Question

A data engineer is designing a new schema in Unity Catalog for a temporary analytics project. The team wants Unity Catalog to fully manage the table lifecycle so that dropping a table also automatically removes the underlying data files, minimizing manual cleanup once the project ends. Which type of table should the engineer create to achieve this behavior?

Accepted Answer

A managed table, where Unity Catalog controls both metadata and the underlying storage location

Answer

An external table pointing to an external location with a storage credential

Answer

A view defined over raw files in cloud object storage

Answer

An external table registered against a pre-existing S3 path