Top 5 Courses to Learn Spring Data JPA Courses in 2024 - Best of Lot

Hello Java programmers, if you want to learn Spring Data JPA in 2024 and looking for the best online courses then you have come to the right place. Earlier, I have shared my favorite courses to learn different projects under Spring frameworks like Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Spring Security, Reactive Spring + WebFlux,  and Spring MVC and in this article, I am going to share the best Spring Data JPA courses for beginners and experienced Java developers. Spring Data JPA is part of Spring Framework and it really makes it easy to work with JPA providers like Hibernate and EclipseLink. It can greatly improve developer productivity if used correctly.

If you are thinking what is JPA and Spring Data JPA then let me tell you that JPA stands for Java Persistence API which is a Java standard for defining persistence layer and Spring Data JPA is a sub-project under the Spring Framework umbrella which allows Spring applications to integrate with JPA.

Contrary to the popular Myth that it's a JPA implementation like Hibernate, it actually provides another level of abstraction to produce more cleaner code and it always needs a JPA implementation like Hibernate and EclipseLink to work with.

If you are thinking what is the point of using Spring Data JPA if you have to use Hibernate or Eclipse Link then let me tell you that its a kind of add-on, it makes it easier to write your Data Access Layer and provides clean methods to save and retrieve data from any Database without writing SQL.

Spring Data JPA comes with a concept called JPA Repository and Query methods. JPA Repository is nothing a set of interfaces that defines query methods like findByFirstName or findByLastName etc. These methods are converted into low-level SQL queries by Spring. 

This means you don't need to write SQL queries anymore, those will be generated automatically for you, but at the same time, if you want to control you can still write JQL queries that are portable across the database vendors like MySQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and PostgreSQL.

If you are wondering how does it work then think about the Proxy pattern. Spring Data JPA just defines a Repository interface that has methods for saving and retrieving data from Database and populating your Entity objects like User, Books, Order, etc. Spring does all the heavy lifting by providing implementation at runtime with very minimal work from the developer side.

Because of this cleaner approach, many Spring based applications are using Spring Data JPA to implement their Data Access Layer or DAO Layer and that's why it makes sense to learn Spring Data JPA in 2024.

When it comes to learning Spring Data JPA in 2024, online courses and books are two main ways, unfortunately, there are not many Spring Data JPA courses available online, particularly when you compare to the amount of Spring Boot courses, but I have done the hard work for you and curated best Spring Data JPA courses from sites like Udemy, Baeldung and others. 

These courses are comprehensive, up-to-date, and affordable, and useful for both beginners and experienced Java developers who want to learn Spring Data JPA from scratch.

5 Best Spring Data JPA Courses for Java developers in 2024

Without wasting any more of your time, let's jump into my favorite online training courses to learn Spring Data JPA for beginners and experienced Java developers in 2024. As I said, these courses are created by Java and Spring Framework experts like Eugen Paraschiv and are available on popular online learning platforms like Udemy. 

Most of these courses are very affordable, particularly Udemy courses as you can join them for just $10 on Udemy sales which happen every now and then.

1. Spring Data JPA Using Hibernate [Udemy Course]

This is one of the best courses to learn Spring Data JPA with Hibernate on Udemy and will teach you how to use Hibernate with Spring Data JPA in easy steps. This course is created by Bharat Thippireddy, one of my favorite and popular Udemy instructors with more than 300K students.

If you are a Spring Boot developer who wants to use Spring Data JPA in your next project you should join this course.

Here are the main things you will learn in this 12.5 hour long Spring Data JPA course:

1. Spring Data Concepts like repository and query methods

2. Hibernate and ORM concepts like entity

3. How to load data from a database without any SQL

4. Pagination and Sorting

5. Hibernate Caching

6. Component Mapping

7. How to execute Native SQL queries from Spring Boot.

8. Different Types of Hibernate Mappings

Along the way, you will also create a project, a mini patient scheduling application, and apply all the knowledge you have learned in the course into practice. Talking about course quality, it's one of the well-structured, clear, and concise courses. 

The instructor is very responsive and answers any questions in 24 hours and both the audio and video quality of the course is amazing. I highly recommend this course to Java developers who want to learn Spring Data JPA with Hibernate in 2024.

2. Learn Spring Data JPA by Baeldung

This is another awesome course to learn Spring Data JPA by none other than Eugen Paraschive, a fellow Java blogger and Spring instructor from Baeldung. Having taught more than 7000 students on his various Spring framework courses like REST with Spring and Learn Spring 5 and Spring Boot 2, he has come up with a great course on Spring Data JPA.

This is also a first text-based course from Eugen and the material is excellent. The course is well structured where you have theory followed by coding examples so that you can learn how to apply the knowledge you are learning.

