CERTIFIED-DATA-ANALYST-ASSOCIATE Question #10: Real Exam Question with Answer & Explanation

Question

Consider the following two statements: Statement 1: Statement 2: Which of the following describes how the result sets will differ for each statement when they are run in Databricks SQL?

Options

• AThe first statement will return all data from the customers table and matching data from the orders
• BWhen the first statement is run, only rows from the customers table that have at least one match
• CThere is no difference between the result sets for both statements.
• DBoth statements will fail because Databricks SQL does not support those join types.
• EWhen the first statement is run, all rows from the customers table will be returned and only the

Explanation

Option B is correct because it describes the behavior of an INNER JOIN - when Statement 1 uses an INNER JOIN between customers and orders, only customers who have at least one matching order row are included in the result; unmatched customers are excluded entirely.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A describes a LEFT JOIN result (all customers + matching orders), which would be Statement 2's behavior, not Statement 1's - this reverses the two statements.
• C is wrong because INNER JOIN and LEFT JOIN produce fundamentally different result sets whenever unmatched rows exist in the left table.
• D is wrong because Databricks SQL fully supports both INNER JOIN and LEFT JOIN (and outer join variants generally).
• E also describes LEFT JOIN behavior ("all rows from customers returned"), again attributing the wrong join type to Statement 1.

Memory tip: Think of INNER JOIN as the intersection - like a Venn diagram overlap, you only keep rows that appear in both tables. LEFT JOIN keeps the entire left circle plus whatever matches on the right. If a question asks "which rows are excluded," INNER JOIN excludes non-matching rows from both sides, while LEFT JOIN only excludes non-matching rows from the right table.

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