Tier 2 Certification Curriculum

The full curriculum for the SDC Certified Practitioner program. Self-paced, ~14-16 hours total. Each module is a standalone Markdown file with learning objectives, content, and an exercise or quiz.

Modules

  1. Module 1: Semantic Data Fundamentals — why data quality is the floor, two-level modeling, minimum knowledge modeling, where SDC fits
  2. Module 2: SDCStudio — Your First Data Model — account setup, wallet funding, uploading data, AI processing pipeline, reviewing and publishing models, generating outputs
  3. Module 3: Components, Clusters, and Publishing — SDC4 type hierarchy, Component Wizard, cluster organization, semantic linking, versioning, app generation, component reuse catalog
  4. Module 4: The Six Dimensions of Maturity — definitions, levels, the floor constraint principle, reading the radar chart
  5. Module 5: Conducting an Assessment — engagement shape, interview question banks, artifact review, SDC Agents SMB introspection
  6. Module 6: Scoring and Presentation — rubric, biases, executive summary, presenting to mixed audiences
  7. Module 7: Prescribing Interventions — gap-to-capability mapping, deployment options, when SDC is not the answer, sequencing, compounding cost curve, per-touch stewardship
  8. Module 8: SDCforSMB Deployment — install, wizard, datasource types, introspection, assembly review, app generation, maintenance
  9. Module 9: Building an Implementation Proposal — proposal structure, milestones, metrics, Phase 6 per-touch stewardship product, objections, terms

Supporting Materials

  • case_studies/ — reference case studies for the modules (public)
  • exercises/ — fictional client briefs and worksheets (public)
  • lab/ — sample data for the Module 8 hands-on lab (public)
  • templates/ — proposal template, findings worksheet, governance-first warning memo (public)

Gated Materials (not in the public NotebookLM)

The following are stored in the repository's private/ directory and are deliberately excluded from the public NotebookLM corpus and the Tier 1 self-study experience. They are provided to certified practitioners and used to grade the certification exam.

  • private/quiz_answers/ — answer keys for module quizzes
  • private/exercise_guides/ — discussion guides and reference solutions for exercises
  • private/exercises_answers/ — completed reference findings and scoring for case studies
  • private/certification_exam.md — the Tier 2 certification exam with answer key and rubric

When updating the public NotebookLM corpus, never upload anything from private/.

Certification Path

  1. Read all 9 modules
  2. Complete the per-module exercises
  3. Complete the Module 8 hands-on lab and submit screenshots
  4. Pass the certification exam (multiple choice + scenario-based, 80% to pass, retake allowed after 7 days)
  5. Submit the Module 9 capstone proposal
  6. Receive SDC Certified Practitioner badge and directory listing