Explanation
Correct code block:
schema = StructType([
StructField("itemId", IntegerType(), True),
StructField("attributes", ArrayType(StringType(), True), True),
StructField("supplier", StringType(), True)
])
spark.read.options(modifiedBefore="2029-03-20T05:44:46").schema(schema).parquet(filePath) This question is more difficult than what you would encounter in the exam. In the exam, for this question type, only one error needs to be identified and not "one or multiple" as in the question.
Columns in the schema definition use the wrong object type, the modification date threshold is specified incorrectly, and Spark cannot identify the file format.
Correct! Columns in the schema definition should use the StructField type. Building a schema from pyspark.sql.types, as here using classes like StructType and StructField, is one of multiple ways of expressing a schema in Spark. A StructType always contains a list of StructFields (see documentation linked below). So, nesting StructType and StructType as shown in the question is wrong.
The modification date threshold should be specified by a keyword argument like options(modifiedBefore="2029-03-20T05:44:46") and not two consecutive non-keyword arguments as in the original code block (see documentation linked below).
Spark cannot identify the file format correctly, because either it has to be specified by using the DataFrameReader.format(), as an argument to DataFrameReader.load(), or directly by calling, for example, DataFrameReader.parquet().
Columns in the schema are unable to handle empty values and the modification date threshold is specified incorrectly.
No. If StructField would be used for the columns instead of StructType (see above), the third argument specified whether the column is nullable. The original schema shows that columns should be nullable and this is specified correctly by the third argument being True in the schema in the code block.
It is correct, however, that the modification date threshold is specified incorrectly (see above).
The attributes array is specified incorrectly, Spark cannot identify the file format, and the syntax of the call to Spark's DataFrameReader is incorrect.
Wrong. The attributes array is specified correctly, following the syntax for ArrayType (see linked documentation below). That Spark cannot identify the file format is correct, see correct answer above. In addition, the DataFrameReader is called correctly through the SparkSession spark.
Columns in the schema definition use the wrong object type and the syntax of the call to Spark's DataFrameReader is incorrect.
Incorrect, the object types in the schema definition are correct and syntax of the call to Spark's DataFrameReader is correct.
The data type of the schema is incompatible with the schema() operator and the modification date threshold is specified incorrectly.
False. The data type of the schema is StructType and an accepted data type for the DataFrameReader.schema() method. It is correct however that the modification date threshold is specified incorrectly (see correct answer above).

Explanation
Actions can trigger Adaptive Query Execution, while transformation cannot.
Correct. Adaptive Query Execution optimizes queries at runtime. Since transformations are evaluated lazily, Spark does not have any runtime information to optimize the query until an action is called. If Adaptive Query Execution is enabled, Spark will then try to optimize the query based on the feedback it gathers while it is evaluating the query.
Actions can be queued for delayed execution, while transformations can only be processed immediately.
No, there is no such concept as "delayed execution" in Spark. Actions cannot be evaluated lazily, meaning that they are executed immediately.
Actions are evaluated lazily, while transformations are not evaluated lazily.
Incorrect, it is the other way around: Transformations are evaluated lazily and actions trigger their evaluation.
Actions generate RDDs, while transformations do not.
No. Transformations change the data and, since RDDs are immutable, generate new RDDs along the way.
Actions produce outputs in Python and data types (integers, lists, text files,...) based on the RDDs, but they do not generate them.
Here is a great tip on how to differentiate actions from transformations: If an operation returns a DataFrame, Dataset, or an RDD, it is a transformation. Otherwise, it is an action.
Actions do not send results to the driver, while transformations do.
No. Actions send results to the driver. Think about running DataFrame.count(). The result of this command will return a number to the driver. Transformations, however, do not send results back to the driver. They produce RDDs that remain on the worker nodes.
More info: What is the difference between a transformation and an action in Apache Spark? | Bartosz Mikulski, How to Speed up SQL Queries with Adaptive Query Execution

Explanation
Correct code block:
articlesDf = articlesDf.select(explode(col('attributes')))
articlesDf = articlesDf.groupby('col').count()
articlesDf = articlesDf.sort('count',ascending=False).select('col')
Output of correct code block:
+-------+
| col|
+-------+
| summer|
| winter|
| blue|
| cozy|
| travel|
| fresh|
| red|
|cooling|
| green|
+-------+
Static notebook | Dynamic notebook: See test 2

Explanation
spark.createDataFrame([("summer", 4.5), ("winter", 7.5)], ["season", "wind_speed_ms"]) Correct. This command uses the Spark Session's createDataFrame method to create a new DataFrame. Notice how rows, columns, and column names are passed in here: The rows are specified as a Python list. Every entry in the list is a new row. Columns are specified as Python tuples (for example ("summer", 4.5)). Every column is one entry in the tuple.
The column names are specified as the second argument to createDataFrame(). The documentation (link below) shows that "when schema is a list of column names, the type of each column will be inferred from data" (the first argument). Since values 4.5 and 7.5 are both float variables, Spark will correctly infer the double type for column wind_speed_ms. Given that all values in column
"season" contain only strings, Spark will cast the column appropriately as string.
Find out more about SparkSession.createDataFrame() via the link below.
spark.newDataFrame([("summer", 4.5), ("winter", 7.5)], ["season", "wind_speed_ms"]) No, the SparkSession does not have a newDataFrame method.
from pyspark.sql import types as T
spark.createDataFrame((("summer", 4.5), ("winter", 7.5)), T.StructType([T.StructField("season",
T.CharType()), T.StructField("season", T.DoubleType())]))
No. pyspark.sql.types does not have a CharType type. See link below for available data types in Spark.
spark.createDataFrame({"season": ["winter","summer"], "wind_speed_ms": [4.5, 7.5]}) No, this is not correct Spark syntax. If you have considered this option to be correct, you may have some experience with Python's pandas package, in which this would be correct syntax. To create a Spark DataFrame from a Pandas DataFrame, you can simply use spark.createDataFrame(pandasDf) where pandasDf is the Pandas DataFrame.
Find out more about Spark syntax options using the examples in the documentation for SparkSession.createDataFrame linked below.
spark.DataFrame({"season": ["winter","summer"], "wind_speed_ms": [4.5, 7.5]}) No, the Spark Session (indicated by spark in the code above) does not have a DataFrame method.
More info: pyspark.sql.SparkSession.createDataFrame - PySpark 3.1.1 documentation and Data Types - Spark 3.1.2 Documentation Static notebook | Dynamic notebook: See test 1

Explanation
More info: pyspark.sql.DataFrame.drop - PySpark 3.1.2 documentation
Static notebook | Dynamic notebook: See test 2