This is a regular “data quiz”. Follow it on LinkedIn. Test your knowledge or learn something new.
Today Question:
Which Airflow component defines dependencies?
A) Task
B) DAG
C) Operator
D) Hook
Correct Answer: B
Explanation
A DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) is the core building block of Apache Airflow that defines the entire workflow including all tasks and their dependencies. A DAG is an acyclic directed graph where each node represents a task and edges represent dependencies between tasks. The DAG determines execution order, which tasks can run in parallel, and which must wait for others to complete. It also contains metadata such as schedule interval, start date, default arguments, and retry policies. Unlike Task (a specific task), Operator (the type of task), and Hook (a connector to external systems), the DAG provides the container and orchestrator for the entire pipeline. Every Python file in Airflow must contain at least one DAG object, which the scheduler detects and schedules for execution based on the defined interval.