©THESTAR EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Nosql And Big Data Exam Questions With
Verified And Updated Answers
T/F Spark is a database - answer✔F, it is a query engine.
What does RDD stand for? - answer✔Resilient Distributed Dataset
T/F A transformation changes a RDD. - answer✔F, it defines a NEW RDD based on the current
one. RDDs are immutable.
T/F the line mydata.upper() will trigger an execution for an RDD. - answer✔F, RDDs are not
processed until an action is performed. upper() is a transformation.
T/F Resilience in RDD means that we lose data in memory, we can redo the transformations
based on the RDD lineage. - answer✔T, you can view the lineage of the RDD using
toDebugString
What is pipelining in Spark - answer✔When possible, Spark will perform sequences of
transformations by row, so no data is stored.
T/F If have the line "the cow eats grass" as input in our map function, then the transformation
.map(lambda x: x.upper()), will create a new RDD that transform the line to upper letters. The
line in the new RDD would read "THE COW EATS GRASS". - answer✔T
T/F Each RDD stores data in memory. - answer✔F, RDDs do NOT store data.
T/F Spark can work with all types of input file formats. - answer✔T
T/F RDDs are partitions - answer✔T, An RDD dataset is a collection of partitioned data. Tasks
are performed in parallel in each partition.
T/F Spark can only run on a cluster with YARN as Resource Manager software. - answer✔F,
Spark can run either standalone or with a cluster manager like Yarn, but can also be other
managers like Mesos.
T/F In Spark with RDDs, a groupBy is a wide transformation - answer✔T, data may reside in
multiple partitions. This would require a re-partitioning
1|Page
, ©THESTAR EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
What is a narrow transformation in the context of Spark - answer✔The records required to
compute the record resided in a single partition in the parent RDD (e.g., map, flatMap, filter)
What is a wide transformation in the context of Spark - answer✔Data required to compute
records in a partition may reside in multiple partitions of the parent RDD (e.g., groupBy,
reduceByKey, distinct, join)
T/F If Sparks runs on HDFS, then a RDD partition is created for each HDFS partition. - answer✔T,
an RDD partition is created for each HDFS partition.
Where does Spark process data - answer✔Main memory in executor
T/F An execution plans consists of stages. Each stages has a collection of tasks. Each stage only
includes transformations that are narrow. As soon as a wide transformation is applied, a new
stage starts. - answer✔T, Operations that can run on the same partition are executed in stages.
Tasks within a stage are pipelined together. Every time re-partition is needed, a new stage
starts.
T/F In Spark 3, a reshuffle triggered by a wide transformation will always result in 200 partitions
for the new DataFrame. - answer✔F, with Spark 3, there is a setting for adaptive optimization.
`spark.sql.adaptive.enable` to True
T/F Hive is a database. - answer✔F, Hive is a data warehouse system on top of Hadoop that
allows access to data using HiveQL.
T/F Impala does not rely on MapReduce or Tez, but relies on its own query engine. - answer✔F,
Impala has its own execution engine and does not use MapReduce. It was developed because
MapReduce was too slow for real-time.
T/F Impala is fault tolerant - answer✔F, Impala is not fault tolerant, if a node fails, your query
will also fail.
T/F spark.sql('SELECT * FROM rating') returns a DataFrame - answer✔T, We create a temporary
view and use spark.sql to create DataFrames with a query language you may be more familiar
with.
A wide column database is a - answer✔Row store, i.e., data in one row is stored together
What are strengths of a Widecolumn database? - answer✔Fast read and writes of data
Scalability to large amount of data
High availability of system
2|Page
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Nosql And Big Data Exam Questions With
Verified And Updated Answers
T/F Spark is a database - answer✔F, it is a query engine.
What does RDD stand for? - answer✔Resilient Distributed Dataset
T/F A transformation changes a RDD. - answer✔F, it defines a NEW RDD based on the current
one. RDDs are immutable.
T/F the line mydata.upper() will trigger an execution for an RDD. - answer✔F, RDDs are not
processed until an action is performed. upper() is a transformation.
T/F Resilience in RDD means that we lose data in memory, we can redo the transformations
based on the RDD lineage. - answer✔T, you can view the lineage of the RDD using
toDebugString
What is pipelining in Spark - answer✔When possible, Spark will perform sequences of
transformations by row, so no data is stored.
T/F If have the line "the cow eats grass" as input in our map function, then the transformation
.map(lambda x: x.upper()), will create a new RDD that transform the line to upper letters. The
line in the new RDD would read "THE COW EATS GRASS". - answer✔T
T/F Each RDD stores data in memory. - answer✔F, RDDs do NOT store data.
T/F Spark can work with all types of input file formats. - answer✔T
T/F RDDs are partitions - answer✔T, An RDD dataset is a collection of partitioned data. Tasks
are performed in parallel in each partition.
T/F Spark can only run on a cluster with YARN as Resource Manager software. - answer✔F,
Spark can run either standalone or with a cluster manager like Yarn, but can also be other
managers like Mesos.
T/F In Spark with RDDs, a groupBy is a wide transformation - answer✔T, data may reside in
multiple partitions. This would require a re-partitioning
1|Page
, ©THESTAR EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
What is a narrow transformation in the context of Spark - answer✔The records required to
compute the record resided in a single partition in the parent RDD (e.g., map, flatMap, filter)
What is a wide transformation in the context of Spark - answer✔Data required to compute
records in a partition may reside in multiple partitions of the parent RDD (e.g., groupBy,
reduceByKey, distinct, join)
T/F If Sparks runs on HDFS, then a RDD partition is created for each HDFS partition. - answer✔T,
an RDD partition is created for each HDFS partition.
Where does Spark process data - answer✔Main memory in executor
T/F An execution plans consists of stages. Each stages has a collection of tasks. Each stage only
includes transformations that are narrow. As soon as a wide transformation is applied, a new
stage starts. - answer✔T, Operations that can run on the same partition are executed in stages.
Tasks within a stage are pipelined together. Every time re-partition is needed, a new stage
starts.
T/F In Spark 3, a reshuffle triggered by a wide transformation will always result in 200 partitions
for the new DataFrame. - answer✔F, with Spark 3, there is a setting for adaptive optimization.
`spark.sql.adaptive.enable` to True
T/F Hive is a database. - answer✔F, Hive is a data warehouse system on top of Hadoop that
allows access to data using HiveQL.
T/F Impala does not rely on MapReduce or Tez, but relies on its own query engine. - answer✔F,
Impala has its own execution engine and does not use MapReduce. It was developed because
MapReduce was too slow for real-time.
T/F Impala is fault tolerant - answer✔F, Impala is not fault tolerant, if a node fails, your query
will also fail.
T/F spark.sql('SELECT * FROM rating') returns a DataFrame - answer✔T, We create a temporary
view and use spark.sql to create DataFrames with a query language you may be more familiar
with.
A wide column database is a - answer✔Row store, i.e., data in one row is stored together
What are strengths of a Widecolumn database? - answer✔Fast read and writes of data
Scalability to large amount of data
High availability of system
2|Page
