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Data & Analytics · Advanced

Open Table Format

A metadata layer over data files (usually Parquet) that adds ACID transactions, schema evolution, time travel and efficient pruning to data lakes.

Definition

The leading open table formats are Delta Lake, Apache Iceberg and Apache Hudi. They allow multiple engines (Spark, Trino, Snowflake, BigQuery, Fabric) to read and write the same tables. Interoperability layers such as Delta UniForm and Apache XTable translate metadata between formats.

Exam tip

Open table formats are what turn a data lake into a lakehouse.

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