Back to Skills
antigravityAI & Agents

spark-optimization

Optimize Apache Spark jobs with partitioning, caching, shuffle optimization, and memory tuning. Use when improving Spark performance, debugging slow jobs, or scaling data processing pipelines.

Documentation

Apache Spark Optimization

Production patterns for optimizing Apache Spark jobs including partitioning strategies, memory management, shuffle optimization, and performance tuning.

Do not use this skill when

  • The task is unrelated to apache spark optimization
  • You need a different domain or tool outside this scope

Instructions

  • Clarify goals, constraints, and required inputs.
  • Apply relevant best practices and validate outcomes.
  • Provide actionable steps and verification.
  • If detailed examples are required, open resources/implementation-playbook.md.

Use this skill when

  • Optimizing slow Spark jobs
  • Tuning memory and executor configuration
  • Implementing efficient partitioning strategies
  • Debugging Spark performance issues
  • Scaling Spark pipelines for large datasets
  • Reducing shuffle and data skew

Core Concepts

1. Spark Execution Model

Driver Program
    ↓
Job (triggered by action)
    ↓
Stages (separated by shuffles)
    ↓
Tasks (one per partition)

2. Key Performance Factors

FactorImpactSolution
ShuffleNetwork I/O, disk I/OMinimize wide transformations
Data SkewUneven task durationSalting, broadcast joins
SerializationCPU overheadUse Kryo, columnar formats
MemoryGC pressure, spillsTune executor memory
PartitionsParallelismRight-size partitions

Quick Start

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql import functions as F

# Create optimized Spark session
spark = (SparkSession.builder
    .appName("OptimizedJob")
    .config("spark.sql.adaptive.enabled", "true")
    .config("spark.sql.adaptive.coalescePartitions.enabled", "true")
    .config("spark.sql.adaptive.skewJoin.enabled", "true")
    .config("spark.serializer", "org.apache.spark.serializer.KryoSerializer")
    .config("spark.sql.shuffle.partitions", "200")
    .getOrCreate())

# Read with optimized settings
df = (spark.read
    .format("parquet")
    .option("mergeSchema", "false")
    .load("s3://bucket/data/"))

# Efficient transformations
result = (df
    .filter(F.col("date") >= "2024-01-01")
    .select("id", "amount", "category")
    .groupBy("category")
    .agg(F.sum("amount").alias("total")))

result.write.mode("overwrite").parquet("s3://bucket/output/")

Patterns

Pattern 1: Optimal Partitioning

# Calculate optimal partition count
def calculate_partitions(data_size_gb: float, partition_size_mb: int = 128) -> int:
    """
    Optimal partition size: 128MB - 256MB
    Too few: Under-utilization, memory pressure
    Too many: Task scheduling overhead
    """
    return max(int(data_size_gb * 1024 / partition_size_mb), 1)

# Repartition for even distribution
df_repartitioned = df.repartition(200, "partition_key")

# Coalesce to reduce partitions (no shuffle)
df_coalesced = df.coalesce(100)

# Partition pruning with predicate pushdown
df = (spark.read.parquet("s3://bucket/data/")
    .filter(F.col("date") == "2024-01-01"))  # Spark pushes this down

# Write with partitioning for future queries
(df.write
    .partitionBy("year", "month", "day")
    .mode("overwrite")
    .parquet("s3://bucket/partitioned_output/"))

Pattern 2: Join Optimization

from pyspark.sql import functions as F
from pyspark.sql.types import *

# 1. Broadcast Join - Small table joins
# Best when: One side < 10MB (configurable)
small_df = spark.read.parquet("s3://bucket/small_table/")  # < 10MB
large_df = spark.read.parquet("s3://bucket/large_table/")  # TBs

# Explicit broadcast hint
result = large_df.join(
    F.broadcast(small_df),
    on="key",
    how="left"
)

# 2. Sort-Merge Join - Default for large tables
# Requires shuffle, but handles any size
result = large_df1.join(large_df2, on="key", how="inner")

# 3. Bucket Join - Pre-sorted, no shuffle at join time
# Write bucketed tables
(df.write
    .bucketBy(200, "customer_id")
    .sortBy("customer_id")
    .mode("overwrite")
    .saveAsTable("bucketed_orders"))

# Join bucketed tables (no shuffle!)
orders = spark.table("bucketed_orders")
customers = spark.table("bucketed_customers")  # Same bucket count
result = orders.join(customers, on="customer_id")

# 4. Skew Join Handling
# Enable AQE skew join optimization
spark.conf.set("spark.sql.adaptive.skewJoin.enabled", "true")
spark.conf.set("spark.sql.adaptive.skewJoin.skewedPartitionFactor", "5")
spark.conf.set("spark.sql.adaptive.skewJoin.skewedPartitionThresholdInBytes", "256MB")

# Manual salting for severe skew
def salt_join(df_skewed, df_other, key_col, num_salts=10):
    """Add salt to distribute skewed keys"""
    # Add salt to skewed side
    df_salted = df_skewed.withColumn(
        "salt",
        (F.rand() * num_salts).cast("int")
    ).withColumn(
        "salted_key",
        F.concat(F.col(key_col), F.lit("_"), F.col("salt"))
    )

    # Explode other side with all salts
    df_exploded = df_other.crossJoin(
        spark.range(num_s