Pass the Databricks Certification Databricks-Certified-Associate-Developer-for-Apache-Spark-3.0 Questions and answers with ExamsMirror

Explanation

Actions can trigger Adaptive Query Execution, while transformation cannot.

Correct. Adaptive Query Execution optimizes queries at runtime. Since transformations are evaluated lazily, Spark does not have any runtime information to optimize the query until an action is

called. If Adaptive Query Execution is enabled, Spark will then try to optimize the query based on the feedback it gathers while it is evaluating the query.

Actions can be queued for delayed execution, while transformations can only be processed immediately.

No, there is no such concept as "delayed execution" in Spark. Actions cannot be evaluated lazily, meaning that they are executed immediately.

Actions are evaluated lazily, while transformations are not evaluated lazily.

Incorrect, it is the other way around: Transformations are evaluated lazily and actions trigger their evaluation.

Actions generate RDDs, while transformations do not.

No. Transformations change the data and, since RDDs are immutable, generate new RDDs along the way. Actions produce outputs in Python and data types (integers, lists, text files,...) based on

the RDDs, but they do not generate them.

Here is a great tip on how to differentiate actions from transformations: If an operation returns a DataFrame, Dataset, or an RDD, it is a transformation. Otherwise, it is an action.

Actions do not send results to the driver, while transformations do.

No. Actions send results to the driver. Think about running DataFrame.count(). The result of this command will return a number to the driver. Transformations, however, do not send results back to

the driver. They produce RDDs that remain on the worker nodes.

More info: What is the difference between a transformation and an action in Apache Spark? | Bartosz Mikulski, How to Speed up SQL Queries with Adaptive Query Execution

Explanation

The executed physical plan depends on a cost optimization from a previous stage.

Correct! Spark considers multiple physical plans on which it performs a cost analysis and selects the final physical plan in accordance with the lowest-cost outcome of that analysis. That final

physical plan is then executed by Spark.

Spark uses the catalog to resolve the optimized logical plan.

No. Spark uses the catalog to resolve the unresolved logical plan, but not the optimized logical plan. Once the unresolved logical plan is resolved, it is then optimized using the Catalyst Optimizer.

The optimized logical plan is the input for physical planning.

The catalog assigns specific resources to the physical plan.

No. The catalog stores metadata, such as a list of names of columns, data types, functions, and databases. Spark consults the catalog for resolving the references in a logical plan at the beginning

of the conversion of the query into an execution plan. The result is then an optimized logical plan.

Depending on whether DataFrame API or SQL API are used, the physical plan may differ.

Wrong – the physical plan is independent of which API was used. And this is one of the great strengths of Spark!

The catalog assigns specific resources to the optimized memory plan.

There is no specific "memory plan" on the journey of a Spark computation.

More info: Spark’s Logical and Physical plans … When, Why, How and Beyond. | by Laurent Leturgez | datalex | Medium

Explanation

Correct code block:

schema = StructType([

StructField("itemId", IntegerType(), True),

StructField("attributes", ArrayType(StringType(), True), True),

StructField("supplier", StringType(), True)

])

spark.read.options(modifiedBefore="2029-03-20T05:44:46").schema(schema).parquet(filePath)

This QUESTION NO: is more difficult than what you would encounter in the exam. In the exam, for this QUESTION NO: type, only one error needs to be identified and not "one or multiple" as in the

question.

Columns in the schema definition use the wrong object type, the modification date threshold is specified incorrectly, and Spark cannot identify the file format.

Correct! Columns in the schema definition should use the StructField type. Building a schema from pyspark.sql.types, as here using classes like StructType and StructField, is one of multiple ways

of expressing a schema in Spark. A StructType always contains a list of StructFields (see documentation linked below). So, nesting StructType and StructType as shown in the QUESTION NO: is

wrong.

The modification date threshold should be specified by a keyword argument like options(modifiedBefore="2029-03-20T05:44:46") and not two consecutive non-keyword arguments as in the original

code block (see documentation linked below).

Spark cannot identify the file format correctly, because either it has to be specified by using the DataFrameReader.format(), as an argument to DataFrameReader.load(), or directly by calling, for

example, DataFrameReader.parquet().

Columns in the schema are unable to handle empty values and the modification date threshold is specified incorrectly.

No. If StructField would be used for the columns instead of StructType (see above), the third argument specified whether the column is nullable. The original schema shows that columns should be

nullable and this is specified correctly by the third argument being True in the schema in the code block.

It is correct, however, that the modification date threshold is specified incorrectly (see above).

The attributes array is specified incorrectly, Spark cannot identify the file format, and the syntax of the call to Spark's DataFrameReader is incorrect.

