Data/ML/AIDatabases
Data Pipeline
An automated series of steps that moves data from one system to another, often cleaning or transforming it along the way.
Think of it like
Like a factory conveyor belt that carries raw materials from receiving, through cleaning and shaping stations, to the loading dock automatically.
Junior or senior?
Junior sounds like
Can only describe the pipeline's happy path.
Senior sounds like
Has handled a real failure gracefully — retries, alerting, backfills — and can walk through the recovery.
Ask them
“What happens in your pipeline when a step fails halfway through? Walk me through the recovery.”