Alteryx Cloud vs. Trifacta Classic

Lately I’ve been exploring Alteryx Designer Cloud, the cloud analytics platform offering from Alteryx, similar to Alteryx Designer Desktop. Though as I learned more about Cloud, I discovered it’s not quite so similar.

I recently took the Alteryx Cloud, Trifacta Classic Core and Advanced Exams and narrowly passed (pass rate for both is 80%). I was under the impression that based on the name of the exam, I could use Designer Cloud to solve the questions. I was wrong. I was very, very wrong. As it turns out, Alteryx Designer Cloud is a different platform from Trifacta Classic, which is meant to be used for these exams.

The biggest difference is in the number of tools - Alteryx Designer Cloud only has 31 tools at time of writing, compared to 270+ in Desktop. The UI is also different; the results pane is still at the bottom but the tools are on the left sidebar and tool configuration on the right. 

There is no Browse tool in Cloud, instead the flow is always running a sample of the data and updating the results pane. There’s also no Multi-Row Formula tool so you must build around that. That said, the main tools you need for preparing and transforming data are still there, but for more advanced tools, I’d still choose to use Designer Desktop.

They’ve just started releasing Cloud Quests (like Weekly Challenges for Desktop). Above is my workflow for Cloud Quest #1 - which happens to be Weekly Challenge #2 so it might look familiar!

Materials Referenced: Trifacta Documentation; Alteryx Blog on Data Wrangling in Trifacta Classic

I reviewed the prep guide for the Core Exam and felt confident about the topics covered, but ignored all the differing terminology, thinking it was an artifact of the acquisition. I used Alteryx Designer Cloud for this exam, and likely failed all the practicals as a result. The practicals ask that you copy and paste the “Recipe” text from Trifacta Classic, which has no equivalent in Designer Cloud.

Like the Alteryx Desktop Core Exam, this exam is mostly multiple choice questions, with a few multi-selection questions, and is open book. There are 4 practical questions and the data for them are provided before the exam officially starts. You must download it on the webpage prior to starting the exam, as there is no other opportunity to do so later in the exam. 

Many of the multiple choice questions are similar to the Desktop Designer Core Exam questions; the answers are Google-able, answered by reviewing the UI (note that I used the wrong platform and still passed), or are about basic data preparation principles. 

Example: In what order would these steps be carried out to output data? 

Answer options: A. Run Recipe, Input Data, Output Data; B. Input Data, Run Recipe, Output Data; C. Output Data, Run Recipe, Input Data…

I should have gotten the hint when the exam kept referencing “Recipe” (this is what a workflow is called in Trifacta) and data types that are not used in Alteryx, like arrays and objects (key-value pairs).

Materials Referenced: Trifacta Documentation; Alteryx Blog on Data Wrangling in Trifacta Classic

I was frustrated by the Core Exam and searched the forums and articles about how much of the exam seemed to be geared towards Trifacta Classic, which I thought no longer existed and became Designer Cloud. At this point, I finally discovered Trifacta Classic still existed in its original form. 

Armed with a free trial and cursory glance at the prep guide, I decided to take the Advanced Exam on the same day. This exam is different from the Alteryx Designer Desktop Advanced, there are only 17 questions that are all based on 3 provided datasets, so I consider them as 3 practical questions with multiple parts. The difficulty of the tasks is similar to the Alteryx Desktop Core Exam practicals, but made more challenging by a lack of familiarity with Trifacta Classic. While I would not call the platform intuitive, it is similar enough to Tableau Prep and Alteryx that I did not need much guidance in navigating the UI and finding the transformation tools.

Viewing your Flows in Trifacta Classic

Flow - this part looks the most like an Alteryx workflow with the connecting lines, but the actual transformation steps are inside a Recipe (second icon)

Inside a Recipe is the Transformer Page. The table in the main area updates with the transformation steps taken on the right side. (Image taken from this page)

One of the practicals I found more difficult due to using Trifacta. The main task was to split a column containing values separated by commas into rows. I knew instantly how to do it in Alteryx - we would use a Text-to-Columns tool (to rows); In Trifacta Classic, you have to first convert it to an array in a new column, then expand the array into rows. Along with the steps being different, I also had to learn about the array data type in Trifacta and associated transformations.

With Trifacta, I like that the data is put front and center - with Alteryx I find myself always having to increase then decrease the size of the Results Pane. The Recipe steps on the right side can be easier to follow than a workflow for those unfamiliar with data preparation. You can select any step in the recipe to see the data at different stages of transformation. 

You can preview a column without needing to run the flow. (This is also technically true of Alteryx Cloud as well.)

My original reason for taking these exams was to use Alteryx Designer Cloud in a different setting than Cloud Quests, but I made a mistake in assuming that the exams used Cloud. However, since Alteryx Cloud is based off of Trifacta Classic, I still think there was value in taking the exams without knowing anything about Trifacta. The UI and feel of Alteryx Cloud and Trifacta are very different, so I relished the experience of going out of my depth. The pressure of a timed environment can help in learning a new data preparation tool. 😉 

Take the exams with a free trial of Trifacta Classic if you want to test your understanding of data preparation principles!