Data Processing Batch Processing and Real-Time Processing 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which framework is widely used for real-time stream processing in the US?
- Apache Kafka Streams (Correct answer)
- Microsoft Access
- FTP Server
- Apache Subversion
Correct answer: Apache Kafka Streams
Apache Kafka Streams is a widely adopted library for building real-time stream processing applications on top of Apache Kafka.
Question 2: What is event-driven processing?
- Processing all records every 24 hours
- Triggering computations in response to individual events as they occur (Correct answer)
- Archiving events after 30 days
- Batch loading events once per week
Correct answer: Triggering computations in response to individual events as they occur
Event-driven processing executes logic immediately in response to each discrete event, enabling highly responsive and decoupled systems.
Question 3: What is the primary disadvantage of real-time stream processing compared to batch?
- It cannot handle any data
- Higher system complexity and infrastructure cost to achieve low-latency guarantees (Correct answer)
- It only works with structured data
- Output is always less accurate
Correct answer: Higher system complexity and infrastructure cost to achieve low-latency guarantees
Real-time stream processing requires more sophisticated infrastructure, fault tolerance mechanisms, and operational expertise than simple batch pipelines.
Question 4: What is a windowing function in stream processing?
- A function that encrypts stream data
- A function that groups stream events into time-based segments for aggregation (Correct answer)
- A function that archives old stream data
- A function that converts streams to CSV files
Correct answer: A function that groups stream events into time-based segments for aggregation
Windowing groups stream events into fixed or sliding time segments so aggregations like counts or averages can be computed over those intervals.
Question 5: What is late data in stream processing?
- Data that is stored in the wrong table
- Events that arrive after the processing window they belong to has already closed (Correct answer)
- Data that has not been encrypted
- Records with NULL timestamps
Correct answer: Events that arrive after the processing window they belong to has already closed
Late data refers to events that arrive out of order after their expected processing window has closed, requiring special handling to maintain accuracy.
Question 6: Which metric best describes the processing speed of a real-time data pipeline?
- Compression ratio
- Latency (Correct answer)
- Index coverage
- Partition count
Correct answer: Latency
Latency measures the time between when an event occurs and when the pipeline finishes processing it, which is the key performance metric for real-time systems.
Which framework is widely used for real-time stream processing in the US?