DBT DBT Deployment & CI/CD

Question 1

What is the purpose of dbt Cloud's Slim CI feature?

Accepted Answer

Runs only models that have changed since the last successful job

Answer

Compiles dbt models without running them

Answer

Reduces Cloud plan costs automatically

Answer

Minifies generated SQL for faster queries

Question 2

Which selector is used in dbt to run only models that differ from a previous state manifest?

Accepted Answer

--select state:modified

Answer

--select changed

Answer

--select diff:new

Answer

--select modified:true

Question 3

What environment variable or flag tells dbt where to find the baseline manifest for state comparison?

Accepted Answer

--state or DBT_STATE

Answer

--manifest-path

Answer

--baseline-dir

Answer

DBT_MANIFEST

Question 4

In a dbt Cloud job, what does enabling 'Generate docs' do?

Accepted Answer

Runs `dbt docs generate` to refresh the catalog artifact after the run

Answer

Publishes docs to a public URL automatically

Answer

Sends documentation to Confluence

Answer

Adds doc() blocks to all models

Question 5

Which dbt Core command compiles SQL without executing it against the warehouse?

Accepted Answer

dbt compile

Answer

dbt parse

Answer

dbt dry-run

Answer

dbt validate

Question 6

What is the recommended way to handle secrets (e.g., database passwords) in a dbt CI pipeline?

Accepted Answer

Use environment variables injected by the CI platform

Answer

Store them in profiles.yml committed to the repo

Answer

Hardcode them in dbt_project.yml

Answer

Store them in a seed CSV