HomeInterview QuestionsWhat is XCom?

What is XCom?

🟢 Easy Conceptual Fresher level
2Times asked
Jun 2026Last seen
Jun 2026First seen

💡 Model Answer

XCom (short for "Cross-communication") is a feature in Apache Airflow that allows tasks to exchange small pieces of data during a DAG run. Each XCom is a key/value pair stored in Airflow’s metadata database. A task can push an XCom by calling xcom_push(key, value) and another task can pull it with xcom_pull(task_ids, key). XComs are useful for passing results such as file paths, status flags, or configuration snippets between tasks, enabling dynamic behavior in workflows. Because XComs are limited to small payloads (typically less than a few megabytes), they are not intended for large data transfers; instead, they are best used for metadata or control information.

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