Databricks-DE-Pro · domain
Data Sharing and Federation
This domain covers Delta Sharing and Lakehouse Federation in Unity Catalog: sharing tables, views, volumes, and partitions with recipients, and querying external systems like PostgreSQL, MySQL, Snowflake, and BigQuery through foreign catalogs. Questions test provider/recipient setup, sharing protocol clients, connection and catalog creation, and permission models.
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What this domain covers
What to know about Data Sharing and Federation
Be able to create shares, add tables, and define recipients for both open-protocol and Databricks-to-Databricks access, and to create foreign catalogs over connections to external databases. The key is knowing which objects the provider creates versus which the recipient creates.
Creating Delta Shares with CREATE SHARE and granting tables to recipients
Configuring recipients and bearer tokens or Databricks-to-Databricks sharing
Using the open Delta Sharing protocol from non-Databricks clients
Creating foreign catalogs with CREATE FOREIGN CATALOG over Lakehouse Federation connections
Watch out for
Common Data Sharing and Federation exam traps
- ▸Confusing provider-side share creation with recipient-side catalog mounting; the recipient creates a catalog from the share, not the provider.
- ▸Assuming Databricks-to-Databricks sharing uses bearer tokens; it uses recipient objects and sharing identifiers instead.
- ▸Forgetting that foreign catalogs expose external data read-only and that connection credentials and permissions must both be granted.
Question index
All Data Sharing and Federation questions (20)
Click any question to see the full explanation, or start a practice session above.
What is the primary difference between sharing data via Delta Sharing compared to sharing data via Databricks-to-Databricks sharing?
Medium2A data engineer is using Lakehouse Federation to query data from an external PostgreSQL database. The engineer has created a foreign catalog and foreign schema. Which statement accurately describes how the data is accessed during a query?
Easy3A Data Engineer needs to share a Delta table with a partner organization using Delta Sharing. The partner does not use Databricks. Which component must the Data Engineer generate to facilitate this secure connection?
Medium4When using Delta Sharing to share data with a recipient, what is the best way to handle updates to the shared data?
Medium5Which statement correctly describes the relationship between Unity Catalog and Databricks SQL Warehouses when using Lakehouse Federation?
Medium6A data engineer is managing a Delta Share that includes a table with frequent updates. The engineer wants to ensure that recipients always see the latest version of the data without manual intervention. Which statement is correct regarding how Delta Sharing handles updates to shared tables?
Hard7A data engineer wants to share a Delta table with an external partner who does not have a Databricks account. The partner needs to access the data using Python. Which method should the engineer recommend to the partner for accessing the shared data?
Easy8A Data Engineer is setting up Lakehouse Federation for a PostgreSQL database. Which TWO steps are required to ensure that users can securely query the data using Unity Catalog?
Medium9A data engineer is setting up a Delta Share to provide a partner with access to a specific table. The partner uses Databricks and wants to query the shared data using their own Databricks workspace. What is the correct sequence of actions for the data engineer to enable this Databricks-to-Databricks sharing?
Easy10A data engineer at a healthcare company needs to share a Delta table containing patient records with an external research partner. The partner must only see aggregated statistics, not individual patient rows. The engineer wants to enforce this at the data sharing layer without creating a separate physical copy of the table. Which approach should the engineer take?
Medium11A data engineering team maintains a Unity Catalog metastore in a Databricks workspace. They need to provide an external partner with read-only access to a specific Delta table, but the partner's analytics platform is not Databricks and does not support the Delta Lake protocol. The partner can consume Parquet files over a REST API. Which Unity Catalog feature should the team use to share the table?
Medium12A data engineer at a healthcare company needs to share a Delta table containing patient records with an external research partner. The partner uses a non-Databricks platform and requires read-only access to the latest data, with updates reflected in near real-time. The engineer creates a Delta Share and adds the table. Which additional step is required to allow the partner to access the shared data?
Medium13A data engineer is using Lakehouse Federation to query an external PostgreSQL database. The engineer creates a connection with the PostgreSQL JDBC URL and credentials, and then creates a foreign catalog. Users report that queries against foreign tables are slow and sometimes fail with connection timeouts. The engineer checks the connection and confirms the credentials are correct. What is the most likely cause of the performance and timeout issues?
Medium14What is the primary benefit of using Unity Catalog for data federation?
Medium15A data engineer is using Lakehouse Federation to query a PostgreSQL database. The engineer notices that a query filtering on a column with a high cardinality is performing poorly, even though the remote database has an index on that column. What is the most likely reason for the poor performance?
Hard16A data engineer is setting up Lakehouse Federation to query an external MySQL database from Databricks. The engineer creates a connection using the MySQL connector and a foreign catalog. Users in the 'analysts' group report that they can see the foreign catalog but cannot query any tables. The engineer has granted USAGE on the connection to the 'analysts' group. Which TWO additional permissions must be granted to the 'analysts' group to allow them to query tables in the foreign catalog? (Choose two.)
Hard17A data engineer is managing a Delta Share that includes a table with customer transactions. The share is used by multiple recipients. The engineer needs to update the shared data daily with new transactions and also remove data for customers who have requested deletion (right to be forgotten). The engineer wants to ensure recipients see the updated data without having to recreate the share. What is the best approach?
Hard18A data engineer is setting up a Delta Share to provide an external partner with access to a subset of data. The partner will use a non-Databricks client that supports the Delta Sharing protocol. Which two actions are required to enable the partner to access the shared data? (Choose two.)
Medium19A Data Engineer is using Lakehouse Federation to query a Snowflake database from Databricks. The engineer has created a connection and a foreign catalog. Which statement correctly describes how data is accessed when a user queries a table in the foreign catalog?
Easy20A Data Engineer is using Lakehouse Federation to query an external PostgreSQL database from Databricks. The engineer creates a foreign catalog named 'pg_catalog' using a connection that specifies the host, port, and credentials. Users report that queries against the foreign catalog fail with a permission error, even though the connection works when tested. The engineer confirms that the connection has the correct credentials and that the PostgreSQL user has SELECT privileges on the required tables. What is the most likely cause?
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Frequently asked questions
- What does the Data Sharing and Federation domain cover on the Databricks-DE-Pro exam?
- Be able to create shares, add tables, and define recipients for both open-protocol and Databricks-to-Databricks access, and to create foreign catalogs over connections to external databases. The key is knowing which objects the provider creates versus which the recipient creates.
- How many questions are in this domain?
- This page lists all 20 Data Sharing and Federation questions in the Databricks-DE-Pro question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
- What is the best way to practise this domain?
- Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
- Can I practise only Data Sharing and Federation questions?
- Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.