Which command would you use to view the query plan for how a Delta table query will be executed?

• A. DESCRIBE HISTORY customer
• B. EXPLAIN TABLE customer
• C. REFRESH TABLE customer
• D. DESCRIBE DETAIL customer

Answer: (B)

Seeing how Delta Lake will execute a query is done with an explain command. EXPLAIN TABLE customer shows the plan that the query optimizer will follow for operations on that table, detailing how data will be read, filtered, and combined. This helps you understand performance implications like predicate pushdown, data skipping, and which files are read.

DESCRIBE HISTORY customer reveals how the table changed over time, not how a query will run.

REFRESH TABLE customer updates metadata cache, not the execution plan.

DESCRIBE DETAIL customer shows schema and metadata details, not the query plan.

So, EXPLAIN TABLE customer is the best way to view the planned execution.