Delta Lake Tutorial #2 — Creating and Managing Delta Tables (PySpark + Databricks 2026)

In this video, we cover everything you need to know about creating and managing Delta tables in Databricks using PySpark — including the different ways to create Delta tables, how Delta stores data under the hood, and the management operations that keep your tables healthy in production.

This is video #2 in the Delta Lake Complete Guide 2026 series. If you missed video #1 (What is Delta Lake and why it exists), the link is below.

What we cover in this video:
▸ Creating Delta tables using PySpark DataFrame API
▸ Creating Delta tables using SQL in Databricks
▸ Managed vs external Delta tables — when to use each
▸ Understanding the Delta transaction log and file structure
▸ Describing, altering, and dropping Delta tables
▸ Common mistakes engineers make when setting up Delta tables

By the end of this video, you will be able to create and manage Delta tables confidently in both Databricks and any Apache Spark environment.

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🔗 LINKS
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▸ Delta Lake Complete Guide 2026 playlist: [playlist link]
▸ Video #1 — What is Delta Lake: [video link]
▸ Full Databricks on AWS course (coming July 2026): [course link]
▸ More advanced courses: www.scholarnest.com

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⏱ CHAPTERS
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00:00 Introduction
01:47 Three approaches to create a delta table
11:05 Managed vs External Tables

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📌 ABOUT THIS SERIES
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The Delta Lake Complete Guide 2026 is a free, structured series for data engineers who want to go beyond the basics. Every video is recorded as part of a full Databricks on AWS course, so the depth reflects real production engineering — not simplified demos.

New videos every week. Subscribe and hit the bell so you don't miss any part of the series.

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👤 ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
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I am a data engineer and architect with 25 years of industry experience. I create self-paced courses on Apache Spark, Databricks, Kafka, and Generative AI for data engineers.

📺 YouTube: Learning Journal (you're already here!)
🌐 Website: www.scholarnest.com

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