What is Apache Iceberg and how does it use Parquet?

Apache Iceberg is a high-performance open table format for huge analytic datasets, designed to replace traditional Hive table management. Iceberg stores actual data in Parquet (or ORC/Avro) files and adds a metadata layer on top.

Iceberg adds to raw Parquet:

• ACID transactions — snapshot isolation for concurrent reads and writes.
• Hidden partitioning — partition transforms (bucket, truncate, year/month/day) applied transparently without user-specified partition paths.
• Full schema evolution — rename, reorder, drop columns tracked via field IDs.
• Time travel — query any historical snapshot: SELECT * FROM events VERSION AS OF 12345;
• Metadata statistics — manifest files track per-file min/max/null counts for fast planning.

Parquet is the default data format in Iceberg deployments (Spark, Flink, Trino, Hive). Iceberg handles all the metadata overhead so Parquet files can remain immutable and easily compactable.

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