Reviewed by Aditya Kumar Ā· Last reviewed 2026-03-24
**Apache Beam**: Unified batch and stream API. Write once; run on Flink, Spark, Dataflow. **Concepts**: PCollection, PTransform, Pipeline. **GCP Dataflow**: Native runner. **Why**: Portable ETL across runners. **Trade-off**: Abstraction has cost; runner-specific tuning...
Pro-Move: 'We use Beam for batch and streamingāsame pipeline, different runners; Dataflow for prod, Flink for on-prem.' Red Flag: Not knowing Beam is runner-agnosticāindicates limited streaming experience.
Apache Beam: Unified batch and stream API. Write once; run on Flink, Spark, Dataflow. Concepts: PCollection, PTransform, Pipeline. GCP Dataflow: Native runner. Why: Portable ETL across runners. Trade-off: Abstraction has cost; runner-specific tuning limited. Best practice: Use for portable pipelines; optimize per runner when needed.
Pro-Move: 'We use Beam for batch and streamingāsame pipeline, different runners; Dataflow for prod, Flink for on-prem.' Red Flag: Not knowing Beam is runner-agnosticāindicates limited streaming experience.
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