Apache Spark Certification Practice Test

Passing the master URL to the SparkContext constructor is done directly as a string, which allows you to specify the cluster manager that Spark will connect to, such as 'local', 'yarn', or 'spark://host:port'. This method is straightforward and allows easy initialization of SparkContext, establishing where the Spark job is to be executed.

While using a configuration file can also set the master URL, it does not directly pass it to the SparkContext constructor at runtime. Using command-line arguments typically applies to the configuration of Spark applications, but the SparkContext itself is instantiated within the application code and is less common for passing the master URL directly. Employing a SparkConf object is a valid method for setting up various configurations for a Spark application, including the master URL, but it involves an additional step of creating and initializing the SparkConf before passing it to SparkContext. The most direct and immediate way remains supplying the master URL as a string in the SparkContext constructor.