GCP Data Analysis & Reporting 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which BigQuery feature allows you to share datasets with other Google Cloud projects without copying data?
- BigQuery Omni
- Analytics Hub (Correct answer)
- BigQuery Data Transfer Service
- Cloud Storage FUSE
Correct answer: Analytics Hub
Analytics Hub enables organizations to publish and subscribe to shared datasets (data exchanges) across projects without duplicating the underlying data.
Question 2: In a Dataflow streaming pipeline, what does 'windowing' accomplish?
- It limits the number of parallel workers
- It groups unbounded streaming data into finite chunks for aggregation (Correct answer)
- It caches intermediate pipeline results to disk
- It routes data to different output sinks based on content
Correct answer: It groups unbounded streaming data into finite chunks for aggregation
Windowing divides an unbounded data stream into finite time-based or count-based buckets so aggregations (sums, averages) can be computed over streaming data.
Question 3: You notice a BigQuery query scanning 500GB but only returning 100 rows. What is the most effective optimization?
- Increase the number of BigQuery slots
- Add a WHERE clause filtering on a partitioned or clustered column (Correct answer)
- Use SELECT * to retrieve all columns
- Switch from on-demand to flat-rate pricing
Correct answer: Add a WHERE clause filtering on a partitioned or clustered column
Filtering on a partition or cluster column prunes the data scanned at the storage layer, dramatically reducing bytes processed and query cost.
Question 4: Which BigQuery ML model type would you use to predict a continuous numerical value, such as next month's sales revenue?
- Logistic regression
- K-means clustering
- Linear regression (Correct answer)
- Boosted tree classifier
Correct answer: Linear regression
Linear regression in BigQuery ML predicts a continuous output variable based on input features, making it appropriate for numerical forecasting tasks.
Question 5: What is the purpose of the INFORMATION_SCHEMA views in BigQuery?
- To store user-defined functions and stored procedures
- To provide metadata about datasets, tables, jobs, and schema definitions (Correct answer)
- To display real-time query execution plans
- To manage IAM permissions for BigQuery resources
Correct answer: To provide metadata about datasets, tables, jobs, and schema definitions
INFORMATION_SCHEMA is a set of system views that expose metadata about BigQuery resources including table schemas, column details, job history, and storage statistics.
Question 6: In Looker Studio, which dimension type enables users to dynamically filter a report by selecting values from a dropdown?
- Calculated field
- Scorecard
- Control filter (dropdown list) (Correct answer)
- Data blend
Correct answer: Control filter (dropdown list)
A dropdown list control in Looker Studio creates an interactive filter widget that lets viewers select dimension values to dynamically filter all charts on the page.
Question 7: Which GCP service should you use to detect anomalies and trends in time-series metrics collected from your data pipelines?
- Cloud Trace
- Cloud Monitoring with alerting policies (Correct answer)
- Error Reporting
- Cloud Profiler
Correct answer: Cloud Monitoring with alerting policies
Cloud Monitoring collects time-series metrics and supports alerting policies that can trigger on anomalies, thresholds, or trend deviations in pipeline metrics.
GCP Data Analysis & Reporting 5
Which BigQuery feature allows you to share datasets with other Google Cloud projects without copying data?