Databricks Databricks-Certified-Data-Analyst-Associate Databricks Certified Data Analyst Associate Exam Exam Practice Test

Markdown-based text boxes are useful as labels on a dashboard. They allow the data analyst to add text to a dashboard using the %md magic command in a notebook cell and then select the dashboard icon in the cell actions menu. The text can be formatted using markdown syntax and can include headings, lists, links, images, and more. The text boxes can be resized and moved around on the dashboard using the float layout option. References: Dashboards in notebooks, How to add text to a dashboard in Databricks

Databricks provides a user-friendly interface that allows data analysts to quickly upload small datasets, such as a 50-row CSV file, and create tables within Databricks SQL. The steps are as follows:​

Access the Data Upload Interface:

In the Databricks workspace, navigate to the sidebar and click onNew>Add or upload data.​

SelectCreate or modify a table.​

Upload the CSV File:

Click on thebrowsebutton or drag and drop the CSV file directly onto the designated area.​

The interface supports uploading up to 10 files simultaneously, with a total size limit of 2 GB.​

Configure Table Settings:

After uploading, a preview of the data is displayed.​

Specify the table name, select the appropriate schema, and configure any additional settings as needed.​

Create the Table:

Once all configurations are set, click on theCreate Tablebutton to finalize the process.​

This method is efficient for quickly importing small datasets without the need for additional tools or complex configurations. Options B, C, and D involve more complex or manual processes that are unnecessary for this task.​

 Data engineers are primarily responsible for building, managing, and optimizing data pipelines and architectures. They use Databricks Data Science and Engineering service to perform tasks such as data ingestion, transformation, quality, and governance. Data engineers may use Databricks SQL as a secondary service to query, analyze, and visualize data from the lakehouse, but this is not their main focus. References: Databricks SQL overview, Databricks Data Science and Engineering overview, Data engineering with Databricks

Query History in Databricks SQL is intended for reviewing executed queries, understanding their execution plans, and identifying performance issues or errors for debugging purposes. It allows users to analyze query duration, resources used, and potential bottlenecks. However, Query History does not provide any capability to automate the execution of queries across multiple warehouses; automation must be handled through jobs or external orchestration tools, not through the Query History feature itself.

Databricks Partner Connect is designed to simplify and streamline the integration between Databricks and its technology partners. It provides a unified interface within the Databricks platform that facilitates the discovery and connection to a variety of data, analytics, and AI tools. By automating the configuration of necessary resources such as clusters, tokens, and connection files, Partner Connect enables seamless, bi-directional data flow between Databricks and partner solutions. This integration enhances the overall functionality of the Databricks Lakehouse by allowing users to easily incorporate external tools and services into their workflows, thereby expanding the platform's capabilities and fostering a more cohesive data ecosystem.​

 A Delta Lake-based data lakehouse is a data platform architecture that combines the scalability and flexibility of a data lake with the reliability and performance of a data warehouse. One of the key advantages of using a Delta Lake-based data lakehouse over common data lake solutions is that it supports ACID transactions, which ensure data integrity and consistency. ACID transactions enable concurrent reads and writes, schema enforcement and evolution, data versioning and rollback, and data quality checks. These features are not available in traditional data lakes, which rely on file-based storage systems that do not support transactions. References:

Delta Lake: Lakehouse, warehouse, advantages | Definition

Synapse – Data Lake vs. Delta Lake vs. Data Lakehouse

Data Lake vs. Delta Lake - A Detailed Comparison

Building a Data Lakehouse with Delta Lake Architecture: A Comprehensive Guide

Data analysts should consider all of these factors when working with PII data, as they may affect the data security, privacy, compliance, and quality. PII data is any information that can be used to identify a specific individual, such as name, address, phone number, email, social security number, etc. PII data may be subject to different legal and ethical obligations depending on the context and location of the data collection and analysis. For example, some countries or regions may have stricter data protection laws than others, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union. Data analysts should also follow the organization-specific best practices for PII data, such as encryption, anonymization, masking, access control, auditing, etc. These best practices can help prevent data breaches, unauthorized access, misuse, or loss of PII data. References:

