Airflow
Apache Airflow is an open-source platform for programmatically authoring, scheduling, and monitoring workflows. It allows data engineers and data scientists to define complex data pipelines as Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) of tasks, making them reproducible, scalable, and maintainable.
Companies need Airflow now to orchestrate the complex, multi-step data pipelines required for modern AI/ML systems, including data ingestion, preprocessing, model training, and deployment. As organizations move from batch to real-time and hybrid data processing, Airflow's flexibility and extensive integration ecosystem make it a critical tool for managing data workflows at scale, especially with the rise of MLOps.
🎓 Courses
Apache Airflow: The Hands-On Guide
4.6-star rated by an Astronomer engineer — DAGs, operators, XComs, TaskFlow API. 80K+ students.
Astronomer Academy
Free official tutorials from the Airflow company — best practices, scaling, troubleshooting.
Data Engineering Zoomcamp
Free — uses Airflow for orchestration in a complete data engineering pipeline. Project-based.
📖 Books
Data Pipelines with Apache Airflow
Bas Harenslak, Julian de Ruiter · 2021
Manning's definitive Airflow guide — DAGs, operators, sensors, testing, deployment. The best Airflow book.
Apache Airflow Best Practices
Various (Astronomer) · 2023
From the Airflow company — production patterns, scaling, monitoring, and common pitfalls.
Fundamentals of Data Engineering
Joe Reis, Matt Housley · 2022
O'Reilly — data engineering lifecycle where Airflow fits. Orchestration in context.
🛠️ Tutorials & Guides
Apache Airflow Documentation
The authoritative reference — concepts, tutorials, how-to guides, API reference.
Astronomer Guides
Production-focused guides — DAG writing, testing, CI/CD, Kubernetes executor.
Airflow TaskFlow API Tutorial
Modern Airflow — Python-native DAGs with decorators. The new way to write workflows.
Awesome Apache Airflow
Curated resources — plugins, operators, articles, talks. Community knowledge base.
Intro to SQL
Free — SQL skills for data pipeline queries. Airflow DAGs often orchestrate SQL transformations.
Advanced SQL
Free — window functions, CTEs, subqueries. Complex queries in your Airflow pipelines.
🏅 Certifications
Astronomer Certification for Apache Airflow
Astronomer · Free
Official Airflow certification from the company that maintains it — DAG authoring, best practices, deployment.
Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate
Databricks · $200
Validates the data engineering pipeline skills that Airflow orchestrates — ETL, Delta Lake, workflows.
Learning resources last updated: March 30, 2026