A Practical Intro to Analytics Engineering with dbt

The modern data stack in one diagram

Layering your models

• Staging — one model per source table, light renaming and casting.
• Intermediate — reusable business logic.
• Marts — the tables analysts and dashboards actually query.

-- models/marts/fct_orders.sql
select
  o.order_id,
  o.customer_id,
  o.order_date,
  o.amount
from {{ ref('stg_orders') }} o

Tip: Every model should have a test. Start with unique and not_null on primary keys.

Tests and docs are what turn a pile of SQL into a trustworthy product.