PDE Maintaining and Automating Data Workloads Practice Question
An organization uses BigQuery on-demand pricing. To control costs, they want to estimate the bytes processed by a query before running it. Which command or method should they use?
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
✓
Use the bq query --dry_run command
BigQuery dry run estimates bytes processed without executing the query. It can be done via CLI with --dry_run flag or in the console.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use the bq query --dry_run command
Why this is correct
Dry run provides byte estimate without running the query.
- ✗
Use bq ls to list table sizes
Why it's wrong here
bq ls shows table metadata, not query cost.
- ✗
Use BigQuery reservations to get cost estimate
Why it's wrong here
Reservations are for flat-rate pricing, not estimation.
- ✗
Use INFORMATION_SCHEMA.JOBS_BY_PROJECT to view past costs
Why it's wrong here
This shows actual cost of past queries, not estimate for a new query.
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