Apache Spark Interview Questions

Checkout Vskills Interview questions with answers in Apache Spark to prepare for your next job role. The questions are submitted by professionals to help you to prepare for the Interview.    

Q.1 What is Spark SQL, and how does it relate to structured data?

Spark SQL is a Spark component for structured data processing. It provides a DataFrame API for working with structured data and supports SQL queries.

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Q.2 What is a DataFrame in Spark, and how is it different from an RDD?

A DataFrame is a distributed collection of data organized into named columns, similar to a table in a relational database. It offers optimizations for structured data processing.

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Q.3 Explain the purpose of Spark's Catalyst optimizer.

Catalyst is a query optimization framework in Spark that optimizes query plans for both RDDs and DataFrames, improving performance.

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Q.4 What is the role of Spark Streaming in data processing?

Spark Streaming is a component of Spark that enables processing and analysis of real-time data streams, such as log data or social media updates.

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Q.5 Describe the micro-batch processing model used in Spark Streaming.

Spark Streaming processes data in small, discrete batches, enabling low-latency and reliable stream processing.

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Q.6 How you manage conflict in your team?

Conflicts arise due to disagreements amongst the team members and which is managed by focusing on the reason for conflict. If needed we can use conflict management technique like collaborating, forcing, accommodating or compromising as per the situation.

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Q.7 How can you integrate Spark Streaming with external data sources?

Spark Streaming supports connectors to various data sources, such as Kafka, Flume, and HDFS, allowing seamless ingestion of data streams.

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Q.8 How do you prioritize tasks?

Tasks also need to be prioritized to accomplish the organizational goals as per the specified KPIs (key performance indicators). Prioritization of tasks is done on the basis of various factors like: the tasks relevance, urgency, cost involved and resource availability.

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Q.9 What is the significance of Spark's windowed operations in Spark Streaming?

Windowed operations allow you to apply transformations to a fixed window of data within the stream, enabling analytics over time-based windows.

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Q.10 How you keep yourself updated of new trends in Apache spark?

Apache spark is seeing newer development every year and I update myself by attending industry seminars, conferences as available online or offline.

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Q.11 Explain the role of Spark MLlib in machine learning with Spark.

Spark MLlib is Spark's machine learning library, providing tools for data preprocessing, feature extraction, and machine learning algorithms.

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Q.12 Why you are suitable as Apache spark?

As a Apache spark, I am having extensive experience in both development and administration with requisite skills including: communication, problem solving and coping under pressure.

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Q.13 How does Spark distribute data across a cluster for parallel processing?

Spark divides data into partitions and distributes them across cluster nodes, ensuring that each partition is processed in parallel.

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Q.14 How you manage your time?

Time management is of utmost importance and is applied by: using to do lists, being aware of time wasters and optimizing work environment

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Q.15 What is a Spark driver program, and what is its role?

The driver program is the main application in Spark that controls the execution of Spark jobs, coordinates tasks, and manages data across the cluster.

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Q.16 Why do you want to work as Apache spark at this company?

Working as Apache spark at this company offers me more many avenues of growth and enhance my Apache spark skills. Also considering my education, skills and experience I see myself, more apt for the post.

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Q.17 Explain the concept of Spark executors and their role.

Executors are worker nodes in a Spark cluster that run tasks assigned by the driver program, managing data and computing results.

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Q.18 Why do you want the Apache spark job?

I want the Apache spark job as I am passionate about making companies more efficient by using Apache Spark technology and take stock of present technology portfolio to maximize their utility.

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Q.19 How can you set the number of executors and memory allocation in Spark?

You can configure the number of executors and memory settings in the Spark cluster through cluster manager properties or command-line arguments.

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Q.20 How you manage work under pressure?

I am very good at working under pressure. I have always been someone who is motivated by deadlines, so I thrive when there is a lot of pressure on me.

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Q.21 What is the primary purpose of Spark's cluster manager?

