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Data & Analytics · Advanced

Small File Problem

Performance degradation caused by large numbers of tiny files, which increase metadata overhead and per-file open costs.

Definition

Frequent streaming writes and over-partitioning create small files. Fixes include compaction (Delta OPTIMIZE, Iceberg rewrite_data_files), auto-optimize and optimized writes, and loading files of roughly 100-250 MB.

Exam tip

Millions of tiny files = run compaction or OPTIMIZE and reduce partitioning.

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