DP-203 Develop data processing Practice Question
Which TWO actions should you take to optimize a Spark job in Azure Synapse Analytics that is experiencing excessive shuffling and long execution times?
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
✓
Broadcast one of the tables if it is small enough to fit in memory.
Broadcasting a small table avoids shuffle operations during joins, as the small table is sent to all executors. Option E is correct because increasing the number of shuffle partitions (via spark.sql.shuffle.partitions) can distribute data more evenly, reducing the size of each shuffle block and improving parallelism. Option A is incorrect: coalescing reduces the number of partitions, which may increase the amount of data shuffled per task and worsen skew. Option B is incorrect: checkpointing improves fault tolerance but does not directly reduce shuffling. Option D is incorrect: disabling dynamic resource allocation can lead to resource contention or waste, not optimized shuffling.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Coalesce the number of partitions to reduce overhead.
Why it's wrong here
Coalescing reduces partitions, potentially increasing shuffle size.
- ✗
Enable checkpointing to persist intermediate results.
Why it's wrong here
Checkpointing adds disk I/O but does not directly reduce shuffling.
- ✓
Broadcast one of the tables if it is small enough to fit in memory.
Why this is correct
Broadcast join eliminates shuffle by replicating the small table to all executors.
- ✗
Disable dynamic resource allocation.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling dynamic allocation may cause resource underutilization or contention.
- ✓
Increase the number of shuffle partitions using 'spark.sql.shuffle.partitions'.
Why this is correct
More partitions can reduce the amount of data per task, reducing shuffle pressure.
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