Cypher Fundamentals

This course teaches you the essentials of CypheriFull definition for Cypher (opens in a new tab)Neo4j's implementation of GQL, the ISO standard query language for graph databases. It is declarative: you describe the pattern to find, and the database decides how to find it., Neo4j's query language, so you can read and write graph data with confidence. In around 60 minutes you will move from your first MATCH clause to updating a live graph, working hands-on against a Movies dataset the whole way through.

Cypher is a declarative query language built for graphs. You describe the patterniFull definition for pattern (opens in a new tab)A graph structure written in Cypher, such as a node joined to another node by a relationship. you want as ASCII-art nodesiFull definition for node (opens in a new tab)A vertex in a graph. In a property graph it can carry labels and properties. and relationshipsiFull definition for relationship (opens in a new tab)A named, directed connection between two nodes. Every relationship has a type, a start node and an end node., and Neo4j finds the data that fits. If you can sketch a graph on a whiteboard, you can already read a Cypher query. This course gives you the vocabulary and the practice to write your own.

Who this course is for

This course is for developers, data engineers, and analysts who need to work with data stored in Neo4j. If your job involves pulling records out of a database, connecting related information, or keeping data up to date, Cypher is the tool you will reach for, and this is where you learn it.

You do not need any prior programming experience to take this course. Everything is taught from first principles, and every concept is paired with a query you run yourself. If you have written SQL before, you will recognise ideas like filtering and returning columns, and that experience will help you move faster, but it is not a requirement. The graph model is different enough from tables that a fresh start is often an advantage.

What you'll build and do

This is a practical course, not a lecture. You work against a Movies graph, a small dataset of films, the people who acted in and directed them, and the relationships that connect them. It is large enough to be interesting and small enough to reason about.

Throughout the course you run real Cypher in an embedded sandbox connected to a live Neo4j database. You read data with MATCH, follow relationships between people and films, filter results down to exactly what you need, and then switch to writing: creating nodes, connecting them with relationships, updating propertiesiFull definition for property (opens in a new tab)A named value stored on a node or a relationship., and removing data you no longer want.

At key points you complete challenges. A challenge gives you a task, you write the query, and the platform checks your result against the graph. You cannot pass by reading alone, which means by the end you have proven to yourself that you can write working Cypher, not just recognise it.

Module by module

Reading Data from Neo4j

The first module covers everything you need to query a graph. You start with an introduction to Cypher and how its node-and-relationship syntax maps to the data you can see. You learn to retrieve nodes with MATCH, describe patterns, and find the relationships that connect one node to another. From there you traverseiFull definition for traversal (opens in a new tab)Following relationships from one node to the next to reach other parts of a graph. relationships, following the links between people and the films they worked on, in a hands-on exercise where you track down an actor named Emil. You then learn to filter queries with the WHERE clause so you return only the rows that matter, and you finish by finding specific actors that meet the conditions you set. By the end of this module you can answer real questions about the data in the graph.

Writing Data to Neo4j

The second module turns you from a reader into an author. You learn to create nodes with CREATE, then remove them with DELETE, using a short exercise to delete the Emil node you met earlier so you understand the full lifecycle before moving on. You create nodes and relationships of your own, connecting films and the people involved with them, and practise each in a dedicated challenge. You update properties on existing nodes and add new properties to a movie. Then you meet MERGE, the clause that either finds an existing node or creates it if it does not exist, which lets you write queries that are safe to run more than once without producing duplicates. You use MERGE to add or update a movie, and you close the course by deleting data cleanly. This module gives you the write operations behind almost every application that stores data in Neo4j.

Where to go next

Once you are comfortable reading and writing Cypher, there are several natural directions to take your skills further.

• Intermediate Cypher Queries builds directly on this course, covering more advanced pattern matchingiFull definition for pattern matching (opens in a new tab)Finding every part of the graph that fits a given pattern., working with multiple relationships, and writing queries that solve harder problems.
• Cypher Aggregations teaches you to summarise and group data, count relationships, and produce the kind of rolled-up results that reports and dashboards depend on.
• Graph Data Modeling Fundamentals steps back from querying to show you how to design a graph in the first place, so the data you write with Cypher is structured to answer the questions you care about.

Cypher is also a core part of the Neo4j Certified Professional certification, so the skills you build here count toward a recognised, industry-standard credential. Whichever path you choose next, the reading and writing fundamentals from this course are the foundation everything else is built on.