Plan and Validate a MySQL-to-PostgreSQL Records Migration
Overview
What this challenge is about.
You examine a MySQL schema, plan a PostgreSQL migration, and validate row counts and checksums to earn a verifiable certificate.
The scenario
The office is a local-government records bureau serving roughly 180 staff across birth, residency, and property registries; its MySQL 5.7 system predates current backup tooling and runs custom triggers no original author remains to explain. A recent near-miss, captured in the case file, exposed how fragile an unplanned data move would be.
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
Design, rehearse, and prove a MySQL 5.7 to PostgreSQL 16 migration of a 2.4-million-record municipal system that completes within a four-hour cutover window without data loss.
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Identify MySQL-specific behaviors that break in PostgreSQL and map each to a defensible equivalent.
- Design a phased, time-boxed cutover with a tested rollback rather than a one-shot copy.
- Use pgloader to perform a bulk load with explicit type and identifier handling.
- Build and test a dual-write path that keeps two databases consistent during a transition.
- Validate a migration with reconciling evidence (counts, checksums, spot-checks) instead of assumption.
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Aligned coursework coming soon.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
- Database Migration
Apply database migration to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Mysql
Apply mysql to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Postgresql
Apply postgresql to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Pgloader
Apply pgloader to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Dual Write
Apply dual write to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Data Validation
Apply data validation to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
Careers
Career paths this challenge builds toward
Completing this challenge demonstrates skills that transfer directly to these roles:
Database Administrator
This challenge mirrors a core database administrator duty: moving a live system between database engines without losing data. You practice reconciling schema differences, sequencing a safe cutover, and proving correctness with evidence — the exact judgment a records office or any data-heavy employer expects.
This challenge sharpens
- database-migration
- postgresql
- data-validation
Data Reliability Engineer
Reliability work is about keeping data trustworthy through change. Building a reversible dual-write path and a layered validation report here translates directly into the safeguards a reliability engineer designs around production data systems and migrations.
This challenge sharpens
- dual-write
- data-validation
- database-migration
Database Migration Consultant
Consultants are hired precisely for the MySQL-to-PostgreSQL judgment calls this challenge demands. Producing a clear plan, defensible type mappings, and a pgloader configuration prepares you to advise organizations through real engine migrations under tight windows.
This challenge sharpens
- mysql
- postgresql
- pgloader