Google Professional Data Engineer Exam - Topic 5 Question 127 Discussion

Actual exam question for Google's Professional Data Engineer exam

Question #: 127
Topic #: 5

[All Professional Data Engineer Questions]

Which is the preferred method to use to avoid hotspotting in time series data in Bigtable?

AField promotion

BRandomization

CSalting

DHashing

Show Suggested Answer

Suggested Answer: A

By default, prefer field promotion. Field promotion avoids hotspotting in almost all cases, and it tends to make it easier to design a row key that facilitates queries.

by Britt at Aug 19, 2026, 06:03 AM

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Melda

3 days ago

Surprised to see salting as the top choice!

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Joaquin

9 days ago

Field promotion is outdated, right?

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Kenny

14 days ago

Wait, I thought hashing was the best method?

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Tricia

19 days ago

Randomization can also help, but not as effective as salting.

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Tammi

24 days ago

I think salting is the way to go!

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Willodean

29 days ago

I’m leaning towards field promotion, but I’m not confident it’s the right choice for avoiding hotspotting in Bigtable.

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Patrick

1 month ago

Hashing sounds familiar, but I can't recall if it's the best option for this specific scenario.

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Bette

1 month ago

I practiced a similar question last week, and I feel like randomization was mentioned as a way to prevent hotspots too.

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Cary

1 month ago

I think I remember something about salting being used to distribute data more evenly, but I'm not entirely sure.

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