Delta or Iceberg?

Concepts: paTableFormats

Both Delta Lake and Apache Iceberg add ACID transactions to files sitting on object storage. They solve the same core problem: Parquet files are immutable, so updates, deletes, and schema changes require a metadata layer. The interviewer wants you to know what each does well and where they diverge. The Core Problem They Solve Without a table format, a "table" is just a directory of Parquet files with a naming convention. There's no atomic commit - if a write fails halfway, you have partial data. There's no isolation - a reader might see a half-written batch. There's no schema enforcement - a new file could have different column names. Delta and Iceberg both fix this by adding a transaction log that tracks which files constitute the current table state. Time Travel Both formats suppor