CDV DA (CERTIFIED DATA VAULT DATA ARCHITECT) EXAM NEWLY UPDATED
COLLECTION OF EXAM QUESTIONS AND VERIFIED ANSWERS DESIGNED TO
GUARANTEE YOUR SUCCESS ON THE LATEST TEST VERSION
Q1: What is Data Vault 2.0?
ANSWER Data Vault 2.0 is an agile data modeling methodology designed for
enterprise data warehousing that provides historical tracking, auditability, and
scalability while maintaining flexibility for changing business requirements.
Q2: Who created the Data Vault methodology?
ANSWER Dan Linstedt created the Data Vault methodology in the 1990s.
Q3: What are the three core entity types in Data Vault?
ANSWER Hubs, Links, and Satellites.
Q4: What is a Hub in Data Vault?
ANSWER A Hub is a core business entity that contains unique business keys
and metadata about when the record was loaded and from which source.
Q5: What is a Link in Data Vault?
ANSWER A Link represents relationships between Hubs and contains foreign
keys to the related Hubs along with load metadata.
Q6: What is a Satellite in Data Vault?
ANSWER A Satellite contains descriptive attributes and context for Hubs or
Links, tracking historical changes over time.
,Q7: What is a business key?
ANSWER A business key is a unique identifier from the source system that
has business meaning and is used to identify entities.
Q8: What is a hash key?
ANSWER A hash key is a surrogate key generated by hashing the business
key(s), used for performance and consistency.
Q9: What hashing algorithm is recommended for Data Vault?
ANSWER MD5 or SHA-256 are commonly used, with MD5 being faster and
sufficient for most use cases.
Q10: What is the purpose of hash keys?
ANSWER Hash keys provide consistent, fast joins, eliminate the need for
sequence generation, and enable parallel loading.
Q11: What columns are required in a Hub?
ANSWER Hash key, business key, load date/timestamp, and record source.
Q12: What columns are required in a Link?
ANSWER Hash key (link hash), foreign keys (hub hash keys), load
date/timestamp, and record source.
Q13: What columns are required in a Satellite?
ANSWER Parent hash key, load date/timestamp, load end date (optional),
record source, hash diff, and descriptive attributes.
Q14: What is a hash diff?
ANSWER A hash diff is a hash of all descriptive attributes in a Satellite, used
to quickly detect changes.
,Q15: Why use hash diff instead of comparing all columns?
ANSWER Hash diff improves performance by comparing a single value
instead of multiple columns.
Q16: What is a multi-active satellite?
ANSWER A multi-active satellite stores multiple active records for the same
parent key, typically used for repeating groups.
Q17: What is a status tracking satellite?
ANSWER A status tracking satellite monitors the driving key status and
effectiveness of relationships in Links.
Q18: What is an effectivity satellite?
ANSWER An effectivity satellite tracks the begin and end dates of Link
relationships.
Q19: What is a same-as-link (SAL)?
ANSWER A same-as-link connects multiple business keys that represent the
same business entity across systems.
Q20: What is a hierarchical link?
ANSWER A hierarchical link connects a Hub to itself, representing parent-
child relationships.
Q21: What is a non-historized link?
ANSWER A non-historized link doesn't track temporal changes and
represents current relationships only.
Q22: What is the load date/timestamp used for?
, ANSWER It records when the data was loaded into the Data Vault, supporting
auditability and time-based queries.
Q23: What is record source?
ANSWER Record source identifies which source system the data originated
from.
Q24: Can a Hub have multiple business keys?
ANSWER Yes, composite business keys are supported when multiple
attributes are needed for uniqueness.
Q25: What is the difference between Data Vault 1.0 and 2.0?
ANSWER Data Vault 2.0 adds hash keys, hash diffs, agile methodology
integration, NoSQL support, and real-time capabilities.
Q26: What are the layers in a Data Vault architecture?
ANSWER Staging, Raw Data Vault, Business Vault, Information Marts, and
Metrics Vault.
Q27: What is the staging layer?
ANSWER The staging layer is a transient area for landing raw data before
loading into the Data Vault.
Q28: What is the Raw Data Vault?
ANSWER The Raw Data Vault contains uninterpreted, atomic data in Hubs,
Links, and Satellites without business rules.
Q29: What is the Business Vault?
