A table is registered with the following code:
Both users and orders are Delta Lake tables. Which statement describes the results of querying recent_orders?
Correct Answer:
B
A data engineer is configuring a pipeline that will potentially see late-arriving, duplicate records.
In addition to de-duplicating records within the batch, which of the following approaches allows the data engineer to deduplicate data against previously processed records as it is inserted into a Delta table?
Correct Answer:
C
To deduplicate data against previously processed records as it is inserted into a Delta table, you can use the merge operation with an insert-only clause. This allows you to insert new records that do not match any existing records based on a unique key, while ignoring duplicate records that match existing records. For example, you can use the following syntax:
MERGE INTO target_table USING source_table ON target_table.unique_key = source_table.unique_key WHEN NOT MATCHED THEN INSERT *
This will insert only the records from the source table that have a unique key that is not present in the target table, and skip the records that have a matching key. This way, you can avoid inserting duplicate records into the Delta table.
References:
✑ https://docs.databricks.com/delta/delta-update.html#upsert-into-a-table-using- merge
✑ https://docs.databricks.com/delta/delta-update.html#insert-only-merge
The following table consists of items found in user carts within an e-commerce website.
The following MERGE statement is used to update this table using an updates view, with schema evaluation enabled on this table.
How would the following update be handled?
Correct Answer:
D
With schema evolution enabled in Databricks Delta tables, when a new field is added to a record through a MERGE operation, Databricks automatically modifies the table schema to include the new field. In existing records where this new field is not present, Databricks will insert NULL values for that field. This ensures that the schema remains consistent across all records in the table, with the new field being present in every record, even if it is NULL for records that did not originally include it.
References:
✑ Databricks documentation on schema evolution in Delta Lake: https://docs.databricks.com/delta/delta-batch.html#schema-evolution
A junior data engineer is working to implement logic for a Lakehouse table named silver_device_recordings. The source data contains 100 unique fields in a highly nested JSON structure.
The silver_device_recordings table will be used downstream for highly selective joins on a number of fields, and will also be leveraged by the machine learning team to filter on a handful of relevant fields, in total, 15 fields have been identified that will often be used for filter and join logic.
The data engineer is trying to determine the best approach for dealing with these nested fields before declaring the table schema.
Which of the following accurately presents information about Delta Lake and Databricks that may Impact their decision-making process?
Correct Answer:
D
Delta Lake, built on top of Parquet, enhances query performance through data skipping, which is based on the statistics collected for each file in a table. For tables with a large number of columns, Delta Lake by default collects and stores statistics only for the first 32 columns. These statistics include min/max values and null counts, which are used to optimize query execution by skipping irrelevant data files. When dealing with highly nested JSON structures, understanding this behavior is crucial for schema design, especially when determining which fields should be flattened or prioritized in the table structure to leverage data skipping efficiently for performance optimization.References: Databricks documentation on Delta Lake optimization techniques, including data skipping and statistics collection (https://docs.databricks.com/delta/optimizations/index.html).
Where in the Spark UI can one diagnose a performance problem induced by not leveraging predicate push-down?
Correct Answer:
E
This is the correct answer because it is where in the Spark UI one can diagnose a performance problem induced by not leveraging predicate push-down. Predicate push-down is an optimization technique that allows filtering data at the source before loading it into memory or processing it further. This can improve performance and reduce I/O costs by avoiding reading unnecessary data. To leverage predicate push-down, one should use supported data sources and formats, such as Delta Lake, Parquet, or JDBC, and use filter expressions that can be pushed down to the source. To diagnose a performance problem induced by not leveraging predicate push-down, one can use the Spark UI to access the Query Detail screen, which shows information about a SQL query executed on a Spark cluster. The Query Detail screen includes the Physical Plan, which is the actual plan executed by Spark to perform the query. The Physical Plan shows the physical operators used by Spark, such as Scan, Filter, Project, or Aggregate, and their input and output statistics, such as rows and bytes. By interpreting the Physical Plan, one can see if the filter expressions are pushed down to the source or not, and how much data is read or processed by each operator. Verified References: [Databricks Certified Data Engineer Professional], under “Spark Core” section; Databricks Documentation, under “Predicate pushdown” section; Databricks Documentation, under “Query detail page” section.