The cluster manager allocates resources (CPU, memory) and manages worker nodes in a Spark cluster to ensure efficient job execution.

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Q.22 Explain lazy evaluation in Apache Spark?

Transformations in Apache Spark are not evaluated until you action is performed for optimizing the overall data processing workflow, known as lazy evaluation.

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Q.23 How does Spark handle fault tolerance and data recovery?

Spark achieves fault tolerance by using lineage information to recompute lost data partitions in case of node failures.

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Q.24 How Apache Spark processes low latency workloads?

Apache Spark stores data in-memory for faster processing needed by low latency workloads.

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Q.25 What is the purpose of Spark's Standalone cluster manager?

Spark's Standalone cluster manager is a built-in cluster manager for Spark that allocates resources and manages worker nodes within a Spark cluster.

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Q.26 What is a Parquet file in Apache Spark?

Parquet is a columnar format supported by several data processing systems.

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Q.27 Explain the role of broadcast variables in Spark.

Broadcast variables allow you to efficiently distribute read-only data to worker nodes, reducing data transfer overhead in Spark applications.

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Q.28 What is shuffling in Apache Spark?

Shuffling refers to the process of redistributing data across partitions that may lead to data movement across the executors.

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Q.29 What are accumulator variables, and when are they useful in Spark?

Accumulator variables allow you to accumulate values across worker nodes in parallel operations, such as counting or summing.

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Q.30 What is the utility of coalesce in Apache Spark?

A coalesce method in Apache Spark reduces the number of partitions in a DataFrame.

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Q.31 How can you tune the performance of Spark applications?

Performance tuning in Spark involves optimizing data storage, partitioning, and parallelism settings, as well as selecting appropriate algorithms.

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Q.32 What are the functionalities supported by Apache Spark Core?

Apache Spark Core functionalities includes - Scheduling and monitoring jobs, Memory management, Fault recovery and Task dispatching.

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Q.33 What is the purpose of the Spark History Server?

The Spark History Server provides a web interface to view and analyze the history and metrics of completed Spark applications.

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Q.34 What is a Lineage Graph in Apache Spark?

A Lineage Graph is a dependencies graph between the existing RDD and the new RDD.

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Q.35 How can you integrate Spark with Hadoop's HDFS for data storage?

Spark can read and write data from and to Hadoop's HDFS, making it compatible with the Hadoop ecosystem for data storage.

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Q.36 What is DStreams in Apache Spark?

A Discretized Stream (DStream) is a continuous sequence of RDDs and the rudimentary abstraction in Apache Spark Streaming.

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Q.37 Explain the concept of Spark's shuffle operation and its impact on performance.

The shuffle operation involves data exchange between partitions and can be performance-intensive, so minimizing shuffling is crucial for better performance.

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Q.38 Explain Caching in Apache Spark Streaming.

Caching is an optimization technique as it helps to save interim partial results so they can be reused in subsequent stages.

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Q.39 What are the benefits of using Spark's DataFrames over RDDs for structured data processing?

DataFrames offer better optimizations for structured data, including built-in schema inference and SQL query support, resulting in improved performance.

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Q.40 What is sliding window operation in Apache Spark?

Controlling the transmission of data packets between multiple computer networks is done by the sliding window.

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Q.41 Describe the concept of "checkpointing" in Spark.

Checkpointing in Spark allows you to save the state of an RDD or DataFrame to a stable distributed file system, reducing the need for recomputation.

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Q.42 What is the use of accumulators in Apache Spark?

Accumulators are variables used for aggregating data across the executors.

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Q.43 What is the purpose of Spark's GraphX library?

Spark GraphX is a library for graph processing, allowing you to analyze and process large-scale graph data efficiently.

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Q.44 What is a Sparse Vector in Apache Spark?

A Sparse vector is a vector represented by an index array and a value array as it has very less amount of data to store.

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Q.45 Explain the role of "driver memory" and "executor memory" settings in Spark configuration.

