CERTIFIED-DATA-ANALYST-ASSOCIATE Question #41: Real Exam Question with Answer & Explanation

Question

Which of the following approaches can be used to ingest data directly from cloud-based object storage?

Options

• ACreate an external table while specifying the DBFS storage path to FROM
• BCreate an external table while specifying the DBFS storage path to PATH
• CIt is not possible to directly ingest data from cloud-based object storage
• DCreate an external table while specifying the object storage path to FROM
• ECreate an external table while specifying the object storage path to LOCATION

Explanation

Option E is correct because CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE in Databricks SQL uses the LOCATION keyword to point to the underlying data files, and this path can be a native cloud object storage URI (e.g., s3://, abfss://, gs://), enabling direct ingestion without intermediate steps.

Options A and B are wrong on two counts: FROM is not a valid clause in CREATE TABLE syntax (it belongs in SELECT statements), and DBFS paths are a Databricks abstraction layer, not direct cloud storage paths - they are not equivalent to native object storage URIs.

Option C is simply false; Databricks is designed to read directly from cloud object storage.

Option D gets the path type right (object storage, not DBFS) but uses the wrong keyword - FROM does not exist in CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE syntax, making it syntactically invalid.

Memory tip: Think "LOCATION = the location of your data." Just as you give a GPS location to find a place, you give LOCATION a cloud storage path to tell the external table where to find its files.

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