GBDS study guide
GBDS · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The GBDS (Global Business Data Specialist) credential is designed for professionals who bridge business needs and data solutions. It suits business analysts, data analysts, database developers, and BI practitioners who want to demonstrate end-to-end competence: eliciting requirements, designing relational models, writing SQL, ensuring data quality and security, building ETL pipelines, delivering analytics, and managing data projects. The GBDS study guide has 7 sections and about 3,000 words.
01Business Analysis and Requirements
The GBDS requirements domain tests whether you can turn a vague business goal into testable, prioritized, traceable requirements - and whether you know who must approve them. Business requirements state the objective and the value ("cut order-to-ship time by 30%").
439 words, about 2 min02Data Modeling and Database Design
This domain tests whether you can pick the right level of model, declare a grain, and defend normalization or denormalization with a reason rather than a preference. Conceptual: entities and relationships in business language, no keys or data types.
466 words, about 2 min03Relational Database Implementation and SQL
Expect questions on constraints, index behaviour, join semantics, window functions, transactions and why a query is slow. DDL defines tables; constraints enforce meaning - PRIMARY KEY (unique and not null), FOREIGN KEY (referential integrity), UNIQUE, CHECK, NOT NULL, DEFAULT.
425 words, about 2 min04Data Quality, Governance, and Security
This domain tests whether you can define quality objectively, place accountability correctly, and apply controls proportionately to data classification. Completeness (required values present), accuracy (matches reality), validity (conforms to domain, format, range), consistency (the same fact agrees across systems), uniqueness (no unintended duplicates), timeliness (fresh enough for its use) and integrity (relationships hold).
438 words, about 2 min05Data Integration and ETL
Expect questions on batch versus streaming, change data capture, idempotency, and how a pipeline behaves when the source misbehaves. ETL transforms before loading; ELT loads raw data first and transforms inside the warehouse, which suits columnar engines and keeps raw data replayable.
420 words, about 2 min06Business Intelligence and Analytics
This domain tests whether you can define a metric once, aggregate it correctly and present it without misleading the reader. A governed semantic layer centralizes measure definitions, joins and row-level security so every report agrees.
373 words, about 2 min07Project Management and Delivery
Expect questions on scope control, scheduling, risk, earned value, and how delivery is governed in agile and hybrid settings. Scope is baselined in a work breakdown structure; changes pass through change control with cost, schedule and quality impact assessed before approval - otherwise it is scope creep.
439 words, about 2 min