Lab: Workspace & Catalog

Navigate the Databricks workspace, explore the Unity Catalog hierarchy, browse DBFS, and inspect compute resources.

Objectives

  • Navigate the Databricks Workspace UI
  • Explore Unity Catalog (Metastore > Catalog > Schema > Table)
  • Use DBFS to browse files and sample datasets
  • Inspect cluster configuration

Lab Exercise

See labs/course1/week1/lab_workspace.py

Key Tasks

  1. Catalog exploration — List catalogs and schemas using SQL
  2. Create schema and table — Build a lab_workspace.cities table with data
  3. File system exploration — Browse /databricks-datasets/ with dbutils
  4. Compute inspection — Print cluster and runtime configuration

Validation

The lab includes a validate_lab() function that checks:

  • Schema lab_workspace was created
  • Cities table exists with at least 3 rows