A data engineer can create a multi-task job in Databricks that consists of multiple tasks that run in a specific order. Each task can have one or more dependencies, which are other tasks that must run before the current task. The Depends On field of a new Databricks Job Task allows the data engineer to specify the dependencies of the task. The data engineer should select a task in the Depends On field when they want the new task to run only after the selected task has successfully completed. This can help the data engineer to create a logical sequence of tasks that depend on each other’s outputs or results. For example, a data engineer can create a multi-task job that consists of the following tasks:
Task A: Ingest data from a source using Auto Loader
Task B: Transform the data using Spark SQL
Task C: Write the data to a Delta Lake table
Task D: Analyze the data using Spark ML
Task E: Visualize the data using Databricks SQL
In this case, the data engineer can set the dependencies of each task as follows:
Task A: No dependencies
Task B: Depends on Task A
Task C: Depends on Task B
Task D: Depends on Task C
Task E: Depends on Task D
This way, the data engineer can ensure that each task runs only after the previous task has successfully completed, and the data flows smoothly from ingestion to visualization.
The other options are incorrect because they do not describe valid scenarios for selecting a task in the Depends On field. The Depends On field does not affect the following aspects of a task:
Whether the task needs to be replaced by another task
Whether the task needs to fail before another task begins
Whether the task has the same dependency libraries as another task
Whether the task needs to use as little compute resources as possible References: Create a multi-task job, Run tasks conditionally in a Databricks job, Databricks Jobs.
