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title: Structured Spark Streaming with Delta Lake: A...
description: A recap of a webinar by Scott Haines (Nike) and Bartosz Konieczny on using Apache Spark Structured Streaming with Delta Lake tables. Covers reader and writer...
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og:description: A recap of a webinar by Scott Haines (Nike) and Bartosz Konieczny on using Apache Spark Structured Streaming with Delta Lake tables. Covers reader and writer...
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# Structured Spark Streaming with Delta Lake: A Comprehensive Guide

**[Delta Lake Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/delta-lake)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A recap of a webinar by Scott Haines (Nike) and Bartosz Konieczny on using Apache Spark Structured Streaming with Delta Lake tables. Covers reader and writer APIs, microbatch sizing options, differences from changelog-based systems like Kafka, schema validation and evolution (additive vs non-additive), checkpoint conventions, idempotent multi-table writes, and considerations around backfilling data and building data trust across teams.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://delta.io/blog/structured-spark-streaming>

## Questions this post answers

### What happens when Delta Lake streaming source detects an additive schema change?

The streaming query stops even though additive schema changes are retro-compatible, requiring you to manually resume it. This prevents an eventual schema change from propagating unexpectedly downstream, giving you a chance to review the change before continuing the stream.

_daily.dev surfaces practical Delta Lake schema evolution guidance for engineers building streaming pipelines._

### What is the default rate limit for files when streaming from a Delta table with Spark Structured Streaming?

The default rate limit is 1000 files per microbatch. You can alternatively size microbatches by bytes, but the maximum bytes setting acts as a threshold rather than a hard exact limit, so batches may vary slightly around that target.

_Engineers tuning Spark streaming throughput can track these configuration details on daily.dev._

### Does Delta Lake behave like Kafka when starting a streaming query without a specified starting version?

No, unlike changelog-based systems such as Kafka, Delta Lake returns the latest snapshot version of each row by default when a streaming query starts without an explicit starting version, rather than replaying every historical change event.

_daily.dev helps data engineers compare streaming semantics across Delta Lake and messaging systems like Kafka._

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---

Tags: [#data-engineering](https://daily.dev/tags/data-engineering), [#apache-spark](https://daily.dev/tags/apache-spark)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/structured-spark-streaming-with-delta-lake-a-comprehensive-guide-okdeye4xp)

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