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Provide specific examples of challenges faced with PySpark and SQL and solutions implemented.

Spark/Big Datamedium0.5 min readPremium
Frequency
Low
Asked at 1 company
Category
452
questions in Spark/Big Data
Difficulty Split
88E|81M|283H
in this category
Total Bank
1,863
across 7 categories
Asked at these companies
S&P Global
Key Concepts Tested
joinpartitionsparksql
Expert AnswerPremium
101 wordsInterview-ready
**Situation**: Production join job on 10B-row fact table with 100M-row dimension timed out; one task ran 2h vs 5min for others. **Task**: Identify root cause and fix without schema changes. **Action**: (1) Profiled via Spark UI—identified skew on region key (80% data in 3 partitions); (2) Implemented salting: replicated dimension with salt range, joined on (key, salt), aggregated; (3) Enabled AQE skew join as fallback. **Result**: P99 dropped 70%; job met SLA; pattern documented for team....
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