tips Tuesday: Weekly blog post on some advanced Tableau concepts explained by the man himself, Andy Kriebel! Some of their amazing blog posts include KPI’s and Sparklines, Creating Lollipop Charts

That should be enough to fulfill your curiosity to learn more about Tableau. If you found the blog post valuable enough, Click on that Share Button, or Clap if reading on Medium or Add me on LinkedIn, let’s create a #DataCommunity here and learn from each other.

Originally published at www.linkedin.com on October 1, 2018.