Advanced Apache Flink

Deep dive into Flink internals, production deployment, and advanced patterns

100% Online Course Watch On-demand Certificate Included

Course Syllabus

Course Overview

This course takes you deep into Apache Flink internals and production best practices. You'll learn how Flink really works by studying the source code, master both DataStream and Table APIs, and gain hands-on experience building custom operators and production-ready pipelines.

This is an advanced course. Most courses just repeat what’s already in the documentation. This course is different: you won’t just learn what a sliding window is — you’ll learn the core building blocks that let you design any windowing strategy from the ground up.

Prerequisites

Technical Knowledge
  • Good understanding of Apache Flink basics (DataStream or Table API)
  • Proficiency with Java
  • Understanding of distributed systems concepts
Ideal Experience
  • 1+ years working with Flink or similar streaming systems
  • Familiarity with Kubernetes is helpful but not required

Course Curriculum

  • About This Course
  • Overview: Deep Dive Into a Flink Pipeline

Flink Core APIs
📚 Lessons
  • Mastering DataStream API
  • DataStream API: Data Routing
  • DataStream API: State Management & Evolution
  • DataStream API: Custom Watermark Strategies
  • Mastering Table & SQL API
  • Table API: State Evolution & Compiled Plans
  • Workshop: SQL Query Evolution
  • Mastering Connectors
  • Workshop: Building Custom Operators
⭐️ Key Takeaways
  • Low-level Flink operator implementation
  • State and timers as core primitives
  • Data shuffling strategies
  • Practical usage of the State Processor API and Compiled Plans for state evolution
  • Changelog semantics
  • Table Planner and Executor design, understanding query plans
  • Efficient UDF implementation including PTFs (Process Table Functions)

Architecting Efficient Pipelines
📚 Lessons
  • Efficient Dataflows
  • Data Enrichment
  • Data Skew
  • Batch API
  • Workshop: Pipeline Design
⭐️ Key Takeaways
  • Flink pipeline design, applying changelog semantics end-to-end
  • Serialization best practices
  • Data enrichment strategies

Flink in Production
📚 Lessons
  • Deployment
  • Deployment: Flink Kubernetes Operator
  • Deployment: SQL-centric Workloads
  • Reliability
  • Observability
  • Building a Control Plane
  • Performance & Tuning
  • Benchmarking & Profiling
  • Workshop: Production-Ready Pipeline in Kubernetes
⭐️ Key Takeaways
  • Choosing right resources for your job
  • Using the Flink Kubernetes Operator efficiently
  • Best practices for running Flink in production at scale

Please note: the course curriculum is subject to change

Certificate of Completion

All participants who complete the course and the hands-on workshops will receive a Certificate of Completion for the Advanced Apache Flink course.

Instructor

Yaroslav Tkachenko, Lead Instructor LinkedIn

  • Yaroslav has been building software for more than fifteen years, focusing on data platform engineering and data streaming in the past eight years.
  • Yaroslav was a tech lead at Activision and Shopify, driving major initiatives with technologies like Apache Kafka and Apache Flink.
  • Later, Yaroslav spent several years as a founding engineer at Goldsky, building a self-managed data streaming platform based on Apache Flink.
  • Yaroslav is an international speaker, author of the Data Streaming Journal newsletter, Confluent Catalyst and the founder of Irontools.

Testimonials

Ryan van Huuksloot

"I had the privilege of working with Yaroslav Tkachenko at Shopify, and it's rare to find someone with his depth of expertise across the entire streaming stack combined with an exceptional ability to make complex topics accessible. If you're serious about mastering streaming technologies, learning from someone with Yaroslav's real-world, battle-tested experience is an opportunity you don't want to miss."

Ryan van Huuksloot

Staff Engineer @ Shopify

Sujay Jain

"I’ve been running large-scale streaming systems for years, and Yaroslav consistently stands out as someone who really understands Flink. His experience with stateful stream processing, best practices, and production patterns goes beyond what you typically see in documentation. The Advanced Apache Flink course looks genuinely useful for anyone looking to level up."

Sujay Jain

Senior Software Engineer @ Netflix

Hojjat Jafarpour

"Yaroslav’s knowledge of Flink, Kafka, and ClickHouse is outstanding. His consulting sessions are packed with practical advice, best practices, and forward-looking insights. Highly recommended for anyone building real-time data platforms."

Hojjat Jafarpour

CEO @ DeltaStream & Creator of ksqlDB

Veni Giannakopoulou

"A fantastic and incredibly practical two-day bootcamp with Yaroslav. It is a dense deep dive from DataStream API internals and state management to RocksDB tuning and K8s deployment. The focus isn't just on concepts, but on the real world trade offs and battle tested advice for what breaks in production and how to handle it. Highly recommended for any engineer who needs to run Flink reliably at scale."

Veni Giannakopoulou

Data Engineer @ EverAfter Innovations

🎓 January 2026 Cohort
Dionysios Stolis

"An excellent training for anyone looking to master Apache Flink. Yaroslav guided us from understanding Flink internals and the core codebase all the way to practical deployment techniques. If you want to move beyond the basics and understand how Flink actually works under the hood, this is the course to take."

Dionysios Stolis

Machine Learning Engineer @ Just Eat

🎓 January 2026 Cohort
Paolo Rampazzo

"Two very intense and content packed days. What really stood out was how deep Yaroslav went into Flink's internal library structure, explaining in detail the purpose and behavior of the core objects being used. That level of depth was honestly mind blowing. A complete, deep, and hands on bootcamp."

Paolo Rampazzo

Big Data Architect @ Caylent

🎓 January 2026 Cohort

Frequently Asked Questions

We don't recommend this course for complete beginners. A good understanding of Apache Flink basics and proficiency with Java are required to keep up with the advanced material covered. If you're new to Flink, consider at least completing the first three sections of the Flink documentation: Try Flink, Learn Flink and Concepts.

The course primarily uses Java for examples and exercises, as it's the most widely used language for Apache Flink.

Absolutely! We offer team discounts for groups of 3 or more. Contact us at yaroslav@irontools.dev for custom pricing and dedicated support for your team.

Yes! We offer training sessions tailored to your team's needs and skill level. Contact us at yaroslav@irontools.dev to discuss your requirements.

Reach out anytime at yaroslav@irontools.dev and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

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Advanced Apache Flink

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  • ✓ 10+ hours of video lessons
  • ✓ Several hours of hands-on workshops
  • ✓ All course materials and recordings
  • ✓ Certificate of completion
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