Dataflow Pipeline

Dataflow Pipeline

When to Use

• Building ETL pipelines (batch or streaming) on GCP
• Choosing between Dataflow and Dataproc for a workload
• Designing windowing or late-data handling for streaming
• Preparing for GCP Professional Data Engineer exam (highest weight domain)

Core Jobs

1. Dataflow vs Dataproc Decision

2. Pipeline Design (Apache Beam)

Core abstractions:

• PCollection — distributed dataset (bounded for batch, unbounded for streaming)
• PTransform — operation on a PCollection (Map, Filter, GroupByKey, Combine)
• ParDo — element-wise transformation (like map/flatMap)
• Pipeline — DAG of PTransforms applied to PCollections

3. Windowing (Streaming)

• Fixed windows — equal non-overlapping intervals (e.g., 1-minute buckets)
• Sliding windows — overlapping intervals (e.g., 10-min window every 1 min)
• Session windows — gap-based; group events within a user session
• Global window — default; all elements in one window (use with triggers for streaming)

4. Watermarks and Late Data

• Watermark — Dataflow's estimate of how far behind real-time the data is
• Late elements arrive after the watermark passes their window
• Handle with .withAllowedLateness(Duration.standardMinutes(10))
• Late data triggers go to a dead-letter or side output

5. Triggers

• Default (event time) — fire when watermark passes window end
• AfterProcessingTime — fire after processing-time delay (for low-latency)
• AfterCount — fire after N elements accumulated
• Composite triggers — combine with .orFinally(), .repeatedly()

6. Templates

• Classic Templates — staged as GCS files; no runtime parameters
• Flex Templates — packaged as Docker images; support runtime parameters; preferred

Key Concepts

• Fusion — Dataflow optimization: merges compatible transforms to reduce shuffles
• Worker autoscaling — Dataflow scales workers based on backlog
• Shuffle service — offloads GroupByKey shuffle to Dataflow backend (reduces worker cost)
• Streaming Engine — offloads windowing/state to backend; reduces memory on workers

Checklist

• Use Flex Templates (not Classic) for new pipelines?
• Late data handled with .withAllowedLateness()?
• Side outputs used for dead-letter / error records?
• GroupByKey minimized (use Combine where possible)?
• Dataflow Shuffle service enabled for batch jobs?
• Streaming Engine enabled for streaming jobs?
• Pipeline tested locally with DirectRunner before deploying?

Output Format

• 🔴 Critical — unbounded PCollection without windowing in streaming pipeline
• 🟡 Warning — Classic Template used (prefer Flex), no late data handling
• 🟢 Suggestion — Shuffle service / Streaming Engine not enabled

Exam Tips

• Watermark = when Dataflow thinks all data with that timestamp has arrived
• Late data arrives AFTER the watermark → use .withAllowedLateness() to capture it
• Dataflow → BigQuery streaming inserts = standard pattern for real-time analytics
• Dataproc = use for existing Spark/Hadoop code migration, not greenfield
• Flex Templates > Classic Templates for all new pipelines (runtime params, easier updates)
• DirectRunner = local testing; DataflowRunner = GCP execution