Question 2
Domain 4: Data Sharing and FederationWhat is the role of a foreign catalog in Lakehouse Federation?
Correct answer: D
Explanation
Lakehouse Federation uses a foreign catalog to represent data from another system in Unity Catalog. This matches the guide’s objective to “Configure Lakehouse Federation with proper governance across supported source systems,” and the catalog is used for read-only access to external data with Unity Catalog governance.
Why each option is right or wrong
A. It stores Databricks checkpoints for external sources
Checkpoints belong to streaming state storage, not foreign catalogs.
B. It creates a second Unity Catalog metastore
Unity Catalog metastore is the governance container; a foreign catalog is only a catalog object.
C. It converts external data automatically into managed Delta tables
Federation queries external data in place; it does not automatically convert it into managed Delta tables.
D. It mirrors an external database or catalog in Unity Catalog for read-only querying and governance
Lakehouse Federation’s foreign catalog is the Unity Catalog object used to represent an external source system, so queries can be issued through Unity Catalog while the underlying data remains in the remote database/catalog. The exam objective explicitly covers configuring Lakehouse Federation with governance across supported source systems, which means access is governed in Unity Catalog and is read-only rather than a writable mirrored copy.