CompTIA Data+ (DA0-002)Data Governance, Quality and ControlsHard
A master data management (MDM) system is consolidating customer records from five source systems. A unique identifier such as a national ID number is not consistently available across sources, so the system calculates a similarity score by comparing name, address, phone number, and date of birth across records to estimate the likelihood that two records represent the same customer. Which record matching technique is being used?
- ASurvivorship matching
- BDeterministic matching
- CReferential integrity matching
- DProbabilistic matching
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Probabilistic matching
Probabilistic matching uses statistical scoring across multiple attributes to estimate the likelihood that records refer to the same entity, which is necessary when a reliable unique key is unavailable. Deterministic matching, by contrast, requires an exact match on a defined identifier.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Survivorship matching is not a matching technique; survivorship rules determine which values survive after matches are made.
- B. Deterministic matching relies on exact matches of unique identifiers, not similarity scoring.
- C. Referential integrity matching is not a standard MDM matching term; it relates to foreign key consistency in databases.
Probabilistic Matching
An MDM record-matching technique that calculates similarity scores across multiple attributes to estimate the likelihood that records represent the same real-world entity.
- Used when no reliable unique identifier exists
- Contrasts with deterministic (exact-match) matching
- Often uses weighted scoring algorithms like Fellegi-Sunter
Memory trick: Profile, Standardize, Deterministic first, Probabilistic if fuzzy, Survive, Golden