Pass the Databricks ML Data Scientist Databricks-Machine-Learning-Associate Questions and answers with ExamsMirror

For large datasets, Spark ML uses iterative optimization methods to distribute the training of a linear regression model. Specifically, Spark MLlib employs techniques like Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) and Limited-memory Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno (L-BFGS) optimization to iteratively update the model parameters. These methods are well-suited for distributed computing environments because they can handle large-scale data efficiently by processing mini-batches of data and updating the model incrementally.

References:

Databricks documentation on linear regression: Linear Regression in Spark ML

The data scientist can refactor their notebook to utilize the pandas API on Spark (now known aspandas on Spark, formerlyKoalas). This allows for the least amount of changes to the existing pandas-based code while scaling to handle big data using Spark's distributed computing capabilities.pandas on Sparkprovides a similar API to pandas, making the transition smoother and faster compared to completely rewriting the code to use PySpark DataFrame API, Scala Dataset API, or Spark SQL.References:

Databricks documentation on pandas API on Spark (formerly Koalas).

To identify which task is causing the failure in the job, the team should review the matrix view in the Job's runs. The matrix view provides a clear and detailed overview of each task's status, allowing the team to quickly identify which task failed. This approach ismore efficient than running each notebook interactively, as it provides immediate insights into the job's execution flow and any issues that occurred during the run.

References:

Databricks documentation on Jobs: Jobs in Databricks

To display visual histograms and summaries of the numeric features in a Spark DataFrame, the Databricks utility functiondbutils.data.summarizecan be used. This function provides a comprehensive summary, including visual histograms.

Correct code:

dbutils.data.summarize(spark_df)

Other options likespark_df.describe()andspark_df.summary()provide textual statistical summaries but do not include visual histograms.

References:

Databricks Utilities Documentation

Gradient boosting is fundamentally an iterative algorithm where each new tree is built based on the errors of the previous ones. This sequential dependency makes it difficult to parallelize the training of trees in gradient boosting, as each step relies on the results from the preceding step. Parallelization in this context would undermine the core methodology of the algorithm, which depends on sequentially improving the model'sperformance with each iteration.References:

Machine Learning Algorithms (Challenges with Parallelizing Gradient Boosting).

Gradient boosting is an ensemble learning technique that builds models in a sequential manner. Each new model corrects the errors made by the previous ones. This sequential dependency means that each iteration requires the results of the previous iteration to make corrections. Here is a step-by-step explanation of why this makes parallelization challenging:

Sequential Nature: Gradient boosting builds one tree at a time. Each tree is trained to correct the residual errors of the previous trees. This requires the model to complete one iteration before starting the next.

Dependence on Previous Iterations: The gradient calculation at each step depends on the predictions made by the previous models. Therefore, the model must wait until the previous tree has been fully trained and evaluated before starting to train the next tree.

Difficulty in Parallelization: Because of this dependency, it is challenging to parallelize the training process. Unlike algorithms that process data independently in each step (e.g., random forests), gradient boosting cannot easily distribute the work across multiple processors or cores for simultaneous execution.

This iterative and dependent nature of the gradient boosting process makes it difficult to parallelize effectively.

References

Gradient Boosting Machine Learning Algorithm

Understanding Gradient Boosting Machines

In the provided code block, theImputerobject is created but not fitted on the data to generate anImputerModel. Thetransformmethod is being called directly on theImputerobject, which does not yet contain the fitted median values needed for imputation. The correct approach is to fit the imputer on the dataset first.

Corrected code:

imputer = Imputer( strategy="median", inputCols=input_columns, outputCols=output_columns ) imputer_model = imputer.fit(features_df)# Fit the imputer to the dataimputed_features_df = imputer_model.transform(features_df)# Transform the data using the fitted imputer

References:

PySpark ML Documentation

The method that transforms categorical features into a series of binary indicator variables is known as one-hot encoding. This technique converts each categorical value into a new binary column, which is essential for models that require numerical input. One-hot encoding is widely used because it helps to handle categorical data without introducing a false ordinal relationship among categories.References:

Feature Engineering Techniques (One-Hot Encoding).

One reason that results can differ between sklearn and Spark ML decision trees, despite identical data and hyperparameters, is that Spark ML decision trees test binned feature values as representative split candidates. Spark ML uses a method called "quantile binning" to reduce the number of potential split points by grouping continuous features into bins. This binning process can lead to different splits compared to sklearn, which tests all possible split points directly. This difference in the splitting algorithm can cause variations in the resulting trees.References:

Spark MLlib Documentation (Decision Trees and Quantile Binning).

To view the notebook that was run to create an MLflow run, you can click the "Source" link in the row corresponding to the run in the MLflow experiment page. The "Source" link provides a direct reference to the source notebook or script that initiated the run, allowing you to review the code and methodology used in the experiment. This feature is particularly useful for reproducibility and for understanding the context of the experiment.References:

MLflow Documentation (Viewing Run Sources and Notebooks).

For large datasets with many variables, Spark ML distributes the training of a linear regression model using iterative optimization methods. Specifically, Spark ML employs algorithms such as Gradient Descent or L-BFGS (Limited-memory Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno) to iteratively minimize the loss function. These iterative methods are suitable for distributed computing environments and can handle large-scale data efficiently by partitioning the data across nodes in a cluster and performing parallel updates.References:

Spark MLlib Documentation (Linear Regression with Iterative Optimization).