I’m often asked by developers how they can squeeze the most performance out of their database. While there are other SQL performance best practices to consider, by far the easiest (and biggest) performance improvement comes from good use of indexes. I’ll break this down into two categories: (1), knowing what’s possible, and (2) knowing what you’re actually getting.

Today, we are excited to introduce our second Cockroach University course: CockroachDB for Python Developers. This course is designed for application developers looking to advance their education with CockroachDB and learn how to build scalable, resilient applications and services. Similar to our inaugural Getting Started course, this free course includes a series of videos, exercises, and a final exam. However, this course is much more hands-on. You will build a full-stack vehicle-sharing application called MovR in Python using the popular SQLAlchemy ORM. Our goal is for students to walk away from this course feeling confident in building fully-functional applications with CockroachDB.

Around 6 months ago, we launched Cockroach University to provide a way for people to learn CockroachDB in a structured environment with opportunities for hands-on experience. Since then, we have learned that it’s actually much more than that.

Last week, we launched Cockroach University with our first course, Getting Started with CockroachDB. Our goal in building this was to provide a way for people to learn CockroachDB in an engaging and structured environment with lots of opportunities for hands-on practice, as well as a chance to show off what they’ve done. We included a graded final exam, and those who pass will receive a Certificate of Completion.