What is Azure Databricks?

Azure Databricks is a fast, collaborative Apache Spark-based analytics platform optimized for Azure. It combines the power of Apache Spark for large-scale data processing with a collaborative notebook interface and deep Azure integration. Key features: Optimized Spark runtime: 10-100x faster than vanilla Spark via Delta Engine and Photon. Delta Lake: ACID transactions and versioning on data lakes. MLflow integration: track, deploy, and manage machine learning models. Unity Catalog: data governance and lineage. Auto-scaling clusters: start with zero workers, scale based on workload. Use cases: ETL pipelines, real-time analytics, ML training, and data exploration. Databricks integrates with Azure Data Lake Storage, Azure Synapse, and Azure ML.