Last Attempt Professional-Machine-Learning-Engineer Questions

 Before building an insurance approval model, an ML engineer should consider the factors of traceability, reproducibility, and explainability, as these are important aspects of responsible AI and fairness in a regulated domain. Traceability is the ability to track the provenance and lineage of the data, models, and decisions throughout the ML lifecycle. It helps to ensure the quality, reliability, and accountability of the ML system, and to comply with the regulatory and ethical standards. Reproducibility is the ability to recreate the same results and outcomes using the same data, models, and parameters. It helps to verify the validity, consistency, and robustness of the ML system, and to debug and improve the performance. Explainability is the ability to understand and interpret the logic, behavior, and outcomes of the ML system. It helps to increase the transparency, trust, and confidence of the ML system, and to identify and mitigate any potential biases, errors, or risks. The other options are not as relevant or comprehensive as this option. Redaction is the process of removing sensitive or confidential information from the data or documents, but it is not a factor that the ML engineer should consider before building the model, as it is more related to the data preparation and protection. Federated learning is a technique that allows training ML models on decentralized data without transferring the data to a central server, but it is not a factor that the ML engineer should consider before building the model, as it is more related to the model architecture and privacy preservation. Differential privacy is a method that adds noise to the data or the model outputs to protect the individual privacy of the data subjects, but it is not a factor that the ML engineer should consider before building the model, as it is more related to the model evaluation and deployment. References:

Responsible AI documentation

Traceability documentation

Reproducibility documentation

Explainability documentation

This answer is correct because it uses a regression model to estimate the number of passengers at each shuttle station, which is a continuous variable. A tree-based regression model can handle both numerical and categorical features, such as the time of day, the location of the station, and the weather conditions. Based on the predicted number of passengers, the organization can dispatch a shuttle that has enough capacity and provide a map that shows the required stops. This way, the organization can optimize the shuttle service route and reduce the waiting time and fuel consumption. References:

[Tree-based regression models]

 The best option for configuring the workflow is to add the transformations as a preprocessing layer in the TensorFlow models. This option allows you to leverage the power and simplicity of TensorFlow to preprocess and transform the data with simple Python code. TensorFlow is a framework for building and training machine learning models. TensorFlow provides various tools and libraries for data analysis and machine learning. A preprocessing layer is a type of layer in TensorFlow that can perform data preprocessing and feature engineering operations on the input data. A preprocessing layer can help you customize the data transformation and preprocessing logic, and handle complex or non-standard data formats. A preprocessing layer can also help you minimize the preprocessing time, cost, and development effort, as you only need to write a few lines of code to implement the preprocessing layer, and you do not need to create any intermediate data sources or pipelines. By adding the transformations as a preprocessing layer in the TensorFlow models, you can use Vertex AI’s custom training service to train multiple TensorFlow models that read the data from BigQuery and predict future sales1.

The other options are not as good as option C, for the following reasons:

Option A: Writing the transformations into Spark that uses the spark-bigquery-connector and using Dataproc to preprocess the data would require more skills and steps than using a preprocessing layer in TensorFlow. Spark is a framework for distributed data processing and machine learning. Spark can read and write data from BigQuery by using the spark-bigquery-connector, which is a library that allows Spark to communicate with BigQuery. Dataproc is a service that can create and manage Spark clusters on Google Cloud. Dataproc can help you run Spark jobs on Google Cloud, and scale the clusters according to the workload. However, writing the transformations into Spark that uses the spark-bigquery-connector and using Dataproc to preprocess the data would require more skills and steps than using a preprocessing layer in TensorFlow. You would need to write code, create and configure the Spark cluster, install and import the spark-bigquery-connector, load and preprocess the data, and write the data back to BigQuery. Moreover, this option would create an intermediate data source in BigQuery, which can increase the storage and computation costs2.

Option B: Writing SQL queries to transform the data in-place in BigQuery would not allow you to use Vertex AI’s custom training service to train multiple TensorFlow models that read the data from BigQuery and predict future sales. BigQuery is a service that can perform data analysis and machine learning by using SQL queries. BigQuery can perform data transformation and preprocessing by using SQL functions and clauses, such as MIN, MAX, CASE, and TRANSFORM. BigQuery can also perform machine learning by using BigQuery ML, which is a feature that can create and train machine learning models by using SQL queries. However, writing SQL queries to transform the data in-place in BigQuery would not allow you to use Vertex AI’s custom training service to train multiple TensorFlow models that read the data from BigQuery and predict future sales. Vertex AI’s custom training service is a service that can run your custom machine learning code on Vertex AI. Vertex AI’s custom training service can support various machine learning frameworks, such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, and scikit-learn. Vertex AI’s custom training service cannot support SQL queries, as SQL is not a machine learning framework. Therefore, if you want to use Vertex AI’s custom training service, you cannot use SQL queries to transform the data in-place in BigQuery3.

Option D: Creating a Dataflow pipeline that uses the BigQueryIO connector to ingest the data, process it, and write it back to BigQuery would require more skills and steps than using a preprocessing layer in TensorFlow. Dataflow is a service that can create and run data processing and machine learning pipelines on Google Cloud. Dataflow can read and write data from BigQuery by using the BigQueryIO connector, which is a library that allows Dataflow to communicate with BigQuery. Dataflow can perform data transformation and preprocessing by using Apache Beam, which is a framework for distributed data processing and machine learning. However, creating a Dataflow pipeline that uses the BigQueryIO connector to ingest the data, process it, and write it back to BigQuery would require more skills and steps than using a preprocessing layer in TensorFlow. You would need to write code, create and configure the Dataflow pipeline, install and import the BigQueryIO connector, load and preprocess the data, and write the data back to BigQuery. Moreover, this option would create an intermediate data source in BigQuery, which can increase the storage and computation costs4.

References:

Preparing for Google Cloud Certification: Machine Learning Engineer, Course 3: Production ML Systems, Week 2: Serving ML Predictions

Google Cloud Professional Machine Learning Engineer Exam Guide, Section 2: Developing ML models, 2.1 Developing ML models by using TensorFlow

Official Google Cloud Certified Professional Machine Learning Engineer Study Guide, Chapter 4: Developing ML Models, Section 4.1: Developing ML Models by Using TensorFlow

TensorFlow Preprocessing Layers

Spark and BigQuery

Dataproc

BigQuery ML

Dataflow and BigQuery

Apache Beam