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What is the difference between partitions and repartitions in Spark, and when do you use each?

Spark/Big Datamedium0.5 min readPremium
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Coforge
Key Concepts Tested
partitionspark
Expert AnswerPremium
95 wordsInterview-ready
**partitionBy (write)**: Organizes output into directories by column (e.g., date). For read pruning. No shuffle during write if data already partitioned. **repartition(n)**: Redistributes into n partitions. Full shuffle. Use to increase parallelism or balance. **coalesce(n)**: Reduces to n partitions. Minimal shuffle. Use before write to reduce files. **When**: partitionBy for filtering by partition column. repartition before shuffle-heavy op or to fix skew....
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