Data Warehousing and ETL Fundamentals

Vocabulary flashcards covering core data warehousing concepts, ETL pipeline stages, extraction and loading techniques, and database performance optimization strategies.

Data Warehouse

A centralized repository that stores large volumes of structured data from multiple sources to provide a unified, organized view for analysis and decision-making.

Data Extraction Layer

The architectural component of a data warehouse that gathers data from various sources, such as transactional systems and CRM platforms.

Data Transformation Layer

The architectural component of a data warehouse that cleans, formats, and organizes data to ensure consistency and quality before storage.

Batch Processing

A data extraction technique that gathers large amounts of data at scheduled, set times—often during off-peak hours—so systems are not slowed down.

Real-Time Data Integration

A data extraction method that continuously pulls data as events happen, providing instant updates crucial for fast decision-making.

Change Data Capture (CDC)

A data extraction technique that extracts only the data that has changed or been updated since the last extraction process, maximizing efficiency.

Data Transformation

The process of modifying, formatting, and enhancing data so that it is consistent, meaningful, and ready for unified analysis.

Data Cleaning

The process of correcting mistakes, removing duplicate entries, and addressing missing values to guarantee data accuracy and reliability.

Parallel Processing

A data loading strategy in which multiple data loading operations run at the same time to speed up the ingestion process.

Partitioning

The practice of dividing a dataset into smaller, manageable segments based on specific criteria such as date or geographic region to accelerate query execution.

Incremental Loading

A data loading technique that updates the warehouse by adding only newly created or modified records rather than reloading the entire dataset.

Indexing

A database optimization method acting as a catalog or table of contents that allows rapid row lookups without having to scan whole tables.

Materialized Views

Database objects that save the precomputed results of complex queries for fast retrieval, eliminating the need to rerun frequent queries.

ETL

An acronym for Extract, Transform, Load, referring to the three-step integration pipeline used to collect, prepare, and store data in a data warehouse.