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PySpark interview questions

Interview-style PySpark and Pandas problems on the same seeded warehouse used across Lakebench. Filter, aggregate, join, and window DataFrames without standing up a cluster.

65 PySpark + Pandas problems, 18 of them free. They run in your browser against the same warehouse tables used in Learn. All problems · PySpark + Pandas filter · Theory questions · Learn tracks

What PySpark rounds test

Writing DataFrame code that is correct and would scale: choosing the right join, using window functions for latest-record and running-total problems, avoiding collect() on large data, and explaining where a shuffle happens.

Runs in your browser

Your code runs in the tab through Pyodide with a Spark-compatible DataFrame layer, so you can practice the API and the patterns without Java, a local Spark install, or a cloud notebook.

Beginner (25)

  • Read CSV with Explicit Schema
  • Filter and Select Columns
  • Add Derived Column
  • Handle NULL Values
  • Cast Column Types
  • Explode Array Column
  • Pivot Table
  • Unpivot (Melt) Table
  • Drop Duplicates
  • Sort and Limit
  • Distinct Count
  • GroupBy with Multiple Aggregations
  • Inner Join
  • Left Join
  • Anti-Join
  • Broadcast Join
  • Join with Multiple Conditions
  • Self-Join
  • Read Large CSV in Chunks
  • Merge DataFrames with Different Join Types
  • GroupBy with Multiple Aggregations
  • Pivot Table Creation
  • Handle Missing Values
  • Convert String to Datetime
  • Rolling Window Calculations

Intermediate (26)

  • Row Number for Deduplication
  • Rank vs Dense Rank
  • Running Total
  • Lag and Lead
  • First and Last Value
  • Top N Per Group
  • Percentile Rank
  • Rolling Average
  • Conditional Aggregation
  • GroupBy with Filter (HAVING)
  • Percentage of Total
  • Median Calculation
  • Mode Calculation
  • Cohort Analysis
  • Simple UDF
  • Pandas UDF (Vectorized)
  • UDF with Multiple Columns
  • Avoid UDF When Possible
  • Complex UDF with External Logic
  • UDF Performance Trap
  • Infer Schema vs Explicit Schema
  • Handle Schema Drift
  • Add Missing Columns
  • Rename Columns
  • Drop Columns
  • Validate Data Types

Advanced (14)

  • Repartition vs Coalesce
  • Partition by Column
  • Cache vs Persist
  • When to Cache
  • Broadcast Variable
  • Identify Skew
  • Fix Skew with Salting
  • Small Files Problem
  • Read from Kafka Stream
  • Watermark for Late Data
  • Deduplicate Stream
  • Windowed Aggregation on Stream
  • Write Stream to Delta Lake
  • SCD Type 2 Merge

Common questions

Is this real Spark?
It is a Spark-compatible DataFrame API that runs in the browser, built for practicing the syntax and patterns interviews ask about. For tuning a real cluster, the PySpark learning track covers partitions, shuffles, and skew.
Are Pandas questions included?
Yes. Pandas problems sit in the same set, since many data engineering screens accept either.
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