What does Delta Lake add over plain Parquet?

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Answer

$(1) ACID transactions: atomic multi-file writes, no partial reads.$
$(2) Schema enforcement + evolution (add columns safely).$
$(3) Time travel: AS OF VERSION / AS OF TIMESTAMP for point-in-time queries.$
$(4) Merge / update / delete (traditional Parquet is append-only).$
$(5) Z-order clustering for skipping.$
$(6) Compaction of small files.$
$Built on top of Parquet + JSON transaction log.$
$Apache Iceberg + Apache Hudi are alternatives.$
$Databricks + open-source implementations.$

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ACID + schema enforce/evolve + time travel (AS OF VERSION/TIMESTAMP) + merge/update/delete + Z-order clustering + compaction; Parquet + JSON txn log; Iceberg/Hudi alternatives
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Delta: ACID + schema + time travel + updates over Parquet.

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