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Handle midstream schema changes gracefully.

System Design/Architectureeasy0.2 min read

Reviewed by Aditya Kumar · Last reviewed 2026-03-24

**Strategy**: (1) Schema evolution—additive changes; new columns, defaults for old; (2) Schema Registry—versioned, backward/forward compatible; (3) Multiple readers—support versions during transition; (4) Dead-letter for incompatible. **Parquet/Delta**: mergeSchema=True. Avro:...

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Frequency
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Asked at 1 company
Category
179
questions in System Design/Architecture
Difficulty Split
15E|6M|158H
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Interview Pro Tip

Red Flag: 'We'd restart the pipeline.' Pro-Move: 'Additive-only policy; new columns get default null; backfill job for historical.'

Expert Answer
46 words

Strategy: (1) Schema evolution—additive changes; new columns, defaults for old; (2) Schema Registry—versioned, backward/forward compatible; (3) Multiple readers—support versions during transition; (4) Dead-letter for incompatible.

Parquet/Delta: mergeSchema=True. Avro: Schema Registry. Design for evolution; document breaking vs additive; compatibility tests in CI. Google: extensive versioning, canary deployments.

⚡
Pro Tip

Red Flag: 'We'd restart the pipeline.' Pro-Move: 'Additive-only policy; new columns get default null; backfill job for historical.'

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