Google Associate Data Practitioner Exam - Topic 4 Question 20 Discussion

Actual exam question for Google's Associate Data Practitioner exam

Question #: 20
Topic #: 4

[All Associate Data Practitioner Questions]

Your team uses Google Sheets to track budget data that is updated daily. The team wants to compare budget data against actual cost data, which is stored in a BigQuery table. You need to create a solution that calculates the difference between each day's budget and actual costs. You want to ensure that your team has access to daily-updated results in Google Sheets. What should you do?

ACreate a BigQuery external table by using the Drive URI of the Google sheet, and join the actual cost table with it. Save the joined table as a CSV file and open the file in Google Sheets.

BDownload the budget data as a CSV file and upload the CSV file to a Cloud Storage bucket. Create a new BigQuery table from Cloud Storage, and join the actual cost table with it. Open the joined BigQuery table by using Connected Sheets.

CDownload the budget data as a CSV file, and upload the CSV file to create a new BigQuery table. Join the actual cost table with the new BigQuery table, and save the results as a CSV file. Open the CSV file in Google Sheets.

DCreate a BigQuery external table by using the Drive URI of the Google sheet, and join the actual cost table with it. Save the joined table, and open it by using Connected Sheets.

Show Suggested Answer

Suggested Answer: D

Comprehensive and Detailed in Depth

Why D is correct:Creating a BigQuery external table directly from the Google Sheet allows for real-time updates.

Joining the external table with the actual cost table in BigQuery performs the calculation.

Connected Sheets allows the team to access and analyze the results directly in Google Sheets, with the data being updated.

Why other options are incorrect:A: Saving as a CSV file loses the live connection and daily updates.

B: Downloading and uploading as a CSV file adds unnecessary steps and loses the live connection.

C: Same issue as B, losing the live connection.

BigQuery External Tables: https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/external-tables

Connected Sheets: https://support.google.com/sheets/answer/9054368?hl=en

by Kerry at Jan 05, 2026, 05:16 AM

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Samira

1 day ago

Not sure about these options, they all seem a bit complicated!

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Caren

7 days ago

I disagree, C seems more straightforward to me.

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Mabelle

12 days ago

Wait, can you really use Drive URI for external tables? Sounds sketchy.

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Sylvia

17 days ago

I think D is a solid choice too!

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Laurel

22 days ago

Option B seems the most efficient for daily updates.

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Ronnie

27 days ago

Option D is the way to go - why make it more complicated than it needs to be?

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Nettie

2 months ago

Haha, option C reminds me of the good old days of manual data wrangling.

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Joye

2 months ago

Option B looks good, but I'm not a fan of the extra steps involved.

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Lindsey

2 months ago

I like how option D leverages the power of BigQuery and Connected Sheets.

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Glenn

2 months ago

Option D seems the most straightforward solution.

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Rex

2 months ago

I think option D might be the right choice since it mentions using the Drive URI, but I'm not completely confident about the details.

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Chana

2 months ago

I feel like we practiced something similar where we joined tables in BigQuery, but I can't remember if we used external tables or not.

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Lorean

3 months ago

I think option B sounds familiar, but I can't recall if uploading to Cloud Storage is necessary.

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Stephane

3 months ago

I remember we discussed using Connected Sheets for real-time data access, but I'm not sure if that's the best option here.

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King

3 months ago

I think I'd lean towards option D as well. Creating the external table in BigQuery sounds like the most efficient way to keep the data synced up without a lot of manual work. Plus, using Connected Sheets means we don't have to worry about downloading and uploading files. Seems like the cleanest solution overall.

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Melda

3 months ago

Option B seems like the easiest approach to me. Downloading the budget data as a CSV, uploading it to Cloud Storage, and then creating a BigQuery table from that. Then I can just use Connected Sheets to pull the data directly into the Google Sheet. Seems pretty straightforward and low-risk.

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Vinnie

3 months ago

Hmm, I'm a little unsure about this one. I'm not super familiar with BigQuery and external tables. Do we have to set up any special permissions or configurations to make that work? I'm worried it might be a bit more complicated than the other options.

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Esteban

4 months ago

This looks like a pretty straightforward data integration problem. I'd probably go with option D - creating a BigQuery external table from the Google Sheet and joining it with the actual cost data. That way, the data stays up-to-date in the sheet without having to manually download and upload files.

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