Professional Data EngineerEnsuring solution qualityMedium
A financial services company is migrating its on-premises data warehouse to BigQuery. They have strict requirements for data reliability, including the ability to recover data to a specific point in time in case of accidental deletions or corruptions, without relying on manual backups. The data in BigQuery is updated frequently. Which BigQuery feature directly supports this requirement?
- ABigQuery Data Replication
- BBigQuery Snapshots
- CBigQuery Data Transfer Service
- DBigQuery Time Travel
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. BigQuery Time Travel
BigQuery Time Travel allows querying data at any point in time within a 7-day window, providing a built-in mechanism for point-in-time recovery without requiring explicit backups.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. BigQuery Data Replication refers to copying data between datasets or regions, not for point-in-time recovery within a single dataset.
- B. BigQuery Snapshots create a read-only copy of a table at a specific point in time, but they are explicit actions, not an automatic time-travel mechanism for past queries.
- C. BigQuery Data Transfer Service is for automating data movement, not point-in-time recovery.
BigQuery Time Travel
BigQuery Time Travel allows you to access data from any point within the past 7 days, enabling point-in-time recovery and historical analysis without explicit backups.
- Default retention period of 7 days (can be configured for less).
- Recovers from accidental deletions or table updates.
- Does not require explicit backups or manual configuration.
- Accessible via SQL queries using FOR SYSTEM_TIME AS OF.
Memory trick: Time Travel: Go back in time, fix the data crime.