The course also covers all essential Spring Data JPA topics like

1. What and Why of Spring Data JPA

2. How to create repository classes and query methods

3. How to test Spring Data Repository

4. How to write custom queries with JPQL and native SQL

5. Learn how to use @Query and @ModifyQueries

6. Pagination and Sorting

7. Alternate Querying Methods

8. Spring Data and Transactions

There are multiple options for you to take like it has a master class, a certification class, and a complete coaching class where Eugen provides 6-month long personal coaching, a bit expensive but if you want to learn from an expert, it's a good option.

3. Spring Framework: Spring Data JPA [Pluralsight Course]

This is an intermediate-level course to learn Spring Data JPA and improve developer productivity. This 2.5 hour long Pluralsight course is delivered by Dan Bunker and it teaches Spring Data JPA fundamentals in a clear and concise way.

Here are the main things you will learn in this course:

1. How to choose Java Data access layer

2. How to integrate data layer with Spring Data JPA

3. What is Spring Data JPA? What can Spring Data JPA do?

4. Spring Data JPA repositories

5. Query DSL and JPA NamedQueries

6. Spring Data JPA advanced features like Pagination, Sorting, and Auditing.

Overall a nice course to learn Spring Data JPA and improve developer productivity. After completing this course, you will have a good understanding of Query annotations and custom repositories.

By the way, you would need a Pluralsight membership to join this course which costs around $29 per month or $299 per year (14% discount). I highly recommend this subscription to all programmers as it provides instant access to more than 7000+ online courses to learn any tech skill. Alternatively, you can also use their 10-day-free-pass to watch this course for FREE.

4. Build REST API with Spring Boot & Spring Data JPA

This is a hands-on course to learn Spring Data JPA by building a fully functional REST API. You will learn REST API with Java, Spring Boot & JPA Using JSON along with Spring AOP, Lombok, Swagger, Logging, JPQL, MySQL, Heroku by building and deploying projects.

This 8-hour long course is created by Alfa e-learning and it's available on Udemy. Here is the main this you will learn in this course.

1. How to create REST APIs with Spring Boot and Spring Data JPA

2. How to use Project Lombok library for cleaner Java code.

3. Spring Data JPA key concepts like Query methods, Repository, etc

4. How to create HTTP GET, POST, PUT and DELETE REST APIs

5. How to write Java Persistence Query Language (JPQL)

6. How to implement Relationships Between Tables Using JPA.

7. Sorting and Pagination of large Data.

8. How to write AND, OR, IN Queries Using JPA

Overall a great hands-on course to learn Spring Data JPA by building REST APIs. The Best thing about this course is that instructor shows you how to build and test REST APIs using REST live in step by step. You will also get access to all the source codes. In short, a to-the-point course to learn Spring Data JPA from scratch.

5. Master Hibernate and JPA with Spring Boot in 100 Steps [Udemy]

This is another awesome course to learn Spring Data JPA and Hibernate with Spring Boot in a step-by-step and guided manner. I am a big fan of Ranga's teaching style, instructor of this course, and one of the most popular Udemy instructors on Java and Spring.  He focuses on 20% important concepts which are used 80% time and it works really great for anyone who is looking for a quick start.

Here are the main things you will learn in this 13-hour long course:

1. Hibernate and JPA basics like Entities, Relationships, Inheritance Mapping and Annotations

2. Spring Data JPA Basics like Repository interface and query methods

3. Different approaches to querying data using JPA and Hibernate like JPQL, Criteria API, and Native queries.

4. Hibernate and JPA relationship mapping - one to one, one to many, and many to many

5. Basics of Spring Data REST

6. Hibernate Caching like First and second level cache and their impact

Overall, one of the most engaging, clear, and concise courses. Each lecture builds upon the previous one and you will learn in a structured way. I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn Hibernate and JPA using Spring Boot and Spring Data JPA in 2024.

That's all about the best online courses to learn Spring Data JPA for Java programmers. Spring Data JPA is a great framework to simplify your Data Access Layer, particularly if you are using Spring Framework. You can improve developer productivity by using Spring Data JPA and a good knowledge of Spring Data JPA is goes a long way to becoming a better Java developer. I highly recommend intermediate and experienced Java developers to learn Spring Data JPA in 2024.

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Thanks for reading this article so far. If you find these best Spring Data JPA online courses for Java developers useful, please share them with your friends and colleagues. If you have any questions or feedback, then please drop a note.

P. S. - If you are new to the Spring framework and looking for free courses to learn Core Spring and Spring MVC then you can also check out this list of free Spring MVC courses for beginners. This article contains free online courses to learn Spring from Udemy and Coursera.