How to Use Databricks to Encrypt and Protect PII Data

Automating Sensitive Data (PII/PHI) Detection

Databricks Certified Data Analyst Associate

In Databricks SQL, when creating a dashboard that includes multiple data visualizations and counters, it is imperative that each visualization and counter is based on a query. The process involves the following steps:​

Develop Queries:

For each desired visualization or counter, write a SQL query that retrieves the necessary data.​

Create Visualizations and Counters:

After executing each query, utilize the results to create corresponding visualizations or counters. Databricks SQL offers a variety of visualization types to represent data effectively.​

Assemble the Dashboard:

Add the created visualizations and counters to your dashboard, arranging them as needed to convey the desired insights.​

By ensuring that all components of the dashboard are derived from queries, you maintain consistency, accuracy, and the ability to refresh data as needed. This approach also facilitates easier maintenance and updates to the dashboard elements.​

Descriptive statistics refer to statistical methods used to describe and summarize the basic features of data in a study. They provide simple summaries about the sample and the measures, often including metrics such as mean, median, mode, range, and standard deviation. Databricks learning materials highlight that descriptive statistics use summary statistics to quantitatively describe and summarize data, providing insight into data distributions without making inferences or predictions.

Databricks SQL uses ANSI SQL as its standard SQL dialect, which means it follows the SQL specifications defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). This makes it easier to migrate existing SQL queries from other data warehouses or platforms that also use ANSI SQL or a similar dialect, such as PostgreSQL, Oracle, or Teradata. By using ANSI SQL, Databricks SQL avoids surprises in behavior or unfamiliar syntax that may arise from using a non-standard SQL dialect, such as Spark SQL or Hive SQL12. Moreover, Databricks SQL also adds compatibility features to support common SQL constructs that are widely used in other data warehouses, such as QUALIFY, FILTER, and user-defined functions2. References: ANSI compliance in Databricks Runtime, Evolution of the SQL language at Databricks: ANSI standard by default and easier migrations from data warehouses

The reason the alert is not functioning as expected is becauseDatabricks SQL Alerts do not support query parameters. This limitation applies to all types of parameters, including date parameters.

Here’s why:

Alerts require static, deterministic query resultsso they can compare values consistently during scheduled executions.

When a query includes parameters (e.g., a date range parameter), its results may change based on user input or the default value set in the query editor.

However,Databricks SQL Alerts will always use the default value set for the parameter at the time the alert is created. This means the alert doesn’t dynamically adapt to new date ranges and will not reflect changes unless the query is manually updated.

As a result, if the business logic behind the alert depends on changing date ranges or any user input, the alert will not trigger correctly, or may never trigger at all.

Therefore, the correct explanation contradictsOption B, which is incorrect in saying that alerts cannot work with date-based queries at all. In fact, theycan—as long as the query is static(i.e., without parameters).

A Structured Streaming pipeline that processes data in micro-batches and populates gold-level tables every minute requires a high level of compute resources to handle the frequent data ingestion, processing, and writing. This could result in a significant cost for the organization, especially if the data volume and velocity are large. Therefore, the data analyst should share this caution with the project stakeholders before setting up the dashboard and evaluate the trade-offs between the desired refresh rate and the available budget. The other options are not valid cautions because:

B. The gold-level tables are assumed to be appropriately clean for business reporting, as they are the final output of the data engineering pipeline. If the data quality is not satisfactory, the issue should be addressed at the source or silver level, not at the gold level.

C. The streaming data is an appropriate data source for a dashboard, as it can provide near real-time insights and analytics for the business users. Structured Streaming supports various sources and sinks for streaming data, including Delta Lake, which can enable both batch and streaming queries on the same data.

D. The streaming cluster is fault tolerant, as Structured Streaming provides end-to-end exactly-once fault-tolerance guarantees through checkpointing and write-ahead logs. If a query fails, it can be restarted from the last checkpoint and resume processing.

