DBT DBT Core Concepts & Architecture 3

Question 1

What does the `--full-refresh` flag do when running incremental models?

Accepted Answer

Forces dbt to drop and recreate the incremental model as a full table

Answer

The `--full-refresh` flag causes dbt to drop the existing incremental table and rebuild it from scratch, identical to running it as a table materialization.

Question 2

What is a dbt adapter?

Accepted Answer

A plugin that allows dbt to connect to and compile SQL for a specific data platform

Answer

A dbt adapter (e.g., dbt-bigquery, dbt-snowflake) is a plugin that enables dbt to translate its generic operations into platform-specific SQL and API calls.

Question 3

What does the `vars` block in `dbt_project.yml` enable?

Accepted Answer

Defining project-wide variables accessible via the `var()` function

Answer

The `vars` block defines project-level variables accessible via `var('variable_name')` in models and macros, and can be overridden at runtime with `--vars`.

Question 4

Which materialization type creates a permanent, physically stored table in the data warehouse on every run?

Accepted Answer

table

Answer

The `table` materialization drops and recreates a full physical table in the warehouse on every run, as opposed to a view which is only a stored query.

Question 5

What is the purpose of the `manifest.json` file generated by dbt?

Accepted Answer

Contains a complete representation of the dbt project including all nodes and their relationships

Answer

`manifest.json` is a comprehensive artifact capturing all project resources (models, tests, sources, macros) and their metadata, used by dbt docs and CI tooling.

DBT - Certified Data Build Tool Developer Practice Test

DBT - Certified Data Build Tool Developer Practice Test

DBT DBT Core Concepts & Architecture 3