Skip to content
Write a review

67 Best + Free Scala Courses & Certificates [2026]

67 courses compared 16 over 10 hours long Updated October 5, 2026

Ranked by Michael Kuhlman, CourseDuck's founder, from student reviews across every provider. How we rank

Our top picks

  • Apache Spark with Scala - Hands On with Big Data! [Udemy]
  • Scala & Functional Programming Essentials [Udemy]
  • Scala and Spark for Big Data and Machine Learning [Udemy]
  • Scala Applied, Part 1 [Udemy]
  • Escalate Scala Training - Setup Instructions [Udemy]
  • Advanced Scala and Functional Programming [Udemy]
  • Apache Spark Programming in Scala for Beginners (2026) [Udemy]
  • Spark SQL and Spark 3 using Scala Hands-On with Labs [Udemy]
  • Apache Spark 3 - Databricks Certified Associate Developer [Udemy]
  • Apache Spark 3 & Big Data Essentials in Scala [Udemy]

About the best Scala courses

CourseDuck compares the 67 Scala courses listed here from 5 providers, 11 of them free, and ranks them from the 80,000 ratings and reviews their students have left, with the price, length and level of each one side by side. No course pays to be listed or ranked. As featured on Harvard EDU, Stackify and Inc. How we rank

Frequently asked questions

The most-reviewed Scala course in this category is Scala & Functional Programming Essentials by Daniel Ciocîrlan, with about 15,400 reviews at 4.5 as of October 2026.

Scala is a programming language that combines object-oriented and functional programming and runs on the Java Virtual Machine. It is used for back-end systems and for big data processing with Apache Spark. Courses here cover Scala programming, functional programming, Akka and Spark for big data.

Average
$141,810 a year
Middle half earn
$123,500 to $160,000 25th to 75th percentile
Full range
$61,000 to $193,000

Share of US job postings in each pay band; the dark bar holds the average, the striped bars the 25th and 75th percentiles. Source: ZipRecruiter salary data collected in 2020-21, when this FAQ was first written; pay has moved since, so treat it as a rough guide.

Paid Udemy video courses include a certificate of completion when you finish; free courses and practice-test-only courses do not. It shows you did the work, but it is not an accredited qualification. Coursera and edX usually charge for a certificate, issued with the university or company that made the course.

Related topics

Web Development 1043Data Science 713Python 684SQL 667JavaScript 613Artificial Intelligence 577Software Development 524Machine Learning 417C# 386Java 376 All Development topics
All filters

Provider

University

Tags

Rating

Duration

Difficulty

Publication Year

+ Show All

Language

67 Filtered Courses
Apache Spark with Scala - Hands On with Big Data!
provider

1

Apache Spark with Scala - Hands On with Big Data! (2026)

4.3
(18,945 reviews)
bySundog Education by Frank Kane

Frank Kane's nine-hour Spark 3 course in Scala, built around 20-plus runnable examples that go from movie ratings on your laptop to a real cluster on Amazon EMR.

Best for: Working programmers who need Spark in Scala specifically and learn best by running code, not reading theory.

icon
Pros
icon
Cons
    • Over 20 runnable examples, from movie ratings to superhero degrees of separation, that reviewers say all work
    • Covers the full stack: RDDs, DataFrames and DataSets, EMR clusters, Spark ML, streaming, and GraphX in nine hours
    • Refreshed in July 2026 for Spark 3, IntelliJ, and Structured Streaming
    • Kane's pragmatic ex-Amazon teaching style gets consistent praise for clarity and realism
    • Some code is demonstrated rather than explained; beginners say functions like reduce are never properly unpacked
    • A recent review says the installation videos and downloadable project files are out of sync
    • Advanced examples feel rushed, and the only cloud covered is AWS
$124.99 Certificate Length: 8.9h
Scala & Functional Programming Essentials
provider

2

Scala & Functional Programming Essentials (2024)

4.5
(15,399 reviews)
byDaniel Ciocrlan

An 11-hour Scala crash course for working programmers, built by Daniel Ciocrlan as the on-ramp to Spark and Akka, with 15,000-plus reviews averaging 4.5 stars.

