Data Engineering Fundamentals 5

Question 1

What is a data mart?

Accepted Answer

A subset of a data warehouse focused on a specific business area

Answer

A data mart is a focused, department-specific subset of a data warehouse serving a particular business function.

Question 2

Which processing model handles data in fixed-size chunks at scheduled intervals?

Accepted Answer

Batch processing

Answer

Batch processing collects and processes data in groups on a schedule rather than continuously.

Question 3

What is the main advantage of using surrogate keys in a data warehouse?

Accepted Answer

They provide stable, system-generated identifiers independent of source-system changes

Answer

Surrogate keys are artificial identifiers that stay stable even when source business keys change, simplifying joins and history tracking.

Question 4

What does 'schema drift' refer to?

Accepted Answer

Unexpected changes to the structure of incoming data over time

Answer

Schema drift is when the structure of source data changes unexpectedly, potentially breaking downstream pipelines.

Question 5

Which storage layer pattern often organizes data into bronze, silver, and gold tiers?

Accepted Answer

Medallion architecture

Answer

The medallion architecture progressively refines data through bronze (raw), silver (cleaned), and gold (curated) layers.

Data Engineering Practice Test