Databricks-Certified-Data-Engineer-Associate Databricks Certified Data Engineer Associate Exam Question and Answers

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, the data 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

In the given command, a data engineer is trying to create a table in Databricks using data from an SQLite database. The correct option to fill in the blank is “sqlite” because it specifies the type of database being connected to in a JDBC connection string. The USING clause should be followed by the format of the data, and since we are connecting to an SQLite database, “sqlite” would be appropriate here. References:

• Create a table using JDBC
• JDBC connection string
• SQLite JDBC driver

A webhook alert destination is a way to send notifications to external applications or services via HTTP requests. A data engineer can use a webhook alert destination to notify their entire team via a messaging webhook, such as Slack or Microsoft Teams, whenever the number of NULL values in the input data reaches 100. To set up a webhook alert destination, the data engineer needs to do the following steps:

• In the Databricks SQL workspace, navigate to the Settings gear icon and select SQL Admin Console.
• Click Alert Destinations and click Add New Alert Destination.
• Select Webhook and enter the webhook URL and the optional custom template for the notification message.
• Click Create to save the webhook alert destination.
• In the Databricks SQL editor, create or open the query that returns the number of input records containing unexpected NULL values.
• Click the Create Alert icon above the editor window and configure the alert criteria, such as the value column, the condition, and the threshold.
• In the Notification section, select the webhook alert destination that was created earlier and click Create Alert. References: What are Databricks SQL alerts?, Monitor alerts, Monitoring Your Business with Alerts, Using Automation Runbook Webhooks To Alert on Databricks Status Updates.

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

A data lakehouse is a data management architecture that combines the flexibility, cost-efficiency, and scale of data lakes with the data management and ACID transactions of data warehouses, enabling business intelligence (BI) and machine learning (ML) on all data12. One of the key features of a data lakehouse is that it supports ACID-compliant transactions, which means that it ensures data integrity, consistency, and isolation across concurrent read and write operations3. This feature results in improved data quality over a traditional data lake, which does not support transactions and may suffer from data corruption, duplication, or inconsistency due to concurrent or streaming data ingestion and processing . References: 1: What is a Data Lakehouse? - Databricks 2: What is a Data Lakehouse? Definition, features & benefits. - Qlik 3: ACID Transactions - Databricks : [Data Lake vs Data Warehouse: Key Differences] : [Data Lakehouse: The Future of Data Engineering]

Delta Live Tables is a declarative framework for building reliable, maintainable, and testable data processing pipelines. You define the transformations to perform on your data and Delta Live Tables manages task orchestration, cluster management, monitoring, data quality, and error handling. Delta Live Tables supports both SQL and Python as the languages for defining your datasets and expectations. Delta Live Tables also supports both streaming and batch sources, and can handle both append-only and upsert data patterns. Delta Live Tables follows the medallion lakehouse architecture, which consists of three layers of data: bronze, silver, and gold. Therefore, migrating to Delta Live Tables does not require any of the changes listed in the options B, C, D, or E. The data engineer and data analyst can use the same languages, sources, and architecture as before, and simply declare their datasets and expectations using Delta Live Tables syntax. References:

• What is Delta Live Tables?
• Transform data with Delta Live Tables
• What is the medallion lakehouse architecture?

Cron syntax is a tool that can be used to represent and submit a complex run schedule programmatically. Cron syntax is a string of six fields that specify the frequency, date, and time of a job run. For example, the cron expression 0 0 12 * * ? means run the job at 12:00 PM every day. The data engineer can use the Databricks REST API to create or update a job with a cron schedule. The data engineer can also use the Databricks CLI to create or update a job with a cron schedule by using a JSON file that contains the cron expression. The other tools are either invalid or not suitable for representing and submitting a complex run schedule programmatically. References: Schedule a job, Jobs API, Databricks CLI, Cron expressions

According to the medallion lakehouse architecture, gold tables are the final layer of data that powers analytics, machine learning, and production applications. They are often highly refined and aggregated, containing data that has been transformed into knowledge, rather than just information. Silver tables, on the other hand, are the intermediate layer of data that represents a validated, enriched version of the raw data from the bronze layer. They provide an enterprise view of all its key business entities, concepts and transactions, but they may not have all the aggregations and calculations that are required for specific use cases. Therefore, gold tables are more likely to contain aggregations than silver tables. References:

• What is the medallion lakehouse architecture?
• What is a Medallion Architecture?

 The spark.sql operation allows the data engineering team to run a SQL query and return the result as a PySpark DataFrame. This way, the data engineering team can use the same query that the data analyst has developed and operate with the results in PySpark. For example, the data engineering team can use spark.sql(“SELECT * FROM sales”) to get a DataFrame of all the records from the sales Delta table, and then apply various tests or transformations using PySpark APIs. The other options are either not valid operations (A, D), not suitable for running a SQL query (B, E), or not returning a DataFrame (A). References: Databricks Documentation - Run SQL queries, Databricks Documentation - Spark SQL and DataFrames.

 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 query performing a streaming hop from raw data to a Bronze table is identified by using the Spark streaming read capability and then writing to a Bronze table. Let's analyze the options:

• Option A: Utilizes .writeStream but performs a complete aggregation which is more characteristic of a roll-up into a summarized table rather than a hop into a Bronze table.
• Option B: Also uses .writeStream but calculates an average, which again does not typically represent the raw to Bronze transformation, which usually involves minimal transformations.
• Option C: This uses a basic .write with .mode("append") which is not a streaming operation, and hence not suitable for real-time streaming data transformation to a Bronze table.
• Option D: It employs spark.readStream.load() to ingest raw data as a stream and then writes it out with .writeStream, which is a typical pattern for streaming data into a Bronze table where raw data is captured in real-time and minimal transformation is applied. This approach aligns with the concept of a Bronze table in a modern data architecture, where raw data is ingested continuously and stored in a more accessible format.

