Databricks Databricks-Certified-Data-Engineer-Associate Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate Exam Exam Practice Test

 The VACUUM command is used to remove files that are no longer referenced by a Delta table and are older than the retention threshold1. The default retention period is 7 days2, but it can be changed by setting the delta.logRetentionDuration and delta.deletedFileRetentionDuration configurations3. If the VACUUM command was run on the table with a retention period shorter than 3 days, then the data files that were needed to restore the table to a 3-day-old version would have been deleted. The other commands do not delete data files from the table. The TIME TRAVEL command is used to query a historical version of the table4. The DELETE HISTORY command is not a valid command in Delta Lake. The OPTIMIZE command is used to improve the performance of the table by compacting small files into larger ones5. The HISTORY command is used to retrieve information about the operations performed on the table. References: 1: VACUUM | Databricks on AWS 2: Work with Delta Lake table history | Databricks on AWS 3: [Delta Lake configuration | Databricks on AWS] 4: Work with Delta Lake table history - Azure Databricks 5: [OPTIMIZE | Databricks on AWS] : [HISTORY | Databricks on AWS]

The reason why all of the data files and metadata files were deleted from the file system after dropping the table is that the table was managed. A managed table is a table that is created and managed by Spark SQL. It stores both the data and the metadata in the default location specified by the spark.sql.warehouse.dir configuration property. When a managed table is dropped, both the data and the metadata are deleted from the file system.

Option B is not correct, as the size of the table’s data does not affect the behavior of dropping the table. Whether the table’s data is smaller or larger than 10 GB, the data files and metadata files will be deleted if the table is managed, and will be preserved if the table is external.

Option C is not correct, for the same reason as option B.

Option D is not correct, as an external table is a table that is created and managed by the user. It stores the data in a user-specified location, and only stores the metadata in the Spark SQL catalog. When an external table is dropped, only the metadata is deleted from the catalog, but the data files are preserved in the file system.

Option E is not correct, as a table must have a location to store the data. If the location is not specified by the user, it will use the default location for managed tables. Therefore, a table without a location is a managed table, and dropping it will delete both the data and the metadata.

 Option C is the correct answer because Parquet files have a well-defined schema that is embedded within the data itself. This means that the data types and column names of the Parquet files are automatically detected and preserved when creating an external table from them. This also enables the use of SQL and other structured query languages to access and analyze the data. CSV files, on the other hand, do not have a schema embedded in them, and require specifying the schema explicitly or inferring it from the data when creating an external table from them. This can lead to errors or inconsistencies in the data types and column names, and also increase the processing time and complexity.

To find the owner of a table in Databricks, one can utilize the Data Explorer feature. The Data Explorer provides detailed information about various data objects, including tables. By navigating to the specific table's page in Data Explorer, a data engineer can review the Owner field, which identifies the individual or role that owns the table. This information is crucial for obtaining the necessary permissions or for any administrative actions related to the table.

The MERGE command can be used to upsert data from a source table, view, or DataFrame into a target Delta table. It allows you to specify conditions for matching and updating existing records, and inserting new records when no match is found. This way, you can avoid writing duplicate records into a Delta table1. The other commands (DROP, IGNORE, APPEND, INSERT) do not have this functionality and may result in duplicate records or data loss234. References: 1: Upsert into a Delta Lake table using merge | Databricks on AWS 2: SQL DELETE | Databricks on AWS 3: SQL INSERT INTO | Databricks on AWS 4: SQL UPDATE | Databricks on AWS

https://community.databricks.com/t5/data-engineering/sequential-vs-concurrency-optimization-questions-from-query/td-p/36696

The DELETE command in Delta Lake allows you to remove data that matches a predicate from a Delta table. This command will delete all the rows where the value in the column age is greater than 25 from the existing Delta table my_table and save the updated table. The other options are either incorrect or do not achieve the desired result. Option A will only select the rows that match the predicate, but not delete them. Option B will update the rows that match the predicate, but not delete them. Option D will update the rows that do not match the predicate,but not delete them. Option E will delete the rows that do not match the predicate, which is the opposite of what we want. References: Table deletes, updates, and merges — Delta Lake Documentation