Driver memory is allocated to the driver program, while executor memory is allocated to Spark's executors for data processing.

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Q.46 What is the use of Apache Spark SQL?

Apache Spark SQL is used to load the data from structured data sources.

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Q.47 How can you handle missing or incomplete data in Spark?

Spark provides various methods for handling missing or incomplete data, such as dropping, filling, or imputing missing values.

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Q.48 What is the use of Catalyst Optimizer in Apache Spark?

Catalyst optimizer uses programming language features like Scala’s pattern matching and quasi quotes to build an extensible query optimizer.

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Q.49 Describe the purpose of Spark's MLlib pipelines.

Spark MLlib pipelines provide a streamlined way to define, train, and deploy machine learning models, simplifying the ML workflow.

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Q.50 What do you understand by the PageRank algorithm in Apache Spark GraphX?

PageRank measures the importance of each vertex in a graph, assuming an edge from u to v represents an endorsement of v’s importance by u.

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Q.51 What are the advantages of using Spark over traditional batch processing systems?

Advantages include in-memory processing, iterative algorithms, support for multiple languages, and a unified framework for batch, streaming, and machine learning.

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Q.52 What is at the root of a YARN hierarchy?

ResourceManager is at the root of a YARN hierarchy

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Q.53 Explain the concept of Spark's in-memory processing and its benefits.

In-memory processing in Spark stores data in RAM, enabling faster access and computation compared to disk-based processing, resulting in performance gains.

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Q.54 Who manages every slave node under Yarn?

NodeManager manages every slave node under Yarn

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Q.55 How does Spark handle data partitioning and distribution across nodes in a cluster?

Spark automatically partitions data and distributes it across nodes based on the number of available CPU cores, optimizing parallel processing.

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Q.56 What is the main advantage of Yarn?

The main advantage of Yarn is multiple data processing engine

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Q.57 What is the role of Spark's standalone cluster manager, and when would you use it?

Spark's standalone cluster manager is suitable for small to medium-sized clusters. It manages resources and worker nodes within a Spark cluster.

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Q.58 Which Yarn's component has responsibility for negotiating appropriate resource containers from the scheduler, tracking their status, and monitoring their progress ?

ApplicationManager has responsibility for negotiating appropriate resource containers from the scheduler, tracking their status, and monitoring their progress

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Q.59 Explain the difference between Spark's local mode and cluster mode.

Local mode runs Spark on a single machine for development and testing, while cluster mode distributes tasks across multiple nodes in a cluster for production use.

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Q.60 Which Yarn's component is the ultimate authority that arbitrates resources?

ResourceManager is the ultimate authority that arbitrates resources

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Q.61 How can you monitor the performance and resource utilization of a Spark application?

Spark provides a web-based user interface and metrics that allow you to monitor tasks, memory usage, and cluster resource utilization.

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Q.62 What is Resilient Distributed Dataset (RDD)

RDD or Resilient Distribution Datasets is a fault-tolerant collection of operational elements that run in parallel.

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Q.63 What is the purpose of Spark's broadcast join, and when is it advantageous?

Broadcast joins are used when one side of a join operation is small enough to fit in memory, reducing the need for shuffling and improving performance.

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Q.64 What are different RDD types?

The two types of RDD is Parallelized Collections where existing RDDs running parallel with one another and Hadoop Datasets where they perform functions on each file record in HDFS or other storage systems.

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Q.65 How does Spark handle data skew issues in distributed processing?

Spark offers strategies like salting, bucketing, or using custom partitioning keys to mitigate data skew problems during join operations.

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Q.66 Explain the concept of "data lineage" in the context of Spark.

Data lineage in Spark represents the history of transformations applied to an RDD, allowing recovery in case of data loss or node failure.

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Q.67 What is a Spark job, and how does it relate to stages and tasks?

A Spark job consists of one or more stages, and each stage is further divided into tasks. Tasks are the smallest units of work executed by Spark workers.

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Q.68 How can you handle data serialization and deserialization in Spark?

