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Cloud · Azure

Azure Databricks

Mediumcloud-14
azuredatabrickssparkdeltalakehouse

Question

What is Azure Databricks, and why do data engineers use it?

Solution

Azure Databricks is a managed Apache Spark (and more) lakehouse platform on Azure, built with Microsoft + Databricks. You get collaborative notebooks, job clusters, SQL warehouses, and Delta Lake support, sitting on ADLS Gen2.

ADLS Gen2 (Delta / Parquet)
        ^
        |
  Azure Databricks (Spark + Delta + workflows)
        |
        +--> Synapse / Power BI / ML models

What you get beyond "raw Spark on VMs"

  • Optimized runtimes, autoscaling clusters, job vs interactive clusters
  • Unity Catalog / workspace governance (depending on setup)
  • Delta Lake: ACID tables on the lake (time travel, merges)
  • Easy ADF / Synapse integration on Azure

Typical DE flow

Bronze (raw) → Silver (cleaned) → Gold (marts) as Delta tables, orchestrated by Databricks Workflows or ADF/Airflow.

Interview tip: "Azure Databricks = managed Spark lakehouse on ADLS, usually with Delta." Mention medallion layers so it sounds production-ready.

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