Data Engineering Associate with Databricks Practice Exam

Which statement is true regarding Delta Lake?

1. It's limited to batch processing

2. It is a proprietary storage format

3. It enhances reliability, security, and performance

4. It only supports unstructured data

The correct answer is: It enhances reliability, security, and performance

Delta Lake is designed to enhance reliability, security, and performance in data engineering processes, particularly when used in conjunction with Apache Spark. It provides features such as ACID transactions, scalable metadata handling, and schema enforcement, which significantly improve the reliability of data operations, enabling users to manage data more effectively and ensuring data integrity. Additionally, Delta Lake allows for data versioning and time travel capabilities, which contribute to data security by giving users the ability to easily roll back to previous versions of data. Performance is enhanced through features like data skipping, which optimizes queries by reducing the amount of data that needs to be read during processing. The other statements present limitations or inaccuracies. For instance, Delta Lake is not restricted to batch processing; it supports both streaming and batch workflows. It is an open-source project and is not a proprietary storage format, which means it can work with various file formats and data sources. Furthermore, it accommodates structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data, rather than being limited to just unstructured data. This versatility makes Delta Lake a powerful tool in modern data architectures.