Pass the dbt Labs Analytics Engineers dbt-Analytics-Engineering Questions and answers with ExamsMirror

dbt includes built-in support for model versioning and controlled deprecation. When you introduce a new version of a model, dbt will only warn about the old version being removed if the old version explicitly includes a deprecation_date configuration. This parameter signals to dbt that the model is scheduled for removal after a certain date, allowing dbt to produce structured warnings to users and downstream systems. These warnings serve as a formal notice that the old version should no longer be referenced and will eventually be removed.

Option A, simply creating a new version, does not trigger warnings by itself. dbt allows multiple versions to coexist without any deprecation messaging unless you explicitly configure it. Option C (enabled: false) disables the model entirely, which is not a graceful deprecation strategy and does not result in version-removal warnings. Option D (adding “deprecated” in the description) is only informational text and has no functional effect on dbt’s deprecation system.

Thus, only B—setting deprecation_date on the old version—activates dbt’s official deprecation warning mechanism, making it the correct answer.

The correct answer is B: By adding the configurations in dbt_project.yml within the package’s namespace.

dbt packages are installed as read-only code, meaning you should never modify files inside /dbt_packages, nor should you attempt to overwrite generated artifacts inside /target. Instead, dbt provides a clean and officially supported method for overriding or extending configurations on models from packages: using the dbt_project.yml file.

Each package comes with its own namespace, and users can override model-level configurations by referencing that namespace inside the models: section of dbt_project.yml. dbt merges project-level configurations with package-level defaults, and configurations defined in dbt_project.yml take precedence. This is the only correct and recommended way to override settings such as materializations, tags, schema, or custom config blocks on models imported through a package.

Option A is incorrect because packages.yml is used only to declare package dependencies—not to configure package models. Option C is incorrect because the ./target folder contains compiled and ephemeral artifacts that should never be edited. Option D is incorrect because modifying code in /dbt_packages violates dbt best practices and will be overwritten each time packages are reinstalled.

Therefore, overriding configurations must be done exclusively through dbt_project.yml.

Operation

Correct Location

Aggregations (booked_hotel, booked_ride)

In a model dedicated to pre-aggregate data for reporting

Standardizing customer_id

In the first layer of models

Selecting customer_name

In the first layer of models

Joining employees

In a model between the first layer and final layer of models

In dbt’s recommended modeling framework, transformations should be centralized according to their purpose and level of abstraction. Basic cleaning and column standardization—such as shortening customers.id using left(customers.id, 12)—belongs in the first layer of models, commonly known as staging models. This layer is responsible for producing clean, consistent, analytics-ready fields. Selecting raw descriptive fields like customers.name also belongs in this layer.

Joins that enrich a dataset by combining cleaned staging outputs across domains—such as joining customers with employees—belong in intermediate models. These models unify business logic that sits between the raw staging layer and the final aggregations used for reporting.

Finally, aggregations like counting types of accommodations (booked_hotel and booked_ride) belong in marts or reporting models, especially when they involve summarization that downstream tools (dashboards, BI reports) will consume. This keeps heavy business logic centralized and reusable.

The correct answers are A and C.

dbt clone is a command introduced to efficiently replicate existing relations (tables/views) from one schema/environment to another within the same warehouse without fully rebuilding them. It typically leverages warehouse-level “clone” functionality (e.g., Snowflake zero-copy clone). To know what to clone, dbt needs information about previously built models; this is stored in artifacts like manifest.json. Therefore, A is correct: it requires a reference to a previous manifest/state to know which models and locations to operate on.

C is also correct because cloning a production schema into a development schema enables you to test code changes while pointing downstream tools (like BI dashboards) at the cloned data. That way, BI or ML systems can exercise new dbt logic without impacting real production objects.

Option B describes state:modified / state comparison behavior, but dbt clone does create (or clone) objects, so B is false.

Option D is incorrect because clone works within a warehouse, not across different warehouses.

Option E is wrong: _v# suffixing is for model versioning, not cloning.

Thus, A and C correctly describe the behavior and purpose of dbt clone.

The goal in this scenario is:

Select only models, tests, and snapshots that were modified in development, using:state:modified

Use already-built production objects whenever possible, so development does not need to rebuild everything. This is done with:--defer

Compare development code against production artifacts, which requires:--state

Run everything (models + tests + snapshots) in a single command. This is exactly what dbt build does.

dbt build = run models + run tests + run snapshots + run seeds.

Putting it all together, the correct command is:

dbt build --select state:modified --defer --state

This single command satisfies all requirements:

It runs only modified resources.

It uses the production state artifacts for comparison.

It defers to production-built models where possible.

