Project Development Flashcards

You want every model in the models/marts/ folder to be built as a table without adding config blocks to each file. What is the best approach?

Answer: Add +materialized: table under models: > your_project: > marts: in dbt_project.yml

Folder-level configs in dbt_project.yml apply to all models in that directory path.

If a model sets {{ config(materialized='view') }} but dbt_project.yml sets its folder to table, what is built?

Answer: A view, because the in-file config block takes precedence

In-model config() blocks override properties YAML and dbt_project.yml configs.

Custom schemas are producing names like dbt_jsmith_marketing instead of just marketing in production. Which macro should you override to change this behavior?

Answer: generate_schema_name

generate_schema_name controls how target.schema and custom schema configs combine.

Which file is used to install third-party dbt packages such as dbt_utils?

Answer: packages.yml

Packages are listed in packages.yml (or dependencies.yml) and installed with dbt deps.

You want to pass a date to a model at runtime via the CLI. Which approach is correct?

Answer: dbt run --vars '{"start_date": "2024-01-01"}' and use {{ var('start_date') }} in SQL

The --vars flag supplies YAML/JSON values that var() reads at compile time.

Where should SQL that you want compiled with Jinja and ref() but never materialized, such as an ad hoc audit query, be placed?

Answer: analyses/

Files in analyses/ are compiled by dbt compile but never run against the warehouse.

A small CSV of country codes needs to be version-controlled and loaded into the warehouse. What dbt feature fits best?

Answer: A seed loaded with dbt seed

Seeds are CSV files in the project loaded as tables via dbt seed and referenced with ref().