Data teams at companies like Spotify work with both relational tables and raw content such as text, images, and logs. Interviewers ask this question to check whether you understand how data shape affects storage, querying, and analytics workflows.
Explain the difference between structured and unstructured data. In your answer, cover:
Keep the answer practical and database-focused. You do not need to go deep into machine learning or distributed systems, but you should clearly explain why structured data is easier to query with SQL and why unstructured data often requires preprocessing, extraction, or transformation before analysis.