AI engineering glossary · Data engineering

What is watermark?

Watermark: A marker in stream processing stating that the system believes no more events older than a given event time will arrive, so windows up to that time can be closed and their results emitted. It balances waiting for late data against latency.

Level: advancedTopic: Data engineering

Watermark: an example

With a 2-minute watermark delay, the 10:00 to 10:05 window is finalised once events stamped 10:07 have been seen.

Related terms

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Where you learn it

Watermark is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.

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