Spark uses efficient serialization formats like Kryo or Avro to serialize data for transmission across the network and deserializes it for processing.

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Q.69 Explain the concept of "data skew" in Spark and its impact on performance.

Data skew occurs when certain keys or values in a dataset have significantly more or less data than others, leading to uneven workload distribution and performance issues.

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Q.70 What is the purpose of Spark's accumulator variables?

Accumulators in Spark allow you to accumulate values across worker nodes in parallel operations and retrieve the final result at the driver program.

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Q.71 How can you optimize Spark applications for better performance?

Performance optimization involves tuning configurations, avoiding data shuffling, using appropriate data structures, and leveraging Spark's caching mechanisms.

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Q.72 Explain the role of checkpointing in Spark, and when should you use it?

Checkpointing allows you to save the state of an RDD or DataFrame to a reliable storage system, reducing the need for recomputation in case of node failures.

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Q.73 What is the purpose of Spark's SparkR library?

SparkR is an R package that allows R users to interact with Spark, enabling data processing and analysis in R on large datasets.

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Q.74 How does Spark Streaming handle windowed operations for real-time data?

Spark Streaming provides windowed operations to perform calculations over fixed time intervals, enabling time-based analytics on streaming data.

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Q.75 What is a DStream in Spark Streaming, and how is it different from RDDs?

A DStream is a high-level abstraction in Spark Streaming, representing a continuous stream of data. It is conceptually similar to an RDD but designed for streaming data.

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Q.76 How can you ensure exactly-once processing semantics in Spark Streaming?

Achieving exactly-once semantics involves checkpointing and idempotent operations, ensuring that each record is processed only once.

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Q.77 Explain the role of Spark's structured streaming in real-time data processing.

Structured Streaming is a high-level API in Spark that provides support for processing structured data streams using SQL-like queries and DataFrame operations.

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Q.78 What is a "sink" in the context of Spark Structured Streaming?

A sink in Spark Structured Streaming is the destination where processed data is written, such as a file system, a database, or an external service.

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Q.79 Describe the purpose of Spark's GraphX library.

Spark GraphX is designed for graph processing and analytics, making it possible to analyze and manipulate graph-structured data efficiently.

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Q.80 What is the difference between Spark's standalone cluster manager and cluster managers like YARN or Mesos?

Standalone is a simpler cluster manager built into Spark, while YARN and Mesos are more general-purpose cluster managers that can manage multiple frameworks.

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Q.81 How can you handle data skew in Spark SQL when performing joins on large datasets?

Data skew in Spark SQL joins can be addressed using strategies like broadcasting smaller tables, bucketing, or using custom partitioning keys.

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Q.82 Explain the concept of "checkpoint location" in Spark Structured Streaming.

A checkpoint location is a directory where Spark Structured Streaming stores metadata and intermediate data for fault tolerance and state recovery.

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Q.83 What is the role of Spark's Tungsten project in optimizing Spark's performance?

Tungsten is a project within Spark that focuses on optimizing memory management, code generation, and expression evaluation, leading to performance improvements.

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Q.84 How does Spark handle data replication for fault tolerance in RDDs?

Spark replicates partitions of an RDD to multiple nodes, ensuring data availability in case of node failure. Replicas are recomputed when needed.

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Q.85 What is the purpose of the Spark History Server, and how can you access it?

The Spark History Server provides a web-based interface to view information about completed Spark applications, accessible via a web browser.

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Q.86 How can you configure Spark to use a specific cluster manager, such as YARN or Mesos?

You can configure Spark to use a specific cluster manager by setting the spark.master property to the appropriate URL or identifier.

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Q.87 Explain the use of Spark's broadcast variables and when they are beneficial.

Broadcast variables allow you to efficiently share read-only data across worker nodes, reducing data transfer overhead during tasks.

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Q.88 How does Spark ensure data reliability and fault tolerance in the presence of node failures?