ANSWER The Business Vault adds business rules, calculations, and derived
data on top of the Raw Data Vault.
COLLECTION OF EXAM QUESTIONS AND VERIFIED ANSWERS DESIGNED TO
GUARANTEE YOUR SUCCESS ON THE LATEST TEST VERSION
Q1: What is Data Vault 2.0?
ANSWER Data Vault 2.0 is an agile data modeling methodology designed for
enterprise data warehousing that provides historical tracking, auditability, and
scalability while maintaining flexibility for changing business requirements.
Q2: Who created the Data Vault methodology?
ANSWER Dan Linstedt created the Data Vault methodology in the 1990s.
Q3: What are the three core entity types in Data Vault?
ANSWER Hubs, Links, and Satellites.
Q4: What is a Hub in Data Vault?
ANSWER A Hub is a core business entity that contains unique business keys
and metadata about when the record was loaded and from which source.
Q5: What is a Link in Data Vault?
ANSWER A Link represents relationships between Hubs and contains foreign
keys to the related Hubs along with load metadata.
Q6: What is a Satellite in Data Vault?
ANSWER A Satellite contains descriptive attributes and context for Hubs or
Links, tracking historical changes over time.
,Q7: What is a business key?
ANSWER A business key is a unique identifier from the source system that
has business meaning and is used to identify entities.
Q8: What is a hash key?
ANSWER A hash key is a surrogate key generated by hashing the business
key(s), used for performance and consistency.
Q9: What hashing algorithm is recommended for Data Vault?
ANSWER MD5 or SHA-256 are commonly used, with MD5 being faster and
sufficient for most use cases.
Q10: What is the purpose of hash keys?
ANSWER Hash keys provide consistent, fast joins, eliminate the need for
sequence generation, and enable parallel loading.
Q11: What columns are required in a Hub?
ANSWER Hash key, business key, load date/timestamp, and record source.
Q12: What columns are required in a Link?
ANSWER Hash key (link hash), foreign keys (hub hash keys), load
date/timestamp, and record source.
Q13: What columns are required in a Satellite?
ANSWER Parent hash key, load date/timestamp, load end date (optional),
record source, hash diff, and descriptive attributes.
Q14: What is a hash diff?
ANSWER A hash diff is a hash of all descriptive attributes in a Satellite, used
to quickly detect changes.
,Q15: Why use hash diff instead of comparing all columns?
ANSWER Hash diff improves performance by comparing a single value
instead of multiple columns.
Q16: What is a multi-active satellite?
ANSWER A multi-active satellite stores multiple active records for the same
parent key, typically used for repeating groups.
Q17: What is a status tracking satellite?
ANSWER A status tracking satellite monitors the driving key status and
effectiveness of relationships in Links.
Q18: What is an effectivity satellite?
ANSWER An effectivity satellite tracks the begin and end dates of Link
relationships.
Q19: What is a same-as-link (SAL)?
ANSWER A same-as-link connects multiple business keys that represent the
same business entity across systems.
Q20: What is a hierarchical link?
ANSWER A hierarchical link connects a Hub to itself, representing parent-
child relationships.
Q21: What is a non-historized link?
ANSWER A non-historized link doesn't track temporal changes and
represents current relationships only.
Q22: What is the load date/timestamp used for?
, ANSWER It records when the data was loaded into the Data Vault, supporting
auditability and time-based queries.
Q23: What is record source?
ANSWER Record source identifies which source system the data originated
from.
Q24: Can a Hub have multiple business keys?
ANSWER Yes, composite business keys are supported when multiple
attributes are needed for uniqueness.
Q25: What is the difference between Data Vault 1.0 and 2.0?
ANSWER Data Vault 2.0 adds hash keys, hash diffs, agile methodology
integration, NoSQL support, and real-time capabilities.
Q26: What are the layers in a Data Vault architecture?
ANSWER Staging, Raw Data Vault, Business Vault, Information Marts, and
Metrics Vault.
Q27: What is the staging layer?
ANSWER The staging layer is a transient area for landing raw data before
loading into the Data Vault.
Q28: What is the Raw Data Vault?
ANSWER The Raw Data Vault contains uninterpreted, atomic data in Hubs,
Links, and Satellites without business rules.
Q29: What is the Business Vault?
ANSWER The Business Vault adds business rules, calculations, and derived
data on top of the Raw Data Vault.
