Databricks-DE-Pro Debugging and Deploying Practice Question
Exhibit
Task A: [Success] Task B: [Failed] Task C: [Pending] Task D: [Skipped]
Refer to the exhibit. Why is Task D marked as 'Skipped'?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates mistakenly believe a 'Skipped' task status means the task was manually disabled, confusing it with upstream dependency failures where parent task failure cascades downstream.
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
✓
Task D has a dependency on Task B, which failed.
In Databricks Workflows, a task is 'Skipped' if its upstream dependencies have not been met, typically because a required parent task failed. Because Task B failed, the downstream Task D—which likely depends on Task B—cannot execute. This mechanism prevents the workflow from processing invalid or incomplete data, maintaining the integrity of the data pipeline and preventing downstream failures from compounding existing upstream errors.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Task D reached its execution timeout limit before it could start.
Why it's wrong here
A timeout would result in a 'Failed' status, not a 'Skipped' status. 'Skipped' indicates that the scheduler decided not to run the task, not that it attempted to run and failed due to a duration limit. The dependency failure is the logical explanation for the skipped status.
- ✓
Task D has a dependency on Task B, which failed.
Why this is correct
The workflow engine marks tasks as 'Skipped' if they depend on an upstream task that failed. Since Task B failed, Task D, which relies on the successful completion of Task B, is automatically skipped to prevent the execution of a potentially inconsistent or broken data process.
- ✗
The cluster running Task D was terminated by an administrator.
Why it's wrong here
Terminating a cluster would lead to a 'Failed' status for all affected tasks. 'Skipped' is a specific status indicating that the task logic determined the execution was unnecessary or blocked by dependency constraints. It is not a status associated with infrastructure or resource-level interruptions during the job run.
- ✗
Task D was manually disabled in the job configuration.
Why it's wrong here
While it is possible to disable tasks, the exhibit implies that Task D was expected to run as part of the sequence. If it were disabled in the configuration, it would not appear in the execution history as 'Skipped' in the context of a dependency graph failure.
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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-DE-Pro 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-DE-Pro exam.