Best for: Working developers, Java ones especially, who need to read and write Scala before touching Spark, Akka, or Flink.

icon
Pros
icon
Cons
    • Tight 11 hours: reviewers repeatedly call it clear, concise, and precise
    • A Java developer says the concepts click fast and Spark got easier to understand afterward
    • Last updated October 2024, and the description says it covers Scala 3 as well as Scala 2
    • Plenty of exercises, over 3,000 lines of code by the course description's count
    • Instructor talks fast; miss one step and reviewers say you're lost for the rest of the video
    • The generics section confuses many students, even ones who rate the course highly
    • Exercises sometimes demand more than the lessons covered, so expect head scratching
$24.99 Certificate Length: 11.3h
Scala and Spark for Big Data and Machine Learning
provider

3

Scala and Spark for Big Data and Machine Learning (2019)

4.4
(5,625 reviews)
byJose Portilla

A ten-hour Jose Portilla intro that teaches just enough Scala to run Spark 2.0 DataFrames and MLlib models, then shows how to take the same jobs to AWS and Databricks.

Best for: Programmers who already know some language and want a fast, example-driven first look at Spark DataFrames and MLlib in Scala.

icon
Pros
icon
Cons
    • Examples build gradually from Scala basics to full MLlib regression, classification and clustering projects
    • Spark DataFrames and MLlib fill more than half the runtime, so it is genuinely a Spark course, not a language course
    • Setup walkthroughs for Windows, Mac and Linux, plus a section on running Spark on Databricks
    • Nearly nine in ten of the 5,600 reviews are four or five stars
    • Not updated since September 2019; the Mac setup videos in particular are reported as out of date
    • Reviewers say topics promised for later are never covered and Scala stays at crash-course depth
    • Spark commands often get a pointer to the docs rather than an explanation, and ML results are lightly interpreted
$79.99 Certificate Length: 10.2h
Scala Applied, Part 1
provider

4

Scala Applied, Part 1 (2023)

4.7
(3,749 reviews)
byDick Wall

Dick Wall's short-lecture introduction to core Scala syntax, with test-driven exercises and a rare, proper walkthrough of the REPL, worksheets and IntelliJ.

Best for: Working developers in Java or another language who want Scala fundamentals in small chunks with exercises that test each concept.

icon
Pros
icon
Cons
    • Lectures are short and cover one concept each, so it is easy to rewatch a single idea.
    • Test-driven exercises check the concept just taught, not a giant end project.
    • Covers the REPL, IntelliJ and the Scala console properly, which one reviewer says other intros skip.
    • Refreshed in March 2023 and rated 4.7 by nearly 3,750 students.
    • Some low-star reviews want more "why and when" examples for Scala's many ways to do one thing.
    • A few students report unanswered Q&A questions and a presenter who stumbles over his own examples.
    • Assumes another language already, and one reviewer says the presenter talks as if everyone knows Java.
$74.99 Certificate Length: 5.7h
Escalate Scala Training - Setup Instructions
provider

5

Escalate Scala Training - Setup Instructions (2019)

4.2
(1,836 reviews)
byDick Wall

A free 12-minute walkthrough from Dick Wall for getting Java, sbt, Scala and IntelliJ installed before his Stairway to Scala courses, still handy but showing its 2019 age.

Best for: People about to start Dick Wall's Scala Applied course who need sbt and IntelliJ running on a fresh machine first.

icon
Pros
icon
Cons
    • Free and about 15 minutes long, with an exercise project that shows whether the toolchain actually works
    • Slides are clear and the install steps come in a sensible order for a first setup
    • A reviewer who hit a few issues says there was enough information to work through them
    • Direct on-ramp to Dick Wall's Scala Applied and Advanced courses
    • Last updated in 2019, so the IntelliJ and sbt screens no longer match current versions
    • No troubleshooting for common errors like sbt launcher failures or Java heap space
    • Mac steps are vague and a reviewer reports Q&A questions going unanswered
Free Certificate Length: 12 mins
Advanced Scala and Functional Programming
provider

6

Advanced Scala and Functional Programming (2024)

4.7
(3,560 reviews)
byDaniel Ciocrlan
For Scala developers: become a top level Scala programmer so you can rock Spark, Akka, Cats or any Scala tool!

iconWhat You'll Learn

  • Master the Scala language at the level of the best developers
  • Master functional programming
  • Design and implement complex systems, frameworks and APIs
  • Confidently customize and enhance existing Scala tools
  • Think and approach code with maturity and a deep understanding of implications
$39.99 Certificate Length: 13.2h
Apache Spark Programming in Scala for Beginners (2026)
provider

7

Apache Spark Programming in Scala for Beginners (2026)

4.4
(3,470 reviews)
byPrashant Kumar Pandey
Master Apache Spark Programming in Scala - Recreated for 2026

iconWhat You'll Learn

  • Apache Spark Programming in Scala
  • Spark Programing using Remote Cluster - Spark Connect
  • Working with Data Frames Transformations and Actions
  • Handling Schema and working with different data types
  • Working with Complex Data Types, Aggregation, Joins and UDF
  • Unit Testing and Data Engineering Techniques
$84.99 Certificate Length: 17.5h
Spark SQL and Spark 3 using Scala Hands-On with Labs
provider

