DBT Testing & Data Quality Flashcards

What does the `store_failures` config on a dbt test do?

Answer: Persists failing rows to a table in the database

When `store_failures: true`, dbt creates a table containing the rows that caused the test to fail, useful for debugging.

Which severity level causes dbt test to exit with a non-zero code but continue running remaining tests?

Answer: warn

Setting `severity: warn` makes dbt report the failure as a warning and continue without stopping the run.

Where are singular (bespoke) dbt tests stored in a standard project layout?

Answer: tests/

Singular tests are plain SQL SELECT files placed in the `tests/` directory; a non-empty result means the test fails.

What does a singular dbt test return to indicate a failure?

Answer: Any non-empty result set

dbt runs the SQL and considers any rows returned as failures; zero rows means the test passes.

Which config allows you to set a threshold so a test only fails if MORE than N rows are returned?

Answer: error_if

`error_if` accepts a numeric expression (e.g., `>100`) so a test only errors when the failure count exceeds that limit.

Which dbt-utils test checks that a numeric column never decreases over time within a partition?

Answer: monotonic_increase

`dbt_utils.monotonic_increase` asserts that values in a column are always greater than or equal to the previous row's value.