Pass the Databricks Data Analyst Databricks-Certified-Data-Analyst-Associate Questions and answers with ExamsMirror

In the Databricks Lakehouse Platform, business analysts primarily utilize Databricks SQL as their main service. Databricks SQL provides an environment tailored for executing SQL queries, creating visualizations, and developing dashboards, which aligns with the typical responsibilities of business analysts who focus on interpreting data to inform business decisions. While data scientists and data engineers also interact with the Databricks platform, their primary tools and services differ; data scientists often engage with machine learning frameworks and notebooks, whereas data engineers focus on data pipelines and ETL processes. Platform architects are involved in designing and overseeing the infrastructure and architecture of the platform. Therefore, among the roles listed, business analysts are the primary users of Databricks SQL.​

 The SQL code provided in Option D is the correct way to create a view named sales_by_employee that will always stay up-to-date with the sales and employees tables. The code uses the CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW statement to define a new view that joins the sales and employees tables on the employee_id column. It selects the employee_name as sales_person and all sales for each employee, ensuring that the data entity/object is always up-to-date when new data are added to these tables.

The answer can be verified from Databricks SQL documentation which provides insights on creating views using SQL queries, joining tables, and selecting specific columns to be included in the view. Reference link: Databricks SQL

Option C is correct because the requirement is to run the SQL query and then operate on the results in PySpark. spark.sql(...) executes SQL text and returns a Spark DataFrame that can be used in PySpark tests. spark.table(...) can load a table directly, but it does not run an arbitrary SQL query. Option A is SQL text by itself, not a PySpark operation. Official Databricks documentation states that a SparkSession can be used to execute SQL over tables, and Databricks notebook documentation specifically references using SQL inside Python with a spark.sql command.

Option D is correct. ACID-compliant transactions improve reliability and data quality because writes are consistent and atomic rather than leaving partially written or corrupted states. Open formats and SQL access are important lakehouse capabilities, but the feature most directly tied to improved data quality over a traditional data lake is ACID transactions. Official Databricks extract: Delta Lake extends Parquet with a transaction log for “ACID transactions,” and Databricks states that Delta Lake adds ACID transactions and schema evolution for reliable, high-quality data.

 An external table is a table that is defined in the metastore, but its data is stored outside of the Databricks environment, such as in S3, ADLS, or GCS. When an external table is dropped, only the metadata is deleted from the metastore, but the data files are not affected. This is different from a managed table, which is a table whose data is stored in the Databricks environment, and whose data files are deleted when the table is dropped. To delete the data files of an external table, the analyst needs to specify the PURGE option in the DROP TABLE command, or manually delete the files from the storage system. References: DROP TABLE, Drop Delta table features, Best practices for dropping a managed Delta Lake table

The correct answer is C because the tag key is confidential, and Databricks workspace search uses the syntax tag: < tag_key > to search by tag key. Therefore, the correct search text is tag:confidential. Option A uses a Boolean-style syntax that is not the documented Databricks tag search syntax. Option B uses an equals sign, and Option D is not valid workspace search syntax.

Official documentation extract used: Databricks states that to search by tag key alone, use the syntax tag: < tag_key > .

Option A is correct. The Data Intelligence Engine is the platform-level intelligence layer that understands the semantics and uniqueness of an organization’s data and enables AI-assisted experiences across Databricks. Unity Catalog provides governance and metadata management, Genie Spaces provide a natural-language interface for curated business data, and Databricks Assistant is a user-facing assistant for code/query help. However, the question asks which component is primarily responsible for enabling these capabilities across the platform; that is the Data Intelligence Engine. Databricks describes the platform as powered by a Data Intelligence Engine that understands the uniqueness and semantics of data and helps optimize performance. References: Databricks Data Intelligence Platform documentation and Data Analyst Associate Exam Guide.

The correct answer is C because the issue is a resource constraint failure, and the analyst needs to identify which operator is consuming excessive memory. In Query Profile, Memory peak shows memory usage at the operator level and helps identify the operator causing resource overuse. Time spent helps identify slow operators, shuffle read size helps analyze data movement, and bytes spilled to disk indicates spill behavior, but the most direct metric for resource overuse due to memory pressure is memory peak.

Official documentation extract used: Databricks Query Profile graph view shows metrics such as “Time spent, Memory peak, and Rows.”

Option C is correct. Different visualization types are used to communicate different insights. For example, a bar chart may compare categories, a line chart may show change over time, and a table may show detailed records. Databricks dashboard documentation confirms that dashboard visualizations can select datasets, choose visualization types, and define x-axis and y-axis fields. The official exam guide also includes identifying the effective visualization type to communicate insights clearly. Option A is false because dashboard visualizations can be configured independently. Option B is false because categorical data is commonly shown with bar charts, not line charts. Option D is false because bar charts and histograms serve different analytical purposes. References: Databricks dashboard visualization documentation and Data Analyst Associate Exam Guide.

The correct answer is C because a dashboard is designed to collect multiple visualizations and query outputs in one shared reporting interface. A SQL warehouse provides compute for running SQL queries, but it is not a sharing/reporting interface. Query History only shows past query executions. A visualization tab belongs to one query result, while a dashboard can display multiple results together for stakeholders.

Official documentation extract used: Databricks states that dashboards are used to “build data visualizations and share reports with your team.”