Data Lake Interview Questions

21 real Data Lake questions asked in live technical interviews — each with a model answer. Updated weekly.

🎤 Auto-captured by Assisting AI during live interviews

These Data Lake interview questions were captured from real interviews by candidates using Assisting AI. Each links to a full model answer. For real-time help during your own interview, get Assisting AI from ₹500/day.

What is the difference between Delta Lake and a lakehouse?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×What is the difference between a data warehouse, Delta Lake, a data lake, and a data lakehouse?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×In Iceberg, can you explain what a broadcast zone is?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×Suppose you have built a data model in the gold layer, and over time the solution has expanded into multiple tables, relationships, and complex logic. An enhancement requires changes to the gold layer. How would you approach this?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×What is the typical sequence of steps when building a data architecture that starts with a data lake, then processes data, and finally makes it available for BI reporting?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×What is the typical flow from a database to a data lake, and what is the final step in the data pipeline?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×Source data is in the bronze layer. We need to implement SCD type 2 in the target layer. If data arrives daily in batch and the bronze layer is refreshed each day, what logic would you use between the bronze and target layers to achieve SCD type 2?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×Where is data stored in the bronze, silver, and gold layers?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×Suppose we have bronze, silver, and gold layers. Where is data stored in each layer?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×What is the Medallion Architecture? Can you explain?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×Can you tell about your S3 setup? Did you organize buckets and folders? What file format did you use? Did you use partitioning in the S3 bucket?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×Have you worked on Apache Iceberg and handled AWS Glue tables?🟡 Medium · Behavioral · Asked 1×Cloud storage shows that a table is consuming over 200 TB of space. What do you think is causing the problem and what would be your approach to optimize it?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×Is there another scenario where a data engineering team updates a 50 TB ISO table often using copy‑on‑write?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×What would happen if we switch to a merge‑on‑read strategy? What are the pros and cons of switching?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×We currently use a copy‑on‑write strategy, but cluster calls are increasing because full data files are rewritten for a single row update. How would you address this?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×What is an Iceberg table?🟢 Easy · Conceptual · Asked 1×What type of resource were you using to transform raw files from bronze to silver to gold layers?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×What is the major difference between a data lake and a data warehouse?🟢 Easy · Conceptual · Asked 1×Are the bronze, silver, and gold layers part of a data lake architecture?🟢 Easy · Conceptual · Asked 1×What is the gold layer in a data lake architecture, and what transformations occur to it?🟡 Medium · Conceptual · Asked 1×

🎤 Get Data Lake questions answered in real-time

Assisting AI listens to your interview, captures questions live, and gives you instant AI-powered answers on a discreet on-screen overlay.

Get Assisting AI — Starts at ₹500

Browse Other Topics