E. The dashboard can be refreshed within one minute or less of new data becoming available in the gold-level tables, as Structured Streaming can trigger micro-batches as fast as possible (every few seconds) and update the results incrementally. However, this may not be necessary or optimal for the business use case, as it could cause frequent changes in the dashboard and consume more resources. References: Streaming on Databricks, Monitoring Structured Streaming queries on Databricks, A look at the new Structured Streaming UI in Apache Spark 3.0, Run your first Structured Streaming workload

A Sankey diagram is a type of visualization that shows the flow of data between different nodes or categories. It is often used to represent the movement of users through a website, as it can show the paths they take, the sources they come from, the pages they visit, and the outcomes they achieve. A Sankey diagram consists of links and nodes, where the links represent the volume or weight of the flow, and the nodes represent the stages or steps of the flow. The width of the links is proportional to the amount of flow, and the color of the links can indicate different attributes or segments of the flow. A Sankey diagram can help identify the most common or popular user journeys, the bottlenecks or drop-offs in the flow, and the opportunities for improvement or optimization. References: The answer can be verified from Databricks documentation which provides examples and instructions on how to create Sankey diagrams using Databricks SQL Analytics and Databricks Visualizations. Reference links: Databricks SQL Analytics - Sankey Diagram, Databricks Visualizations - Sankey Diagram

 Databricks SQL is a service that allows users to query data in the lakehouse using SQL and create visualizations and dashboards1. One of the common use cases for Databricks SQL is to combine data from different sources and formats into a single, comprehensive dataset that can be used for further analysis or reporting2. For example, a data analyst can use Databricks SQL to join data from a CSV file and a Parquet file, or from a Delta table and a JDBC table, and create a new table or view that contains the combined data3. This can help simplify the data management and governance, as well as improve the data quality and consistency. References:

Databricks SQL overview

Databricks SQL use cases

Joining data sources

The result set provided shows a combination of grouping by two columns (group_1andgroup_2) with subtotals for each level of grouping and a grand total. This pattern is typical of aGROUP BY ... WITH ROLLUPoperation in SQL, which provides subtotal rows and a grand total row in the result set.

Considering the query options:

A)Option A:GROUP BY group_1, group_2 INCLUDING NULL- This is not a standard SQL clause and would not result in subtotals and a grand total.

B)Option B:GROUP BY group_1, group_2 WITH ROLLUP- This would create subtotals for each uniquegroup_1, each combination ofgroup_1andgroup_2, and a grand total, which matches the result set provided.

C)Option C:GROUP BY group_1, group 2- This is a simpleGROUP BYand would not include subtotals or a grand total.

D)Option D:GROUP BY group_1, group_2, (group_1, group_2)- This syntax is not standard and would likely result in an error or be interpreted as a simpleGROUP BY, not providing the subtotals and grand total.

E)Option E:GROUP BY group_1, group_2 WITH CUBE- TheWITH CUBEoperation produces subtotals for all combinations of the selected columns and a grand total, which is more than what is shown in the result set.

The correct answer isOption B, which usesWITH ROLLUPto generate the subtotals for each level of grouping as well as a grand total. This matches the result set where we have subtotals for eachgroup_1, each combination ofgroup_1andgroup_2, and the grand total where bothgroup_1andgroup_2areNULL.

 A Dashboard Parameter is a parameter that is configured for one or more visualizations within a dashboard and appears at the top of the dashboard. The parameter values specified for a Dashboard Parameter apply to all visualizations reusing that particular Dashboard Parameter1. Therefore, if the analyst chooses “Dashboard Parameter” for the query parameter associated with the area chart, the area chart will use whatever is selected in the Dashboard Parameter along with all of the other visualizations in the dashboard that use the same parameter. This allows the user to filter the data across multiple visualizations using a single parameter widget2. References: Databricks SQL dashboards, Query parameters

Data Explorer is a user interface that allows you to discover and manage data, schemas, tables, models, and permissions in Databricks SQL. You can use Data Explorer to view schema details, preview sample data, and see table and model details and properties. Administrators can view and change owners, and admins and data object owners can grant and revoke permissions1. References: Discover and manage data using Data Explorer

 Descriptive statistics is a branch of statistics that uses summary statistics, such as mean, median, mode, standard deviation, range, frequency, or correlation, to quantitatively describe and summarize data. Descriptive statistics can help data analysts understand the main features of a data set, such as its central tendency, variability, or distribution. Descriptive statistics can also help data analysts visualize data using charts, graphs, or tables. Descriptive statistics do not make any inferences or predictions about the data, unlike inferential statistics, which use data analysis techniques to infer properties of an underlying population or probability distribution from a sample of data. References: Databricks - Descriptive Statistics, Databricks - Data Analysis with Databricks SQL