CDS Automation & Scripting 5

Question 1

A data steward needs to automate data masking for a test environment cloned from production. Which approach best balances realism and privacy?

Accepted Answer

Use format-preserving encryption or synthetic data generation

Answer

Format-preserving encryption and synthetic data maintain structural realism while eliminating real PII exposure.

Question 2

Which Python construct is most efficient for processing large files line-by-line in an automation script without loading the entire file into memory?

Accepted Answer

for line in file: (generator/iterator)

Answer

Iterating over a file object uses Python's generator protocol, processing one line at a time with minimal memory overhead.

Question 3

A data steward's script must handle a third-party API that intermittently returns 503 errors. Which pattern should be implemented?

Accepted Answer

Implement exponential backoff with a maximum retry limit

Answer

Exponential backoff reduces load on the failing service while giving it time to recover, with a retry cap preventing infinite loops.

Question 4

In the context of data stewardship automation, what is a 'pipeline orchestrator' such as Apache Airflow primarily used for?

Accepted Answer

Scheduling, sequencing, and monitoring dependent data workflow tasks

Answer

Pipeline orchestrators like Airflow define task dependencies, schedule execution, and provide monitoring and retry capabilities.

Question 5

A data steward is writing a script to validate referential integrity between two tables. Which SQL approach is most direct?

Accepted Answer

LEFT JOIN with a WHERE clause filtering for unmatched foreign keys

Answer

A LEFT JOIN filtering for NULL matches on the right side efficiently identifies orphaned foreign key values.

(CDS) Certified Data Steward Practice Test