 To append a new record to an existing Delta table, you can use the INSERT INTO statement with the VALUES clause. This statement will insert one or more rows into the table with the specified values. Option A is the only code block that follows this syntax correctly. Option B is incorrect, as it uses the UNION operator, which will return a new table that is the union of two tables, not append to an existing table. Option C is incorrect, as it uses the INSERTVALUES statement, which is not a valid SQL syntax. Option D is incorrect, as it uses the UPDATE statement, which will modify existing rows in the table, not append new rows. Option E is incorrect, as it uses the UPDATE VALUES statement, which is also not a valid SQL syntax. References: Insert data into a table using SQL | Databricks on AWS, Insert data into a table using SQL - Azure Databricks, Delta Lake Quickstart - Azure Databricks

To send the Databricks Job owner an email in the case that the Job fails, the best approach is to set up an Alert in the Job page. This way, the Job owner can configure the email address and the notification type for the Job failure event. The other options are either not feasible, not reliable, or not relevant for this task. Manually programming an alert system in each cell of the Notebook is tedious and error-prone. Setting up an Alertin the Notebook is not possible, as Alerts are only available for Jobs and Clusters. There is a way to notify the Job owner in the case of Job failure, so option D is incorrect. MLflow Model Registry Webhooks are used for model lifecycle events, not Job events, so option E is not applicable. References:

Add email and system notifications for job events

Alerts

MLflow Model Registry Webhooks

The workspace administrator is the only individual who can transfer ownership of the Delta tables in Data Explorer, assuming the original data engineer no longer has access. The workspace administrator has the highest level of permissions in the workspace and can manage all resources, users, and groups. The other options are either not possible or not sufficient to perform the ownership transfer. The Databricks account representative is not involved in the workspace management. The transfer is possible and not dependent on the original data engineer. The new lead data engineer may not have the necessary permissions to access or modify the Delta tables, unless granted by the workspace administrator or the original data engineer before leaving. References: Workspace access control, Manage Unity Catalog object ownership.

The scenario in which a data engineer will want to use a single-node cluster is when they are working interactively with a small amount of data. A single-node cluster is a cluster consisting of an Apache Spark driver and no Spark workers1. A single-node cluster supports Spark jobs and all Spark data sources, including Delta Lake1. A single-node cluster is helpful for single-node machine learning workloads that use Spark to load and save data, and for lightweight exploratory data analysis1. A single-node cluster can run Spark locally, spawn one executor thread per logical core in the cluster, and save all log output in the driver log1. A single-node cluster can be created by selecting the Single Node button when configuring a cluster1.

The other options are not suitable for using a single-node cluster. When running automated reports to be refreshed as quickly as possible, a data engineer will want to use a multi-node cluster that can scale up and down automatically based on the workload demand2. When working with SQL within Databricks SQL, a data engineer will want to use a SQL Endpoint that can execute SQL queries on a serverless pool or an existing cluster3. When concerned about the ability to automatically scale with larger data, a data engineer will want to use a multi-node cluster that can leverage the Databricks Lakehouse Platform and the Delta Engine to handle large-scale data processing efficiently and reliably4. When manually running reports with a large amount of data, a data engineer will want to use a multi-node cluster that can distribute the computation across multiple workers and leverage the Spark UI to monitor the performance and troubleshoot the issues.

JSON data is a text-based format that represents data as a collection of name-value pairs. By default, when Auto Loader infers the schema of JSON data, it treats all columns as strings. This is because JSON data can have varying data types for the same column across different files or records, and Auto Loader does not attempt to reconcile these differences. For example, a column named “age” may have integer values in some files, but string values in others. To avoiddata loss or errors, Auto Loader infers the column as a string type. However, Auto Loader also provides an option to infer more precise column types based on the sample data. This option is called cloudFiles.inferColumnTypes and it can be set to true or false. When set to true, Auto Loader tries to infer the exact data types of the columns, such as integers, floats, booleans, or nested structures. When set to false, Auto Loader infers all columns as strings. The default value of this option is false. References: Configure schema inference and evolution in Auto Loader, Schema inference with auto loader (non-DLT and DLT), Using and Abusing Auto Loader’s Inferred Schema, Explicit path to data or a defined schema required for Auto loader.