8

Spark SQL and Spark 3 using Scala Hands-On with Labs (2023)

4.4
(3,127 reviews)
byDurga Viswanatha Raju Gadiraju
A comprehensive course on Spark SQL as well as Data Frame APIs using Scala with complementary lab access

iconWhat You'll Learn

  • All the HDFS Commands that are relevant to validate files and folders in HDFS.
  • Enough Scala to work Data Engineering Projects using Scala as Programming Language
  • Spark Dataframe APIs to solve the problems using Dataframe style APIs.
  • Basic Transformations such as Projection, Filtering, Total as well as Aggregations by Keys using Spark Dataframe APIs
  • Inner as well as outer joins using Spark Data Frame APIs
  • Ability to use Spark SQL to solve the problems using SQL style syntax.
  • Basic Transformations such as Projection, Filtering, Total as well as Aggregations by Keys using Spark SQL
  • Inner as well as outer joins using Spark SQL
  • Basic DDL to create and manage tables using Spark SQL
  • Basic DML or CRUD Operations using Spark SQL
  • Create and Manage Partitioned Tables using Spark SQL
  • Manipulating Data using Spark SQL Functions
  • Advanced Analytical or Windowing Functions to perform aggregations a
$74.99 Certificate Length: 24.2h
Apache Spark 3 - Databricks Certified Associate Developer
provider

9

Apache Spark 3 - Databricks Certified Associate Developer (2024)

4.3
(2,678 reviews)
byWadson Guimatsa
Learn Apache Spark 3 With Scala & Earn the Databricks Associate Certification to prove your skills as data professional

iconWhat You'll Learn

  • How to prepare for the Databricks Certified Associate Developer For Apache Spark 3 Certification Exam
  • The Architecture of an Apache Spark Application
  • Learn how Apache Spark runs on a cluster of computer
  • Learn the Execution Hierarchy of Apache Spark
  • Create DataFrame from files and Scala Collections
  • Spark DataFrame API and SQL functions
  • Learn the different techniques to select the columns of a DataFrame
  • How to define the schema of a DataFrame and set the data types of the columns
  • Apply various methods to manipulate the columns of a DataFrame
  • How to filter your DataFrame based on specifics rules
  • Learn how to sort data in a specific order
  • Learn how to sort rows of a DataFrame in a specific order
  • How to arrange the rows of DataFrame as groups
  • How to handle NULL Values in a DataFrame
  • How to use JOIN or UNION to combine two data sets
  • How you can save the result of
$74.99 Certificate Length: 4.5h
Apache Spark 3 & Big Data Essentials in Scala
provider

10

Apache Spark 3 & Big Data Essentials in Scala (2024)

4.8
(2,302 reviews)
byDaniel Ciocrlan
Learn practical Big Data with Apache Spark DataFrames, Datasets, RDDs and Spark SQL, hands-on, in Scala

iconWhat You'll Learn

  • apply Spark big data principles
  • practice Spark DataFrames operations with 100+ examples and exercises
  • practice type-safe data processing with Spark Datasets
  • work with low-level Spark APIs with RDDs
  • use Spark SQL for data processing
  • migrate data from various data sources, including databases
$39.99 Certificate Length: 7.3h
Gatling Fundamentals for Stress Testing APIs - Scala
provider

11

Gatling Fundamentals for Stress Testing APIs - Scala (2025)

4.3
(2,241 reviews)
byJames Willett

A focused, 4.6-hour walkthrough of Gatling load testing in Scala from a principal engineer, built for QA folks and developers new to the tool, not deep performance specialists.

Best for: QA engineers and developers new to Gatling who want working scripts fast, no Scala needed.

icon
Pros
icon
Cons
    • Walks through many complete Gatling scripts from scratch, building skills step by step
    • Covers running tests via Maven and Gradle plus CI tools like Jenkins and Travis
    • James Willett answers Q&A questions quickly, one reviewer says
    • No Scala experience needed since Gatling's DSL handles the syntax
    • Skips advanced topics: parallel execution, complex load models, deep report analysis
    • A few lectures repeat the same boilerplate code typing, one reviewer found this tedious
    • One 2026 reviewer found the demo repo had drifted from what the course shows
$69.99 Certificate Length: 4.6h

Show All

All 67 Scala courses

How useful was this

Scala

Best Courses list?

1. How would you rate this page?
Be the first to rate this list.
2. Anything we should add or fix? (optional)