Databricks-DA-Assoc Managing Data Practice Question
A data analyst needs to create a new table that stores only aggregated daily sales totals derived from an existing Unity Catalog table, and the result must be refreshed nightly. They want the simplest object that persists the results and can be queried by other analysts. Which approach should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming a standard view persists results; in fact a view stores only the query text and recomputes the aggregation on every access.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Create a materialized view with `CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW sales.daily_totals AS SELECT ...` and schedule a refresh.
Persisting aggregated results that refresh on a schedule is precisely what a materialized view provides. It stores computed data, supports scheduled refresh, and is queryable like a table by other users. Plain views recompute each time, temporary views do not persist or share, and external tables require manual orchestration, so the materialized view is the simplest fitting object.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Create a temporary view with `CREATE TEMPORARY VIEW sales.daily_totals AS SELECT ...` and grant other analysts access.
Why it's wrong here
Temporary views are session-scoped and vanish when the session ends, so they cannot persist results or be shared with other analysts across sessions. Granting access is also meaningless because the object is not registered durably in the catalog. This approach fails both the persistence and the sharing requirements described in the scenario.
- ✗
Create a view with `CREATE VIEW sales.daily_totals AS SELECT ...` so the aggregation is recomputed on every query.
Why it's wrong here
A view stores only the query definition, not the aggregated results, so the aggregation runs each time the view is queried. That does not persist data and pushes compute cost onto every reader. The requirement is to persist results and refresh nightly, which a view does not do, so this does not meet the stated need for stored aggregated output.
- ✗
Create an external table at a cloud storage path and populate it with `INSERT INTO` after each aggregation run.
Why it's wrong here
An external table can store results and be shared, but the analyst must manage the schedule, the storage path, and the load logic manually. That is more operational burden than a materialized view, which handles refresh and metadata automatically. The requirement asks for the simplest option, so this manual approach is unnecessarily complex and error-prone compared to the managed alternative.
- ✓
Create a materialized view with `CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW sales.daily_totals AS SELECT ...` and schedule a refresh.
Why this is correct
A materialized view stores the computed result and can be refreshed on a schedule, which matches the requirement to persist daily aggregates and update them nightly. Other analysts can query it like a table, and Databricks manages the refresh and incremental maintenance where possible. This is the purpose-built object for persisted, refreshable aggregation results in Databricks SQL.
About these practice questions
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Databricks exam blueprint
This Databricks-DA-Assoc practice question is part of Courseiva's free Databricks certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the Databricks-DA-Assoc exam.