A Gold table is a table that contains highly refined and aggregated data that powers analytics, machine learning, and production applications. It represents data that has been transformed into knowledge, rather than just information. A Gold table is typically the final output of a medallion lakehouse architecture, where data flows from Bronze to Silver to Gold tables, with each layer improving the structure and quality of data. A job that queries aggregated data designed to feed into a dashboard is an example of a data workload that will utilize a Gold table as its source, as it requires data that is ready for consumption and analysis. The other options are either data workloads that will use a Bronze or Silver table as their source, or data workloads that will produce a Gold table as their output. References: Databricks Documentation - What is the medallion lakehouse architecture?, Databricks Documentation - What is a Medallion Architecture?, K21Academy - Delta Lake Architecture & Azure Databricks Workspace.

A temporary view is a relational object that is defined in the metastore and points to an existing DataFrame. It does not copy or store any physical data, but only saves the query that defines the view. The lifetime of a temporary view is tied to the SparkSession that was used to create it, so it does not persist across different sessions or applications. A temporary view is useful for accessing the same data multiple times within the same notebook or session, without incurring additional storage costs. The other options are either materialized (A, E), persistent (B, C), or not relational objects ©. References: Databricks Documentation - Temporary View, Databricks Community - How do temp views actually work?, Databricks Community - What’s the difference between a Global view and a Temp view?, Big Data Programmers - Temporary View in Databricks.

The processingTime option specifies a time-based trigger interval for fixed interval micro-batches. This means that the query will execute a micro-batch to process data every 5 seconds, regardless of how much data is available. This option is suitable for near-real time processing workloads that require low latency and consistent processing frequency. The other options are either invalid syntax (A, C), default behavior (B), or experimental feature (E). References: Databricks Documentation - Configure Structured Streaming trigger intervals, Databricks Documentation - Trigger.

https://www.w3schools.com/python/python_functions.asp

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/python-functions/

 A data lakehouse is a new paradigm that can be used to simplify and unify siloed data architectures that are specialized for specific use cases. A data lakehouse combines the best of both data lakes and data warehouses, providing a single platform that supports diverse data types, open standards, low-cost storage, high-performance queries, ACID transactions, schema enforcement, and governance. A data lakehouse enables data engineers to build reliable and scalable data pipelines that can serve various downstream applications and users, such as data science, machine learning, analytics, and reporting. A data lakehouse leverages the power of Delta Lake, a storage layer that brings reliability and performance to data lakes. References: What is a data lakehouse?, Delta Lake, Lakehouse: A New Generation of Open Platforms that Unify Data Warehousing and Advanced Analytics

The best practice is to use "Complete" as output mode instead of "append" when working with aggregated tables. Since gold layer is work final aggregated tables, the only option with output mode as complete is option E.

 Delta Live Tables expectations are optional clauses that apply data quality checks on each record passing through a query. An expectation consists of a description, a boolean statement, and an action to take when a record fails the expectation. The ON VIOLATION clause specifies the action to take, which can be one of the following: warn, drop, or fail. The drop action means that invalid records are dropped from the target dataset before data is written to the target. The failure is reported as a metric for the dataset, which can be viewed by querying the Delta Live Tables event log. The event log contains information such as the number of records that violate an expectation, the number of records dropped, and the number of records written to the target dataset. References:

Manage data quality with Delta Live Tables

Monitor Delta Live Tables pipelines

Delta Live Tables SQL language reference

 In Databricks SQL, you can use scheduled query executions to update your dashboards or enable routine alerts. By default, your queries do not have a schedule. To set the schedule, you can use the dropdown pickers to specify the frequency, period, starting time, and time zone. You can also choose to end the schedule on a certain date by selecting the End date checkbox and picking a date from the calendar. This way, you can ensure that the query does not run beyond the first week of the project’s release and does not incur any additional cost. Option A is incorrect, as setting a limit to the number of DBUs does not stop the query from running. Option B is incorrect, as there is no option to end the schedule after a certain number of refreshes. Option C is incorrect, as there is a way to ensure the query does not cost the organization money beyond the first week of the project’s release. Option D is incorrect, as setting a limit to the number of individuals who can manage the query’s refresh schedule does not affect the query’s execution or cost. References: Schedule a query, Schedule a query - Azure Databricks - Databricks SQL

When migrating to Delta Live Tables (DLT) with a data pipeline that involves different programming languages across various data layers, the migration does not require unifying the pipeline into a single language. Delta Live Tables support multi-language pipelines, allowing data engineers and data analysts to work in their preferred languages, such as Python for data engineering tasks (raw, bronze, and silver layers) and SQL for data analytics tasks (gold layer). This capability is particularly beneficial in collaborative settings and leverages the strengths of each language for different stages of data processing.

