**Why it matters**: At scale, design choices directly impact reliability, latency, and cost. Wrong decisions compound across jobs and teams.
Databricks Autoscaling adds or removes workers based on cluster utilization. Types: (1) Standard—scale between min and max nodes. (2) Optimized—scale down more aggressively (removes least-utilized nodes). Benefits: Cost savings during idle periods; burst capacity for spikes; no manual resizing....
The complete answer continues with detailed implementation patterns, architectural trade-offs, and production-grade considerations. It covers performance optimization strategies, common pitfalls to avoid, and real-world examples from companies like FedEx Dataworks. The answer also includes follow-up discussion points that interviewers commonly explore.
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