Interview questions
Preparing for a data engineering interview at Impetus? This page contains 15 real interview questions sourced from verified Impetus interview experiences. Questions are sorted by frequency — the ones asked most often appear first.
Impetus data engineering interviews typically focus on Python/Coding, SQL, and Spark/Big Data. There's a solid mix of fundamental and advanced questions, making it accessible for candidates at multiple experience levels.
Use the difficulty filters above to focus your preparation. For each question, attempt your own answer first, then compare with our expert solution. You can also practice these questions in our AI Mock Interview Coach for real-time feedback.
What is the difference between cache() and persist() in Spark? When would you use each?
Demonstrate the difference between DENSE_RANK() and RANK()
Detail examples of inner, outer, left, and right joins.
How would you handle a deadline conflict between two high-priority projects?
Discuss versioning in S3.
Modify a word count script to output results in descending frequency order.
What are docstrings? Use examples.
Which data structure occupies more memory: list or tuple? Why?
Write code for character frequency in a text file.
Write code for palindrome generation.
Define cursors and stored procedures and their use cases.
Explain Redshift Data Distribution (EVEN, KEY, ALL).
Compare Spark's lineage recovery with Hadoop's block replication mechanism.
Explain AWS Glue Data Catalog.
Explain why lineage in Spark is crucial for fault tolerance.
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