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BigData / Apache Airflow Interview Questions

What is the difference between PythonOperator and PythonVirtualenvOperator?

Both operators run Python callables, but differ in execution environment:

  • PythonOperator — runs the callable in the same Python environment as the Airflow worker. All packages available to the worker are accessible.
  • PythonVirtualenvOperator — creates a temporary virtual environment with specified requirements, runs the callable inside it, then destroys the venv. Useful when a task needs package versions that conflict with the worker environment.
from airflow.operators.python import PythonVirtualenvOperator

run = PythonVirtualenvOperator(
    task_id='isolated_task',
    python_callable=my_func,
    requirements=['pandas==1.5.0', 'numpy'],
    system_site_packages=False
)

When should you prefer PythonVirtualenvOperator over PythonOperator?

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