The data team will ___ a pipeline to move records from the source system into the warehouse.
We build a pipeline when we design and implement the series of steps that move and process data. Build is the dominant collocation in data engineering, mirroring how we build software and infrastructure. Create is acceptable but weaker, do is far too vague, and establish sounds bureaucratic. Job titles like "data pipeline builder" and phrases such as "we built an ETL pipeline" confirm that build a pipeline is the natural, expected verb-noun pairing in this field.
2 / 5
The first stage of the pipeline must ___ data from several external APIs.
To ingest data means to bring raw data into a system for processing or storage. Ingest is the technical term across data engineering, used in phrases like "ingestion layer" and "data ingestion." Eat, absorb, and swallow are biological metaphors that no engineer uses professionally. Tools like Kafka and Fivetran describe themselves as ingestion platforms, so ingest data is the precise, idiomatic collocation you should use when describing how a pipeline first acquires its input.
3 / 5
In the middle stage, jobs ___ raw records into a clean, structured format.
We transform data when we reshape, clean, and enrich it into the form needed downstream. Transform is the T in ETL and ELT, making it the single most recognisable verb in data engineering. Change, alter, and switch are too general and lack the technical precision of transform, which implies systematic restructuring. Tools like dbt centre entirely on the transformation step, so transform data is the expected collocation for the processing stage of a pipeline.
4 / 5
The final stage will ___ the processed data into the analytics warehouse.
To load data means to write the processed output into its destination store. Load is the L in ETL/ELT and the standard verb for this final stage. Put and place are too informal, and while insert describes a single SQL operation, load describes the broader pipeline step of populating a warehouse or table. Phrases like "load into BigQuery" are everywhere, so load data is the precise collocation for delivering data to its final home.
5 / 5
After fixing a bug, the engineer must ___ the pipeline to reprocess last month's historical data.
To backfill means to run a pipeline over past time periods to populate or correct historical data. Backfill is a specialised data-engineering term with no everyday equivalent, used in sentences like "we need to backfill three months of events." Rewind and refill are not technical terms here, and reload implies repeating a load without the historical, gap-filling sense. So backfill the pipeline is the exact collocation for retroactively processing older data.