Lightweight Analytics at Scale: Hands-On with DuckDB & Smallpond in Python

Presentation: { Lightweight Analytics at Scale }

Workshop description

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to build powerful yet lightweight data workflows using Python, DuckDB, and Smallpond. We’ll explore how DuckDB enables fast, in-process SQL analytics on massive datasets without heavy infrastructure, and how Smallpond extends those capabilities into distributed, collaborative, or cloud-friendly environments.

Requirements

• PyLadies Amsterdam uses uv for dependency management
• Google account if you want to use Google Colab
• Docker desktop or Docker + Docker compose

Usage

with uv

Run the following code:

git clone https://github.com/pyladiesams/lightweight-analytics-duckdb-smallpond-oct2025.git
cd lightweight-analytics-duckdb-smallpond-oct2025

# create and activate venv, install dependencies
uv sync

with Google Colab

1. Visit Google Colab
2. In the top left corner select "File" → "Open Notebook"
3. Under "GitHub", enter the URL of the repo of this workshop
4. Select one of the notebooks within the repo.
5. At the top of the notebook, add a Code cell and run the following code:

!git clone https://github.com/pyladiesams/lightweight-analytics-duckdb-smallpond-oct2025.git
%cd lightweight-analytics-duckdb-smallpond-oct2025
!pip install -r requirements.txt

for a workshop giver

To get started, open the pyproject.toml file and set the required Python version. The pre-selected version 3.8 is generally a safe choice for most use cases.

After you have specified the Python version, you can create a virtual environment with uv venv and add packages with uv add <package>. Before the workshop, you can generate a requirements.txt file, which is needed e.g. for running code in Google Colab, by running uv export > requirements.txt.

Video record

Re-watch this YouTube stream

Credits

This workshop was set up by @pyladiesams and @valerybriz

Appendix

Pre-Commit Hooks

To ensure our code looks beautiful, PyLadies uses pre-commit hooks. You can enable them by running pre-commit install. You may have to install pre-commit first, using uv sync, uv pip install pre-commit or pip install pre-commit.

Happy Coding :)