Databricks Data Engineer Professional: Developing Code for Data Processing using Python and SQL Practice Questions

Unity Catalog uses a four-level structure where the Metastore is the top-level container, followed by Catalogs, then Schemas (databases), and finally Tables (or other data objects). The 'three-level namespace' that users reference in SQL queries is catalog.schema.table, which sits beneath the metastore. Option C is partially correct in describing the SQL namespace but omits the metastore. Option D incorrectly places Column as a namespace level and skips Catalog. Option B uses non-standard terms ('Workspace', 'Database') that do not reflect Unity Catalog terminology.

To create tables, a user needs USE CATALOG on the catalog, USE SCHEMA on each schema they operate in, and CREATE TABLE privilege. Option B correctly grants USE CATALOG at the catalog level and then grants both USE SCHEMA and CREATE TABLE on all schemas within the catalog, scoping permissions appropriately. Option A grants ALL PRIVILEGES which is overly permissive and would allow dropping/altering tables. Option C omits USE SCHEMA, which is required to navigate into any schema. Option D attempts to grant USE SCHEMA at the catalog level, which is an invalid syntax; USE SCHEMA must be granted at the schema level or via ALL SCHEMAS IN CATALOG.

USE CATALOG on a catalog allows the principal to browse the catalog and its child schemas in the Data Explorer (they can see schemas and table names) without granting any data-reading capability. This is the minimal privilege needed for discoverability at the catalog level — no SELECT is conferred. Option D is incorrect — BROWSE is not a valid Unity Catalog privilege; there is no such privilege in the UC privilege model. Option B is incorrect — USE SCHEMA ON SCHEMA finance.* is not valid syntax in Unity Catalog (wildcards are not supported in GRANT statements); additionally, USE SCHEMA would need to be granted per schema explicitly and is only needed when a user wants to actively use a schema, not just browse it via Data Explorer with USE CATALOG. Option A is incorrect — GRANT SELECT ON CATALOG would grant SELECT on all tables in the entire catalog, which directly violates the requirement that users should NOT be able to read table data by default.

Option A is correct: the databricks.yml file is the core configuration file in DABs where you declare workspace resources (jobs, DLT pipelines, model serving endpoints, etc.) and can define environment-specific (targets) overrides. Option C is correct: databricks bundle deploy is the CLI command that validates, packages, and deploys the defined resources to the specified workspace. Option B is incorrect: DABs support deploying local source files (notebooks, Python files) directly — it does not require pre-existing Repos setup. Option D is incorrect: DABs support both Delta Live Tables pipelines AND Databricks Workflows jobs (and other resource types). Option E, while describing a true capability of DABs, is implicitly covered by Option A's description of environment-specific overrides — it is not a separate distinct correct statement in the context of this question, making A and C the most precise and complete answers.

In Unity Catalog, granting SELECT on a table alone is insufficient. Users must also have USE CATALOG privilege on the parent catalog and USE SCHEMA privilege on the parent schema before they can access any object within them. Option D is incorrect because SELECT can be granted at the table level. Option B is incorrect because READ FILES is used for external locations/volumes, not tables. Option A is incorrect because backtick quoting for identifiers is valid in Databricks SQL.