In this chapter, you’ll gain a complete introduction to the components of Apache Airflow and learn how and why you should use them.

Introduction to Apache Airflow

Dag counter

Running your first Dag

Airflow Dags

Creating a simple Dag

Working with Dags and the Airflow shell

Examining Airflow commands

Testing a task in Airflow

Airflow web interface

Navigating the Airflow UI

Examining Dags with the Airflow UI

Dag errors

Intro to Airflow

What’s up Dag? Now it’s time to learn the basics of implementing Airflow Dags. Through hands-on activities, you’ll learn how to set up and deploy operators, tasks, and scheduling.

Airflow operators

Decorating a task

Defining a BashOperator with @task.bash

Define order of Tasks

More @tasks

Scheduling Dags

Schedule a Dag via Python

Deciphering Airflow schedules

Troubleshooting Dag runs

Passing data between tasks with XCom

Passing data with XCom

XCom variables

Airflow Sensors

Determining the order of tasks

Creating a FileSensor

Sensory Deprivation

Building Dags in Airflow

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to save yourself time using Airflow components such as sensors and executors while monitoring and troubleshooting Airflow workflows.

Monitoring, Alerting, and Callbacks

Implementing a callback function

Implementing an SmtpNotifier

What's in the logs?

Templating with Jinja

Writing with Jinja

Subbing out

Airflow Variables

The answer is Variable

Reading a variable in Python

Variables not quite right

Debugging and troubleshooting in Airflow

Dag troubleshooting

from airflow.sdk import dag, task
#from airflow.providers.standard.sensors.filesystem import FileSensor
from pendulum import datetime

@dag(
    dag_id="execute_report",
    schedule="0 0 * * *",
    start_date=datetime(2026, 3, 20),
)
def execute_report():

    check_for_datafile = FileSensor(
        task_id="check_for_datafile",
        filepath="salesdata_ready.csv",
        mode="poke",
    )

    @task()
    def generate_report():
        print("Generating report...")

    check_for_datafile >> generate_report()

execute_report()

from airflow.sdk import dag, task
from pendulum import datetime

@dag(
    dag_id="sample_dag",
    schedule="0 0 * * *",
    start_date=datetime(2023, 2, 20),
)
def sample_dag():

    @task()
    def sample():
        print("Running sample task...")

    sample()

sample_dag()

from airflow.sdk import dag, task
from airflow.providers.standard.sensors.filesystem import FileSensor
from pendulum import datetime

@dag(
    dag_id="execute_report",
    schedule="0 0 * * *",
    start_date=datetime(2026, 3, 20),
)
def execute_report():

    check_for_datafile = FileSensor(
        task_id="check_for_datafile",
        filepath="salesdata_ready.csv",
        mode="poke",
    )

    @task()
    def generate_report():
        print("Generating report...")

    check_for_datafile >> generate_report()

execute_report()

Missing Dag

Maintaining and monitoring Airflow workflows

Put it all together. In this final chapter, you’ll apply everything you've learned to build a production-quality workflow in Airflow.

Triggers and Fault Tolerance

Implementing a Trigger Rule

Adding retries

Triggering a child Dag

Branching

Define a @task.branch

Branch troubleshooting

The HITL Operator

Adding Human approval

ApprovalOperator Task

Creating a production pipeline

Setting up the sales ETL pipeline

Adding monthly branching

Adding a human approval gate

Congratulations!

Controlling Dag Logic

Now Updated to Apache Airflow 3.1.6 - Delivering data on a schedule can be a manual process. You write scripts, add complex cron tasks, and try various ways to meet an ever-changing set of requirements—and it's even trickier to manage everything when working with teammates. Apache Airflow can remove this headache by adding scheduling, error handling, and reporting to your workflows. In this course, you'll master the basics of Apache Airflow and learn how to implement complex data engineering pipelines in production. You'll also learn how to use Directed Acyclic Graphs (Dags), automate data engineering workflows, and implement data engineering tasks in an easy and repeatable fashion—helping you to maintain your sanity.

Intermediate Python

Introduction to Shell

Learn to implement and schedule data engineering workflows by adding scheduling, error handling, and reporting using Airflow and Airflow DAGs in Python. 

Introduction to Airflow in Python

Learn how to implement and schedule data engineering workflows.

Introduction to Apache Airflow in Python

Data Engineer in Python

The answer is Variable

Introduction to Apache Airflow in Python

Hands-on interactive exercise