Databricks TL;DR Cheatsheet

Learn Databricks 10× faster with the cleanest, zero fluff content

Databricks TL;DR Guides

Core Platform & Workspaces

Workspace & Repos
Git Integration • Folders • DBFS vs Repos • Permissions
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Clusters (Interactive vs Job)
All-Purpose • Job • Serverless • Photon • Spot Instances
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Instance Pools
Warm nodes • Idle timeout • Pre-warmed instances
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Delta Lake & Lakehouse

Delta Lake Core
ACID • Time Travel • Z-Order • Optimize • Vacuum
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Delta Live Tables (DLT)
Pipelines • Streaming Tables • Expectations • Materialized Views
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Unity Catalog
3-level namespace • Governance • Data Lineage • Sharing
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Lakehouse Federation
Query MySQL, Postgres, Snowflake without moving data
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Notebooks & Development

Notebooks & Magic Commands
%sql • %python • %run • dbutils • Widgets
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Databricks SQL (DBSQL)
Warehouses • Query Editor • Alerts • Dashboards
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Workflows (Jobs)
Tasks • DAG • Task Values • Repair Run • Schedules
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Performance & Cost

Photon Engine
Vectorized • C++ • 3–10x faster • Serverless & Pro
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Cost Optimization
DBU pricing • Spot • Auto-termination • Cluster sizing
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DLT Maintenance
Refresh vs Full • Retention • Expectation alerts
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Security & Governance

Secrets & Key Management
dbutils.secrets • Scope • Azure Key Vault • AWS KMS
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Table ACLs & Row Filters
GRANT • Dynamic Views • Column Masking
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Delta Sharing
Open sharing • Recipients • No copy • Power BI, Pandas
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ML & MLOps

MLflow
Experiments • Models • Registry • Tracking Server
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Feature Store
Online • Offline • Point-in-time lookup • Auto-backfill
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Model Serving
Real-time • Batch • Traffic splitting • Monitoring
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