You signed in with another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.You signed out in another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.You switched accounts on another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.Dismiss alert
Databricks renamed several products between mid-2025 and late 2026. Exam guides lag the product, so a question stem may use either name — learn both.
[!note] Platform update (Oct 2026)
Snapshot as of Oct 26, 2026. Certification pages now call the platform the Databricks Data + AI Platform (older guides say Data Intelligence Platform).
Product renames
Date
Change
Source
Jun 11, 2025
DLT rebranded under Lakeflow (as Lakeflow Declarative Pipelines); "The product known as Databricks Jobs is now Lakeflow Jobs" (Workflows → Lakeflow Jobs)
"Lakeflow Declarative Pipelines has been renamed to Lakeflow Spark Declarative Pipelines"; Python API from pyspark import pipelines as dp replaces import dlt; dp.create_auto_cdc_flow replaces dlt.apply_changes
"Databricks Asset Bundles has been renamed to Declarative Automation Bundles" — non-breaking; databricks bundle commands and databricks.yml are unchanged
Vector Search appears as AI Search in the docs ("Databricks AI Search (formerly Databricks Vector Search)"); new SDK databricks-ai-search, VectorSearchClient kept as an alias. No dated rename announcement found
Agents deployed to Model Serving and MLflow AgentServer / LongRunningAgentServer moved to Legacy; DurableAgentServer runs agents on Agent Runtime (Databricks Apps)
UniForm GA (Iceberg/Hudi compatibility), Variant type
3.0
Default column mapping, Coordinated commits
Delta Lake 2.x (2022-2023)
Version
Key Features
2.4
Liquid Clustering preview, Deletion vectors
2.3
Type widening, Domain metadata
2.2
Column mapping mode changes
2.1
Change Data Feed improvements
2.0
Python API parity, DROP COLUMN support
Delta Lake 1.x (2020-2022)
Version
Key Features
1.2
Change Data Feed (CDF)
1.1
Generated columns, MERGE improvements
1.0
GA release, Z-ordering
Databricks Runtime Versions
Current LTS Versions (Recommended)
Supported LTS releases as of Oct 2026 (release notes); 13.3 LTS is no longer supported.
Version
Release
Apache Spark
End of Support
18 LTS
Jun 10, 2026
4.1.0
Jun 10, 2029
17.3 LTS
Oct 22, 2025
4.0.0
Oct 22, 2028
16.4 LTS
May 9, 2025
3.5.2
May 9, 2028
15.4 LTS
Aug 19, 2024
3.5.0
Aug 19, 2027
14.3 LTS
Feb 1, 2024
3.5.0
Feb 1, 2027
Feature Availability by Runtime
Feature
Min Runtime
Liquid Clustering
13.3+
Deletion Vectors
12.1+
Predictive Optimization
12.0+
Photon
9.1+ (fully GA 10.4+)
Unity Catalog
11.3+
Serverless ML
14.0+
Foundation Model API
13.3+
Unity Catalog Evolution
2025+
Model serving governance via Unity Catalog
AI/ML asset lineage and tagging
Lakehouse Federation GA (query external sources via UC)
Volumes GA for non-tabular file management
2024
Lakehouse Federation GA
AI/ML asset governance
Volumes GA
Enhanced Delta Sharing (renamed OpenSharing on Jun 10, 2026)
2023 — Unity Catalog GA
External locations
Storage credentials
System tables
2022 — Unity Catalog Preview
Three-level namespace
Centralized access control
Lakeflow Pipelines (formerly DLT) Evolution
2026 (Current)
Docs use Lakeflow Spark Declarative Pipelines / Lakeflow pipelines throughout; pyspark.pipelines (dp) is the recommended Python module
Jun 9, 2026 — update_flow API GA (an update flow that emits only changed rows per batch)
Oct 12, 2026 — pipeline parameters GA; Oct 21, 2026 — Lakeflow pipelines system tables (pipelines, pipeline_update_timeline) GA (Oct 2026 release notes)
2025
Feb 5, 2025 — publishing-mode cutover: "All tables created before February 5, 2025, use legacy publishing mode by default"; in the default publishing mode the deprecated LIVE. virtual schema is silently ignored (LIVE schema)
Jun 11, 2025 — DLT rebranded as Lakeflow Declarative Pipelines (and Databricks Jobs → Lakeflow Jobs)
Nov 12, 2025 — renamed Lakeflow Spark Declarative Pipelines; APPLY CHANGES APIs replaced by AUTO CDC APIs with the same syntax (AUTO CDC)
Mar 16 — renamed Declarative Automation Bundles (non-breaking; databricks bundle CLI unchanged); Jun 10 — direct deployment engine GA, default for bundles created with CLI 1.3.0+ instead of the Terraform engine
2025
Full CI/CD integration, multi-env promotion
2024
DAB GA, Enhanced templates, Model Serving bundles
2023
DAB preview, Basic templates
MLflow Evolution
2026 (Current)
ChatAgent, ChatModel, SplitChatMessageRequest, and StringResponse agent schemas deprecated — author agents with ResponsesAgent
Oct 5, 2026 — agents deployed to Model Serving (agents.deploy()) and the MLflow AgentServer / LongRunningAgentServer moved to Legacy; new code agents use the Agent Bricks CLI and DurableAgentServer on Agent Runtime
GenAI evaluation runs through MLflow 3 mlflow.genai.evaluate() with scorers (replacing Agent Evaluation's mlflow.evaluate(model_type="databricks-agent"))
2025
MLflow Tracing GA (spans, trace export to MLflow UI)
ChatModel interface for custom LLM wrappers (now deprecated — see 2026)
agents.deploy() for one-step agent serving via Unity Catalog (now a legacy path — see 2026)
Review App for human-in-the-loop LLM evaluation
2024
MLflow 2.x GenAI additions: LLM evaluation, mlflow.evaluate() with LLM-as-judge
Unity Catalog integration: registry_uri="databricks-uc", named aliases (@champion)
Model signatures enforced at serving time
2023
MLflow Model Registry aliases replace legacy Stages (Staging/Production)
spark_udf() for batch inference at scale
2022
MLflow 2.0: Model signature enforcement, improved CLI
Unity Catalog Model Registry preview
Mosaic AI / Foundation Model API Timeline
Year
Feature
2026
Jul 8 — Genie Spaces renamed Genie Agents; Oct 12 — Agent Bricks CLI (Beta) recommended for new code agents, Knowledge Assistant and Supervisor Agent legacy
2025
AI Playground GA, AI Gateway for external models, agent framework
2024
Foundation Model API GA (DBRX, Llama, Mixtral, BGE embeddings)
2024
Provisioned throughput endpoints for guaranteed QPS
2024
Vector Search GA with Delta Sync and Direct Access indexes
2023
Mosaic AI branding, Vector Search preview
2023
Pay-per-token Foundation Model API preview
Databricks Vector Search (now AI Search) Timeline
Year
Feature
2026
Docs rename to Databricks AI Search (formerly Vector Search); databricks-ai-search SDK with AISearchClient (VectorSearchClient kept as alias); Jul 15 — High QPS for standard endpoints GA