Spark uses lineage information to track transformations and recompute lost data partitions in case of node failures, ensuring data reliability.

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Q.89 What is the significance of the Spark History Server's event logs?

Event logs provide a historical record of Spark application events, tasks, and metrics, aiding in troubleshooting and analysis.

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Q.90 Explain the concept of "shuffle files" in Spark and their purpose.

Shuffle files are intermediate data files generated during shuffle operations and are crucial for redistributing and grouping data across partitions.

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Q.91 What is the role of Spark's broadcast join in optimizing join operations?

A broadcast join is used when one table in a join operation is small enough to fit in memory, reducing the need for network shuffling and improving performance.

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Q.92 How can you control the parallelism of Spark's RDD operations?

You can control parallelism in Spark by specifying the number of partitions when creating RDDs or using the repartition() method to adjust the number of partitions.

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Q.93 What is Spark's "shuffle spill" mechanism, and how does it improve performance?

Shuffle spill writes data to disk when memory is insufficient during shuffle operations, preventing out-of-memory errors and improving performance.

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Q.94 How does Spark handle job scheduling and execution on a cluster?

Spark uses a DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) scheduler to optimize and schedule tasks across worker nodes, ensuring efficient execution.

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Q.95 Explain the role of Spark's dynamic allocation feature in resource management.

Dynamic allocation allows Spark to adjust the number of executor nodes dynamically based on workload, optimizing resource utilization.

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Q.96 What are the benefits of using Spark for machine learning over traditional ML frameworks?

Spark's advantages in ML include distributed processing, scalability, integration with big data sources, and a unified platform for data processing and modeling.

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Q.97 How does Spark Streaming handle late-arriving data in a streaming pipeline?

Spark Streaming can handle late-arriving data by specifying a watermark and allowing event-time-based processing, ensuring correctness in event-time analysis.

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Q.98 What is Apache Spark, and how does it differ from Hadoop?

Apache Spark is an open-source, distributed data processing framework that offers in-memory processing and is often faster than Hadoop's MapReduce for certain workloads.

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Q.99 Explain the core components of Apache Spark.

Spark has four core components: Spark Core, Spark SQL, Spark Streaming, and Spark MLlib for batch processing, SQL queries, streaming data, and machine learning, respectively.

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Q.100 What is the primary programming language for Apache Spark?

Scala is the primary programming language for Spark, but it also supports Java, Python, and R for development.

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Q.101 How does Spark handle data processing tasks?

Spark processes data through a directed acyclic graph (DAG) execution engine, optimizing the execution plan for distributed tasks.

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Q.102 Explain the concept of RDD (Resilient Distributed Dataset) in Spark.

RDD is a fundamental data structure in Spark, representing a distributed collection of data that can be processed in parallel.

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Q.103 What are the two types of operations performed on RDDs in Spark?

RDD operations in Spark are divided into transformations (which create new RDDs) and actions (which return values to the driver program or external storage).

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Q.104 How can you create an RDD in Spark?

You can create an RDD in Spark by loading data from external storage, parallelizing an existing collection, or transforming an existing RDD.

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Q.105 Explain the difference between narrow transformations and wide transformations in Spark.

Narrow transformations do not require shuffling data across partitions, while wide transformations involve shuffling data, which is more expensive.

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Q.106 What is Spark's shuffle operation, and when does it occur?

A shuffle operation in Spark is a data exchange between partitions, typically occurring after wide transformations like groupByKey or reduceByKey.

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Q.107 How can you cache or persist an RDD in Spark?

You can use the cache() or persist() methods to store an RDD in memory for faster access in subsequent operations.

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Q.108 Explain the purpose of Spark's lineage graph.

The lineage graph in Spark tracks the transformations applied to an RDD, allowing the system to recompute lost data in case of node failure.

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Q.109 What is the significance of Spark's lazy evaluation?

Spark uses lazy evaluation to optimize query plans by delaying execution until the result is needed, reducing unnecessary computation.

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