Data Engineering Associate with Databricks Practice Exam

What does the data plane in Databricks primarily handle?

1. Job scheduling

2. Cluster launching

3. Data processing

4. User authentication

The correct answer is: Data processing

The data plane in Databricks is primarily responsible for data processing. This component deals with the actual operation of transforming, analyzing, and manipulating data using various tools and frameworks available within the Databricks environment, such as Apache Spark. The data plane ensures that the data is processed efficiently by handling tasks such as executing jobs and running computations across distributed data. In contrast, other aspects, such as job scheduling and cluster launching, are typically handled by the control plane, which manages the orchestration of resources and job execution without directly engaging in the data processing itself. User authentication also falls under the control plane, where security protocols and user management are maintained to ensure proper access to resources. Understanding the distinct functions of the data and control planes is crucial for leveraging Databricks effectively in data engineering tasks.