It runs all resource types automatically.

Why the other options are incorrect:

A → Missing --state, so state:modified cannot function.

B → Splits run + test separately; question asks which single command you will invoke.

D → Missing --defer, which defeats the purpose of using production objects.

E → Also missing --defer.

Thus, Option C is the only correct answer.

Hook 1

on-run-end: "{{ macro_x() }}"

Answer: macro_1

Hook 2

models:

:

post-hook: "{{ macro_x() }}"

Answer: macro_2

Hook 3

on-run-start: "{{ macro_x() }}"

Answer: macro_3

Hook 4

{{

config(

pre-hook: "{{ macro_x() }}"

)

}}

Answer: macro_4

dbt supports run-level hooks and model-level hooks. Run-level hooks fire once per invocation, while model-level hooks fire around each individual model.

on-run-end is a run-level after hook that executes once after the entire dbt command completes. Because macro_1() must run after every dbt run, it correctly belongs here.

The post-hook configured under the models: section runs after each model in that scope finishes building. This matches the requirement for macro_2() to execute after a model runs.

on-run-start is a run-level before hook and fires once before dbt begins executing any models for that command, making it the right place for macro_3() which must run before every dbt run.

Finally, the pre-hook specified inside a model’s config() block runs before that specific model is built. Since macro_4() must execute before a model runs, it belongs in the pre-hook configuration.

Thus the correct mapping is:

on-run-end → macro_1

model post-hook → macro_2

on-run-start → macro_3

model pre-hook → macro_4.

The correct answers are C: Exposures describe a downstream use of your dbt project and E: You can run, test, and list resources that feed into your Exposure.

Exposures in dbt are documentation constructs that describe how the outputs of your dbt project are used downstream—such as dashboards, machine learning models, applications, reporting layers, or external tools. They exist to provide visibility into the final layer of the analytics workflow, making it easier to track lineage from raw data → models → downstream consumers.

Option C is correct because the official dbt documentation explicitly states that exposures define the downstream use cases of dbt models. They create transparency about dependencies outside the dbt DAG itself.

Option E is also correct. Using commands like dbt ls --select +exposure: or dbt run --select +exposure:, dbt enables users to run, test, and inspect the upstream resources feeding into the exposure. This is extremely valuable for impact analysis and CI workflows.

Option A is incorrect because exposures are downstream, not upstream—meaning models feed into exposures, not the other way around.

Option B is incorrect because exposures are not materialized in the warehouse; they are metadata stored in YAML.

Option D is incorrect because exposures are defined in YAML files, not SQL files.

Thus, C and E are the correct statements.

In dbt, a singular test is any SQL file placed directly inside the tests/ directory—not inside the tests/generic/ folder. Singular tests contain a custom SQL query where returning any rows means failure. They are distinct from generic tests, which are YAML-defined and live inside the generic directory, often referencing macros.

Looking at the folder structure:

In tests/generic/

furniture_customers_test.sql → This is a generic test, not a singular test.

In the root tests/ directory

macro_stg_tpch_orders_assert_pos_price.sql → singular test

macro_stg_tpch_suppliers_assert_pos_acct_bal.sql → singular test

stg_tpch_orders_assert_positive_price.sql → singular test

When you run:

dbt test --select 'test_type:singular'

dbt selects only singular tests, meaning tests that are individually written SQL files in the top-level tests/ directory.

Therefore, dbt will run:

macro_stg_tpch_orders_assert_pos_price

macro_stg_tpch_suppliers_assert_pos_acct_bal

stg_tpch_orders_assert_positive_price

It will not run furniture_customers_test, because that file is inside tests/generic/, which is reserved for template-based generic tests and is not classified as singular.

Thus, the correct answer is Option C.

The correct answers are B: tags and C: enabled.

dbt tests—both generic and singular—support a limited but clearly defined set of configurations. Two of the supported configurations are tags, which allow grouping and selecting tests using dbt’s selector syntax, and enabled, which can be set to true or false to control whether a test should run. These configurations are commonly used to manage large test suites, such as disabling slow tests in development or tagging tests for CI pipelines.

Option A (on_schema_change) is a model-only configuration and cannot be applied to tests.

Option D (materialized) applies only to models, not tests, since tests compile into queries that evaluate failures rather than physical objects.

Option E (persist_docs) applies to models and sources for documentation purposes. Tests do not support persisted documentation properties beyond what appears in test metadata.

dbt’s documentation makes clear that tests inherit only a small subset of configurations compared to models—primarily enabled, tags, severity, and custom test arguments. Among the options provided, only tags and enabled are valid and supported.

Thus, the correct answers are B and C.