Introducing Redpanda University!

Admissions are open!

Everyone here at Redpanda Data is beyond thrilled to share with you our new Redpanda University. For the last few months we've been hard at work, building out courses to help you develop with real-time data and Redpanda.

If you're new to real-time data streaming, we recommend you start with these beginner courses:

• Streaming Fundamentals is for everyone who is moving from batch to real-time processing and needs an introduction to the world of streaming data. This course will bring you up to speed quickly, preparing you to talk with others about data streaming and to continue with the courses that follow. You'll enjoy this course, even if you’re not a developer — it has lightweight explanations of data streaming concepts that will help anyone feel confident with the technology.
• Hands-on with Redpanda: Getting Started takes you on the first steps of your streaming data journey. In this course you'll install Redpanda in your local environment and then learn how to interact with it using rpk, the command line tool for working with Redpanda. If you've ever used the shell scripts that come with Kafka, you're going to love rpk. It's so simple, friendly, and intuitive that you'll be surprised how powerful it is. Finally, you'll build a producer and a consumer in either Java, Python, or NodeJS (or all three if that's your jam!).

How to get started

First, head over to https://university.redpanda.com. Click Sign In in the top right corner, and then click Create a new account at the bottom of the screen. In the page that opens, you can either fill in your information or sign up with your Google, LinkedIn, or Facebook account.

If you fill in your information manually, then make sure the checkbox is selected and click Sign Up. If you use a social account, then fill out the field on the next screen, click the checkbox, and click the Sign Up button.

Congratulations! You're logged in! Select one of the courses, and then choose Enroll Today to get started.

This will enroll you in the class and start the first lesson. You're on your way!

As you move through the course, you'll see the list of videos and your progress on the left side of the screen. Each video plays on the right side, and there's a video transcript included below for easy reference.

Each chapter ends with a short quiz to check your knowledge. If you miss any of these questions, return to the lessons to review the information before continuing. Once you've passed the quiz, move on to the next chapter.

When you've finished the entire course, you'll be eligible to receive a Certificate of Completion. Share this on social media and @mention us so that we can congratulate you and share your success with the rest of the community! You can find us on Twitter and LinkedIn, and if we’re not already connected, let’s make it official. Follow us there so you never miss out on what new things we’ve got for you.

Where to go for help

If you have any questions, issues, feedback, or if you just want to give us a high five, please head over to our Slack Community and join the #university channel. People from the Redpanda team will be there to help you or to cheer you along. You can also send a direct message on Slack to me (Adrian Goins) if you don't want to send a public message.

What to do next

When you've completed the courses, posted your certificates, and high-fived us in the chat...what's next?

I'm glad you asked!

1. Share it with others

If you enjoyed the content, then you can help others in the community by posting about it on social. We are on a mission to make streaming data accessible and easy for everyone, and your experience is an important part of that mission. Tweet, make a post, do a dance on TikTok — tell others where to go to get the best training on Redpanda and data streaming.

We'll be watching out for these posts, so be sure to @mention us. We'll choose 10 people at random to receive some sweet, sweet Redpanda swag.

2. Sign up for the next courses

We have two more courses in development, and you can sign up for them today! These will continue your training in Redpanda, focusing on Stream Processing and Cluster Operations. New courses are also in the design phase, so keep an eye on #university in Slack and the blog to be the first to know when those are available.

3. Tell us what you'd like to learn

Redpanda is a Kafka-compatible next-generation streaming data platform built for developers, and we want to see real-time data at the core of every modern application. What can we do to help you be successful with your applications? What would you like to learn? There's a survey at the end of each class, and we are genuinely interested to hear your thoughts on how we can help you be successful with Redpanda and streaming data.

There's also a lesson called Share Your Success at the end of each course, where you can post about your success with Redpanda, Kafka, data streaming, or anything else. You can even come back and make new posts at any time in the future. We love to hear what our community is building, so share what you've got going on!

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