How to prepare for Tableau Desktop Specialist Certification

Finding better ways to clean and organize your data is the key to making a good decision. Have you heard about Tableau? It’s a platform with a simple but very powerful mission: help people see and understand data. In this article, you will learn a bit more about this awesome platform, hear the perspective of one of our amazing developers, and understand more about the process to obtain the Tableau Desktop Specialist I certification.

What is Tableau? 

Tableau is a visual platform that transforms the way we use data to solve problems. It empowers people and organizations to make the most out of their data. 

Tableau was founded in 2003 as a result of a computer science project at Stanford that aimed to improve the flow of analysis and make data more accessible to people through visualization.

In 2019, Tableau was acquired by Salesforce, but its mission remains the same: to help people see and understand their data. Today, organizations everywhere—from non-profits to global enterprises, and across all industries and departments—are empowering their people with Tableau to drive change with data.

At its annual Tableau Conference (2020), Tableau Software shared plans to bring together Tableau and Salesforce’s Einstein Analytics, an artificial intelligence platform. By combining the best of Tableau and Einstein Analytics, customers now will have access to the broadest and deepest analytics platform on the market. Additionally, Einstein Analytics will be renamed to Tableau CRM, and will continue to provide the best analytics and AI experience in the Salesforce CRM workflow.

Tableau Desktop Specialist I: Fundamentals

At Oktana, we constantly motivate and provide our employees with all the necessary tools to train and obtain different certifications that will help them with their day-to-day tasks. In this case, we spoke with Juan, a Software Developer at Oktana. He was recently certified for Tableau Desktop I. Juan told us about its importance and how to prepare to pass the exam.

How is the exam?

• Duration: 1 hour 
• Questions: 30 (you pass the exam with a score of 70%)
• To begin the exam, you sign up and connect to a call via Zoom with a Tableau specialist. This expert guides you through the exam. Minutes before starting, you need to show your ID and the surroundings of the place where you will be taking the exam.
• All the questions are multiple-choice. You have to log in to Tableau and do the visualizations to find out which is the correct option.

The easiest and most difficult parts of the certification

Juan commented that Tableau is a very powerful tool. In a short time, you can create graphics that generate a strong impact. He recommends taking this certification because it doesn’t require much time to prepare for it. Also, it’s very easy to understand, and since it is focused on the world of data analysis, it doesn’t require programming.

The topics that he found a bit challenging to comprehend were dimensions, measures, and differentiating between continuous and discrete fields. Also, understanding how to connect data between two different spreadsheets before starting. Additionally, the calculated fields, which are perhaps the most mathematical and may require a bit of programming (but it is very simple).

Recommended Courses:

Juan took the courses recommended by the Oktana Training Team:

1. Tableau 2020 A-Z: Learn data visualization through Tableau 2020 and create opportunities for you or key decision-makers. Discover data patterns such as customer purchase behavior, sales trends, or production bottlenecks. During this course, you will learn all of the features in Tableau that allow you to explore, experiment with, fix, prepare, and present data easily, quickly, and beautifully.
2. Tableau 20 Advanced Training: Understand how to use Groups and Sets to increase your work efficiency 10x. Also, discover how to perform Analytics, Data Mining, create Animations, and much more.
3. Tableau Specialist Certification Prep: This course has just one goal, prepare you to pass the Tableau Specialist exam. The course includes:

• A downloadable study guide with notes and links
• Information about taking the Specialist exam at home with a remote proctor
• Videos covering the Specialist topic areas 
• Three self-scoring full-length practice exams with a solution guide

Tips to achieve this certification

• Don’t just watch the videos given to you on the exam prep, use them as an example and practice. In this way, you will have greater control over the platform. 
• Practice with all the mockups you can before taking this certification (you will feel much more confident).
• Although during the exam you have access to Google. You cannot use sites where you have to register and there is communication with an external person. Juan doesn’t recommend using Google at all because it slows down the tool and this can affect your final results.
• Finally, If you don’t know the answer to a question, save it for last. It will save you time and let you focus on what you know best.

Should you take this Certification?

Definitely, yes! Companies like Amazon, Experian, and Unilever trust Tableau (business intelligence (BI) and analytics software) to explore, visualize, and securely share data in the form of workbooks and dashboards. 

As you can see, this tool is very user-friendly with drag-and-drop functionality. Tableau Desktop Specialist allows you to quickly clean, analyze, and visualize your team’s data.

for this reason, in less than 15 days you can learn how to navigate Tableau’s interface to connect and present data using easy-to-understand visualizations. By the end, you’ll have the skills to confidently explore Tableau and build impactful data dashboards. So dive in!

If you are interesting on reading more about certifications, click here.