References:Databricks documentation on Structured Streaming: Structured Streaming in Databricks

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 boolean value 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]

 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.

References: CREATE TABLE AS SELECT, Parquet Files, CSV Files, Parquet vs. CSV

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.

References:Databricks documentation on Delta Live Tables: Delta Live Tables Guide

The SQL keyword that can be used to convert a table from a long format to a wide format is PIVOT. The PIVOT clause is used to rotate the rows of a table into columns of a new table1. The PIVOT clause can aggregate the values of a column based on the distinct values of another column, and use those values as the column names of the new table1. The PIVOT clause can be useful for transforming data from a long format, where each row represents an observation with multiple attributes, to a wide format, where each row represents an observation with a single attribute and multiple values2. For example, the PIVOT clause can be used to convert a table that contains the sales of different products by different regions into a table that contains the sales of each product by each region as separate columns1.

The other options are not suitable for converting a table from a long format to a wide format. CONVERT is a function that can be used to change the data type of an expression3. WHERE is a clause that can be used to filter the rows of a table based on a condition4. TRANSFORM is a keyword that can be used to apply a user-defined function to a group of rows in a table5. SUM is a function that can be used to calculate the total of a numeric column.

References:

• 1: PIVOT | Databricks on AWS
• 2: Reshaping Data - Long vs Wide Format | Databricks on AWS
• 3: CONVERT | Databricks on AWS
• 4: WHERE | Databricks on AWS
• 5: TRANSFORM | Databricks on AWS
• : [SUM | Databricks on AWS]

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 science and 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 array functions from Spark SQL are a subset of the collection functions that operate on array columns1. They provide an ability to work with complex, nested data ingested from JSON files or other sources2. For example, the explode function can be used to transform an array column into multiple rows, one for each element in the array3. The array_contains function can be used to check if a value is present in an array column4. The array_join function can be used to concatenate all elements of an array column with a delimiter. These functions can be useful for processing JSON data that may have nested arrays or objects. References: 1: Spark SQL, Built-in Functions - Apache Spark 2: Spark SQL Array Functions Complete List - Spark By Examples 3: Spark SQL Array Functions - Syntax and Examples - DWgeek.com 4: Spark SQL, Built-in Functions - Apache Spark : Spark SQL, Built-in Functions - Apache Spark : [Working with Nested Data Using Higher Order Functions in SQL on Databricks - The Databricks Blog]

In a Databricks customer's cloud account, the primary elements stored include:

• Data: This is the central type of content stored in the customer's cloud account. Data might include various datasets, tables, and files that are used and managed through Databricks platforms.
• Notebooks: These are also stored within a customer's cloud account. Notebooks include scripts, notes, and other information necessary for data analysis and processing tasks.

Cluster management metadata is indeed managed through the cloud, but it's primarily handled by Databricks rather than stored directly in the customer's account. The Databricks web application itself is not stored within the customer's cloud account; rather, it's a service provided by Databricks.

References:Databricks documentation: Data in Databricks

Structured Streaming uses checkpointing and write-ahead logs to record the offset range of the data being processed in each trigger. This ensures that the engine can reliably track the exact progress of the processing and handle any kind of failure by restarting and/or reprocessing. Checkpointing is the mechanism of saving the state of a streaming query to fault-tolerant storage (such as HDFS) so that it can be recovered after a failure. Write-ahead logs are files that record the offset range of the data being processed in each trigger and are written to the checkpoint location before the processing starts. These logs are used to recover the query state and resume processing from the last processed offset range in case of a failure. References: Structured Streaming Programming Guide, Fault Tolerance Semantics

In Production mode, the pipeline runs continuously and updates the output tables whenever new data is available in the input sources. The compute resources are allocated on demand and released when the pipeline is stopped. This mode is suitable for production workloads that require high availability and reliability. References: Configure pipeline settings for Delta Live Tables, Tutorial: Run your first Delta Live Tables pipeline, Building Reliable Data Pipelines Using DataBricks’ Delta Live Tables

To read from a stream source, the data engineer needs to use the spark.readStream method instead of the spark.read method. The spark.readStream method returns a DataStreamReader object that can be used to specify the details of the input source, such as the format, the schema, the path, and the options. The spark.read method is only suitable for batch processing, not streaming processing. The other changes are not necessary or correct for reading from a stream source. References: Structured Streaming Programming Guide, Read a stream, Databricks Data Sources

 A data lakehouse is a data management architecture that combines the flexibility, cost-efficiency, and scale of data lakes with the data management and ACID transactions of data warehouses, enabling business intelligence (BI) and machine learning (ML) on all data12. By using a data lakehouse, both the data analysis and data engineering teams can access the same data sources and formats, ensuring data consistency and quality across their reports. A data lakehouse also supports schema enforcement and evolution, data validation, and time travel to old table versions, which can help resolve data conflicts and errors1. References: 1: What is a Data Lakehouse? - Databricks 2: What is a data lakehouse? | IBM

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.

 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

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.

References:Databricks documentation on Data Explorer: Using Data Explorer in Databricks

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 avoid data 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.