You notice a Delta Parquet lakehouse table with over 1,000 versions and a six-month retention policy. To reduce the table size and the number of files, which maintenance action should you configure?

• A. Run the VACUUM command under Maintenance
• B. Run the OPTIMIZE command
• C. Rebuild the table using a new load
• D. Compress the files with a separate job

Answer: (A)

Delta table maintenance to reclaim storage is about removing files that are no longer referenced by the active table state. With many versions and a six-month retention policy, a lot of data files become stale as newer commits point to newer files. VACUUM deletes those unreferenced files within the retention window, freeing space and reducing the number of files without losing data you still need for time travel. OPTIMIZE focuses on consolidating small files to improve scan efficiency but doesn’t purge old, unreferenced files under the retention rule. Rebuilding from scratch would discard history and isn’t necessary. Compressing files separately won’t remove the obsolete data either. So configuring VACUUM is the right move to shrink the table size and file count while honoring the retention policy.