The command DESCRIBE DATABASE customer360; will return the location of the database customer360, along with its comment and properties. This command is an alias for DESCRIBE SCHEMA customer360;, which can also be used to get the same information. Theother commands will either drop the database, alter its properties, or use it as the current database, but will not return its location12. References:

DESCRIBE DATABASE | Databricks on AWS

DESCRIBE DATABASE - Azure Databricks - Databricks SQL

The Auto Stop feature allows the SQL endpoint to automatically stop after a specified period of inactivity. This can help reduce the cost and resource consumption of the SQL endpoint, as it will only run when it is needed to refresh the dashboard or execute queries. The data engineer can configure the Auto Stop setting for the SQL endpoint from the SQL Endpoints UI, by selecting the desired idle time from the Auto Stop dropdown menu. The default idle time is 120 minutes, but it can be set to as low as 15 minutes or as high as 240 minutes. Alternatively, thedata engineer can also use the SQL Endpoints REST API to set the Auto Stop setting programmatically. References: SQL Endpoints UI, SQL Endpoints REST API, Refreshing SQL Dashboard

 To grant full permissions on a table to a user or a group, you can use the GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON TABLE statement. This statement will grant all the possible privileges on the table, such as SELECT, CREATE, MODIFY, DROP, ALTER, etc. Option A is the only code block that follows this syntax correctly. Option B is incorrect, as it does not grant all the possible privileges on the table, but only a subset of them. Option C is incorrect, as it only grants the SELECT privilege on the table, which is not enough to fully manage the project. Option D is incorrect, as it grants the USAGE privilege on the table, which is not a valid privilege for tables. Option E is incorrect, as it grants all the privileges on the table team to the user or group sales, which is the opposite of what the question asks. References: Grant privileges on a table using SQL | Databricks on AWS, Grant privileges on a table using SQL - Azure Databricks, SQL Privileges - Databricks

 A serverless SQL endpoint is a compute resource that is automatically managed by Databricks and scales up or down based on the workload. A serverless SQL endpoint can be used to run queries and dashboards without requiring manual configuration or management. A serverless SQL endpoint is only active when it is needed and shuts down automatically when idle, minimizing the total running time and cost. A serverless SQL endpoint can be created and assigned to a dashboard using the Databricks SQL UI or the SQL Analytics API. References:

Create a serverless SQL endpoint

Assign a SQL endpoint to a dashboard

SQL Analytics API

Databricks Repos is a visual Git client and API in Databricks that supports common Git operations such as cloning, committing, pushing, pulling, and branch management. Databricks Notebooks versioning is a legacy feature that allows users to link notebooks to GitHub repositories and perform basic Git operations. However, Databricks Notebooks versioning does not support the use of multiple branches for development work, which is an advantage of using Databricks Repos. With Databricks Repos, users can create and manage branches for different features, experiments, or bug fixes, and merge, rebase, or resolve conflicts between them. Databricks recommends using a separate branch for each notebook and following data scienceand engineering code development best practices using Git for version control, collaboration, and CI/CD. References: Git integration with Databricks Repos - Azure Databricks | Microsoft Learn, Git version control for notebooks (legacy) | Databricks on AWS, Databricks Repos Is Now Generally Available - New ‘Files’ Feature in …, Databricks Repos - What it is and how we can use it | Adatis.

 The spark.sql method can be used to execute SQL queries programmatically and return the result as a DataFrame. The spark.sql method accepts a string argument that contains a valid SQL statement. The data engineer can use a formatted string literal (f-string) to insert the Python variable table_name into the SQL query. The other methods are either invalid or not suitable for running SQL queries. References: Running SQL Queries Programmatically, Formatted string literals, spark.sql

In Python, the == operator is used to compare the values of two variables, while the = operator is used to assign a value to a variable. Therefore, option A and E are incorrect, as they use the = operator for comparison. Option B and C are also incorrect, as they compare the review_period variable to a string value "True", which is different from the booleanvalue True. Option D is the correct answer, as it uses the == operator to compare the day_of_week variable to the integer value 1, and the and operator to check if both conditions are true. If both conditions are true, then the final block of the Python program will be executed. References: [Python Operators], [Python If … Else]