Wrong. The attributes array is specified correctly, following the syntax for ArrayType (see linked documentation below). That Spark cannot identify the file format is correct, see correct answer

above. In addition, the DataFrameReader is called correctly through the SparkSession spark.

Columns in the schema definition use the wrong object type and the syntax of the call to Spark's DataFrameReader is incorrect.

Incorrect, the object types in the schema definition are correct and syntax of the call to Spark's DataFrameReader is correct.

The data type of the schema is incompatible with the schema() operator and the modification date threshold is specified incorrectly.

False. The data type of the schema is StructType and an accepted data type for the DataFrameReader.schema() method. It is correct however that the modification date threshold is specified

incorrectly (see correct answer above).

Explanation

Correct code block:

transactionsDf.withColumn('associateId', lit(5)).drop('productId', 'value')

For solving this QUESTION NO: it is important that you know the lit() function (link to documentation below). This function enables you to add a column of a constant value to a DataFrame.

More info: pyspark.sql.functions.lit — PySpark 3.1.1 documentation

Static notebook | Dynamic notebook: See test 1, QUESTION NO: 57 (Databricks import instructions)

Explanation

Correct code block:

transactionsDf.select(col("storeId").cast(StringType()))

Solving this QUESTION NO: involves understanding that, when using types from the pyspark.sql.types such as StringType, these types need to be instantiated when using them in Spark, or, in

simple words, they need to be followed by parentheses like so: StringType(). You could also use .cast("string") instead, but that option is not given here.

More info: pyspark.sql.Column.cast — PySpark 3.1.2 documentation

Static notebook | Dynamic notebook: See test 2, QUESTION NO: 37 (Databricks import instructions)

Explanation

Use a narrow transformation to reduce the number of partitions.

Correct! DataFrame.coalesce(n) is a narrow transformation, and in fact the most efficient way to resize the DataFrame of all options listed. One would run DataFrame.coalesce(8) to resize the

DataFrame.

Use operation DataFrame.coalesce(8) to fully shuffle the DataFrame and reduce the number of partitions.

Wrong. The coalesce operation avoids a full shuffle, but will shuffle data if needed. This answer is incorrect because it says "fully shuffle" – this is something the coalesce operation will not do. As a

general rule, it will reduce the number of partitions with the very least movement of data possible. More info: distributed computing - Spark - repartition() vs coalesce() - Stack Overflow

Use operation DataFrame.coalesce(0.5) to halve the number of partitions in the DataFrame.

Incorrect, since the num_partitions parameter needs to be an integer number defining the exact number of partitions desired after the operation. More info: pyspark.sql.DataFrame.coalesce —

PySpark 3.1.2 documentation

Use operation DataFrame.repartition(8) to shuffle the DataFrame and reduce the number of partitions.

No. The repartition operation will fully shuffle the DataFrame. This is not the most efficient way of reducing the number of partitions of all listed options.

Use a wide transformation to reduce the number of partitions.

No. While possible via the DataFrame.repartition(n) command, the resulting full shuffle is not the most efficient way of reducing the number of partitions.

Explanation

This QUESTION NO: targets your knowledge about how to chain filtering conditions. Each filtering condition should be in parentheses. The correct operator for "or" is the pipe character (|) and not

the word or. Another operator of concern is the equality operator. For the purpose of comparison, equality is expressed as two equal signs (==).

Static notebook | Dynamic notebook: See test 2, QUESTION NO: 21 (Databricks import instructions)

Explanation

Correct code block:

spark.read.format("binaryFile").option("recursiveFileLookup", "*.png").load(path)

Spark can deal with binary files, like images. Using the binaryFile format specification in the SparkSession's read API is the way to read in those files. Remember that, to access the read API, you

need to start the command with spark.read. The pathGlobFilter option is a great way to filter files by name (and ending). Finally, the path can be specified using the load operator – the open

operator shown in one of the answers does not exist.

Explanation

Recognizing that the UDF specification requires a return type (unless it is a string, which is the default) is important for solving this question. In addition, you should make sure that the generated

UDF (evaluateTestSuccessUDF) and not the Python function (evaluateTestSuccess) is applied to column storeId.

More info: pyspark.sql.functions.udf — PySpark 3.1.2 documentation

Static notebook | Dynamic notebook: See test 2, QUESTION NO: 34 (Databricks import instructions)

Static notebook | Dynamic notebook: See test 1, QUESTION NO: 25 (Databricks import instructions) (https://flrs.github.io/spark_practice_tests_code/#1/25.html ,

https://bit.ly/sparkpracticeexams_import_instructions)