Databricks architecture
Compliance blocked a workspace rollout
Symptoms
- Security could not point to where tables live
- Vendor questionnaire said 'Databricks stores data'
Databricks interview questions: Databricks architecture
Interactive Databricks interview questions on Databricks architecture. Practice with the matching lesson. Databricks control plane is the SaaS UI and jobs service. Data plane is compute in your cloud account, next to your data.
Question 1 of 3
beginner
Databricks architectureWhat is the Databricks control plane versus the data plane?
Answer it out loud, then reveal. Play steps through like the simulators.
Production scenario
Case 1 of 1 · symptoms
All questions on this page
Indexed as FAQ. Open any item if you prefer a list to Play.
beginnerWhat is the Databricks control plane versus the data plane?
Databricks architecture · tap to open the answer
Short: Control plane is Databricks SaaS (workspace, jobs, identity). Data plane is compute and storage in your cloud account.
Detailed: You click notebooks in the control plane. Clusters, executors, and table files run in your VPC next to S3/ADLS/GCS. Databricks does not keep your Parquet in the SaaS plane.
Common mistake: Thinking the workspace is where Spark executors run.
Follow-up: Where does a Jobs cluster actually start?
intermediateDoes Databricks store your fact tables?
Databricks architecture · tap to open the answer
Short: No. Tables stay in your bucket. The workspace orchestrates.
Detailed: Reads and writes hit s3://, abfss://, or gs://. The control plane sends API calls and gets job status / small action results. A collect() still OOMs the driver inside your VPC.
Common mistake: Uploading extracts into the workspace 'because it's Databricks'.
Follow-up: What belongs in Unity Catalog versus the storage account?
seniorSecurity asks: can PII leak through the control plane?
Databricks architecture · tap to open the answer
Short: Not as table files. Risk is notebooks, logs, collect(), and who can run compute that reads the lake.
Detailed: Files stay in the data plane. Notebook outputs, driver pulls, and mis-shared workspaces can still leak samples. Private link, cluster policies, and no collect() on PII are the controls. Unity Catalog governs names and grants; it is not a second copy of the files.
Senior: Commands down, status up, files never leave the data plane. Circle the driver in the customer VPC.
Common mistake: Answering only 'data never leaves our VPC' and stopping.
Follow-up: What would you put on the architecture diagram in an interview?