GCP-ADP Data Preparation And Ingestion — 25 Questions

Question 1

You need to ingest small files from an on-premises server to Cloud Storage once daily. Which tool is most cost-effective and simple for this?

Accepted Answer

gsutil rsync. gsutil rsync is the standard tool for simple, scheduled file synchronization between local systems and GCS.

Answer

Cloud Pub/Sub

Answer

Dataflow

Answer

Storage Transfer Service

Question 2

You are cleaning data in Dataprep and realize you need to change the format of a date column. Which feature should you use?

Accepted Answer

Recipe Builder. Dataprep's 'Transform' interface allows you to apply functions to columns to change their format.

Answer

Dataflow Job Inspector

Answer

IAM policies

Answer

Cloud Scheduler

Question 3

What is the recommended format for data storage in BigQuery to maximize performance?

Accepted Answer

Avro. Columnar formats like Avro or Parquet are optimized for BigQuery's columnar storage architecture.

Answer

JSON

Answer

XML

Answer

CSV

Question 4

You need to store sensitive data in GCS. Which feature ensures data is encrypted at rest?

Accepted Answer

Default Encryption. All data in GCS is encrypted at rest by default using Google-managed keys.

Answer

Identity and Access Management

Answer

Cloud DLP

Answer

Customer-Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK)

Question 5

Which GCS storage class is most cost-effective for data accessed only once per year?

Accepted Answer

Archive. Archive storage is designed for data that is rarely accessed (once a year or less).

Answer

Standard

Answer

Coldline

Answer

Nearline

Question 6

You are designing a streaming pipeline in Dataflow. You need to ensure that data is processed in the order it was generated, even if it arrives late. What do you use?

Accepted Answer

Watermarks and Allowed Lateness. Watermarks and event time processing in Dataflow allow for handling out-of-order data correctly.

Answer

Processing time triggers

Answer

Dataflow shuffle service

Answer

Fixed windows only

Question 7

You need to load CSV files from GCS to BigQuery. The schema changes frequently. Which approach handles schema evolution automatically?

Accepted Answer

BigQuery Load job with auto-detect. BigQuery schema auto-detection combined with ingestion into a landing table supports schema evolution if configured properly.

Answer

Dataprep with rigid recipe

Answer

Cloud Functions with manual schema mapping

Answer

Dataflow with fixed schema

Question 8

You need to perform data cleansing on a large dataset in Dataprep. Which execution engine should you choose for scalability?

Accepted Answer

Dataflow. Dataprep uses Dataflow as its execution engine to scale to large datasets.

Answer

Local Desktop

Answer

BigQuery

Answer

Cloud Run

Question 9

You need to ingest data from an external API that requires an OAuth token. Which tool is best for executing this periodically?

Accepted Answer

Cloud Functions. Cloud Functions triggered by Cloud Scheduler can handle API requests with custom authentication logic.

Answer

Pub/Sub

Answer

BigQuery Data Transfer Service

Answer

Storage Transfer Service

Question 10

You are processing streaming data in Dataflow and notice 'stuck' elements causing pipeline latency. Which feature helps debug this?

Accepted Answer

Dataflow Monitoring UI. Dataflow's Streaming Engine and Work Items UI allow you to inspect pipeline performance and identify bottlenecks.

Answer

Dataprep Jobs view

Answer

Cloud Logging

Answer

Cloud Trace

Question 11

You want to run a Dataflow pipeline on a schedule. What should you use?

Accepted Answer

Cloud Scheduler. Cloud Scheduler can trigger Dataflow template jobs on a predefined schedule.

Answer

Dataflow Flex Templates

Answer

Cloud Composer

Answer

Cloud Functions

Answer

Pub/Sub

Question 12

You need to set up an alert when a GCS bucket exceeds a certain size. Which tool do you use?

Accepted Answer

Cloud Monitoring. Cloud Monitoring allows you to set up alerts based on GCS bucket metrics like byte count.

Answer

Cloud Build

Answer

IAM

Answer

Cloud Logging

Question 13

You need to transfer files from an Amazon S3 bucket to GCS. What is the most efficient method?

Accepted Answer

Storage Transfer Service. Storage Transfer Service has a built-in connector for S3, making it the most direct method.

Answer

Dataflow

Answer

gsutil rsync

Answer

Write a Python script

Question 14

You are migrating a high-throughput on-premises database to BigQuery. You need to ensure zero downtime. What is your best strategy?

Accepted Answer

Datastream. Using Datastream to capture Change Data Capture (CDC) events allows for continuous, near-real-time synchronization.

Answer

Cloud Pub/Sub

Answer

Dataflow batch jobs

Answer

Batch Export/Import

Question 15

You need to provide temporary access to a GCS file for a third party. What should you use?

Accepted Answer

Signed URL. Signed URLs provide time-limited access to GCS objects without needing an account.

Answer

Public access

Answer

Bucket Policy

Answer

IAM Role

Question 16

You need to ingest IoT data into BigQuery. You need to handle messages arriving in millions per second. Which service acts as the buffer?

Accepted Answer

Pub/Sub. Pub/Sub is the only Google Cloud service capable of ingesting millions of messages per second as a globally scalable buffer.

Answer

Cloud SQL

Answer

Cloud Functions

Answer

BigQuery Streaming API

Question 17

You are running a Dataflow job and notice that it is consuming too much memory and crashing. How do you optimize this?

Accepted Answer

Select a higher memory machine type. Setting the worker machine type to one with more RAM or adjusting the pipeline to use fewer expensive transforms is the standard optimization path.

Answer

Increase the number of workers

Answer

Reduce the number of workers

Answer

Use Batch mode

Question 18

You need to track who accessed which GCS bucket. Which service provides this audit trail?

Accepted Answer

Cloud Audit Logs. Cloud Audit Logs, when enabled, capture all access events for GCS buckets.

Answer

Cloud Security Command Center

Answer

Cloud Monitoring

Answer

Cloud Trace

Question 19

You are processing streaming data in Pub/Sub and need to archive every message into GCS without writing custom code. What should you use?

Accepted Answer

Pub/Sub Cloud Storage subscription. Pub/Sub's native Cloud Storage subscription allows for direct streaming of messages to files in GCS.

Answer

Dataflow

Answer

BigQuery Data Transfer Service

Answer

Cloud Functions

Question 20

You need to ensure that deleted files in GCS can be restored for 30 days. What should you configure?

Accepted Answer

Object Versioning. Object Versioning keeps versions of objects, and Lifecycle policies can delete older ones, but Object Versioning alone is the core feature here.

Answer

Cloud Storage bucket lock

Answer

Bucket Lifecycle policy

Answer

IAM