PDE Maintaining and Automating Data Workloads Practice Question
A data engineer uses Cloud Composer to orchestrate a daily batch pipeline. A downstream task should only start after an upstream BigQuery load job finishes successfully and a specific file appears in Cloud Storage. Which combination of operators should the engineer use in the Airflow DAG?
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
✓
BigQueryInsertJobOperator and GCSObjectExistenceSensor with upstream dependency
The BigQueryInsertJobOperator (or BigQueryOperator) handles the load job, and the GoogleCloudStorageObjectExistenceSensor (or GCSObjectExistenceSensor) waits for the file. Task dependencies link them.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
BigQueryInsertJobOperator with wait_for_downstream=True
Why it's wrong here
wait_for_downstream is not a parameter. Sensor and dependency are needed.
- ✓
BigQueryInsertJobOperator and GCSObjectExistenceSensor with upstream dependency
Why this is correct
Correct: BigQueryInsertJobOperator performs the load, GCSObjectExistenceSensor polls for the file, and upstream dependency ensures order.
- ✗
DataflowPythonOperator and GCSObjectExistenceSensor
Why it's wrong here
DataflowPythonOperator is for Dataflow pipelines, not BigQuery load.
- ✗
BigQueryOperator and FileSensor with downstream dependency
Why it's wrong here
FileSensor is for local files, not GCS. Also downstream dependency is incorrect.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PDE practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud 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 PDE exam.