This cake walk reflects the American parlor music movement at the turn of the 20th century. It is characterized by its infectious, march-like rhythmic drive and simple, diatonic harmonic vocabulary.
The student should focus on maintaining a strict tempo to support the syncopated rhythms in the melody.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Cake Walk is rated Henle level 3 of 9 — late beginner repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 4–5. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 4.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 3 — meaning you can already play level 2–3 pieces cleanly. Learning it one level early is possible as a stretch piece, but more than that usually leads to months of frustration.
A typical performance of Cake Walk lasts about 3 minutes.
Cake Walk is available as free public-domain sheet music on IMSLP — the score is linked directly from this page.
Pieces at a comparable difficulty and character include American Boat Clubs' March by Adam Geibel, Autumn Leaflet by Adam Geibel, Alexander's Ragtime Band by Irving Berlin — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.