Which statement best describes Direct Lake mode?

Which statement best describes Direct Lake mode?

• A. It loads all data into memory
• B. It queries data directly from the lake without ingesting
• C. It requires staging tables
• D. It caches results in memory

Answer: (B)

Direct Lake mode means you query data where it lives—in the data lake—without importing or ingesting it into the analytics model. The engine reads only the necessary files and partitions from the lake (like Parquet or Delta formats), using lake metadata to optimize the query. You don’t create staging tables, and you don’t load the entire dataset into memory. While some caching of metadata or results may occur for speed, the core idea is accessing data directly from the lake rather than pulling it into the service.

Direct Lake mode means you query data where it lives—in the data lake—without importing or ingesting it into the analytics model. The engine reads only the necessary files and partitions from the lake (like Parquet or Delta formats), using lake metadata to optimize the query. You don’t create staging tables, and you don’t load the entire dataset into memory. While some caching of metadata or results may occur for speed, the core idea is accessing data directly from the lake rather than pulling it into the service.