The Databricks Certified Generative AI Engineer Associate exam is less about LLM theory and more about one question asked many ways: given this requirement, which Databricks piece do you reach for, and in what order? If you build RAG apps on Databricks already, most of it will feel familiar. If you don't, these are the areas worth your time.

Always check the current exam guide on the Databricks site for the official domain list and weights. What follows is a sensible way to organise the study.

1. Design: break the problem down first

Expect scenarios that describe a business goal and ask you to pick the right shape of solution:

Does this need RAG (answers grounded in company documents) or is a well-written prompt enough?

Is it a single LLM call, a chain of steps, or an agent that decides which tool to call?

What are the inputs and outputs of each stage?…