Explain handling very large datasets

Q: Explain handling very large datasets

This is a Data Manipulation (SQL/Python) interview question from Instacart for Data Scientist roles. View the full question and solution on PracHub.

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Question

Describe a project where you ingested and processed a dataset of at least 500 million rows or 1 TB end-to-end. Detail storage formats and partitioning, memory and compute constraints, schema evolution, data quality checks, indexing strategies, and tools chosen (e.g., Spark SQL vs. Pandas vs. BigQuery) and why. Provide before/after run times and cost, and a code-level optimization you used (e.g., vectorization, predicate pushdown, window functions, bucketing). How would your approach change if limited to a single machine with 32 GB RAM?

Explain handling very large datasets

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