CDS Study Guide 2026
Everything you need to pass the CDS exam in one place: the exam format, every topic to study, real practice questions with explanations, flashcards, and full-length practice tests. Free, no sign-up needed.
📋 CDS Exam Format at a Glance
📚 CDS Topics to Study (69)
✍️ Sample CDS Questions & Answers
1. A data architecture team is debating whether to use an ELT or ETL approach for their cloud data warehouse. Which statement BEST describes the ELT advantage?
ELT loads raw data first and uses the cloud warehouse's elastic compute for transformation, making pipelines simpler and transformations easier to iterate on.
2. Which monitoring technique compares today's record count against the trailing 30-day average to detect anomalies?
Volume-based trend monitoring uses historical averages as a baseline to flag unusual spikes or drops in record counts.
3. When configuring data lineage tracking in an ETL pipeline, which level of granularity provides the most value for root-cause analysis of data quality issues?
Column-level lineage traces exactly how each field is transformed, enabling precise identification of where incorrect values originate.
4. A user claims that a report is pulling 'wrong' data. After investigation, the data steward determines the data is correct but the report filter logic is flawed. This is an example of:
When underlying data is accurate but the report produces incorrect results, the defect lies in the reporting logic, not in the data itself.
5. Which metric is most useful for measuring the effectiveness of a data lifecycle management program?
Tracking policy coverage across data assets measures how consistently the lifecycle program governs data from creation to disposal.
6. How does poor data quality affect business intelligence?
Poor data quality significantly undermines the effectiveness of business intelligence (BI) initiatives. When data is inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent, any analytics performed on it will yield flawed insights and reports. This directly leads to poor, misinformed business decisions, potentially causing financial losses, missed opportunities, and operational inefficiencies.