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Describe the use of side inputs in Dataflow.

Cloud/Toolsmedium0.4 min readPremium
Frequency
Low
Asked at 1 company
Category
179
questions in Cloud/Tools
Difficulty Split
104E|27M|48H
in this category
Total Bank
1,863
across 7 categories
Asked at these companies
Aarete
Key Concepts Tested
join
Expert AnswerPremium
77 wordsInterview-ready
Architectural logic: Side inputs = small lookup broadcast to all workers; avoid expensive shuffle. Use case: Enrich events with product catalog or user segments. Main PCollection + side input (AsDict/AsIter) → Map with lookup. Why: No large join; each worker has full lookup. Scalability: Side input must fit in memory; large lookups use CoGroupByKey. Cost: Broadcast is cheap; oversized side input causes OOM....
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