Passed Exam Today Professional-Machine-Learning-Engineer

• Option A is incorrect because using AI Platform to run distributed training jobs with checkpoints does not reduce the compute costs, but rather increases them by using more resources and storing the checkpoints.
• Option B is incorrect because using AI Platform to run distributed training jobs without checkpoints may reduce the compute costs, but it also risks losing the progress of the training if the job fails or is interrupted.
• Option C is correct because migrating to training with Kubeflow on Google Kubernetes Engine, and using preemptible VMs with checkpoints can reduce the compute costs significantly by using cheaper and more scalable resources, while also preserving the state of the training with checkpoints.
• Option D is incorrect because using preemptible VMs without checkpoints may reduce the compute costs, but it also risks losing the training progress if the VMs are preempted.

References:

• Kubeflow on Google Cloud
• Using preemptible VMs and GPUs
• Saving and loading models

 A cloud-based backend system is a system that runs on a cloud platform and provides services or resources to other applications or users. A cloud-based backend system can be used to submit training jobs, which are tasks that involve training a machine learning model on a given dataset using a specific framework and configuration1

However, a cloud-based backend system can also have some drawbacks, such as:

• High maintenance: A cloud-based backend system may require a lot of administration and management, such as provisioning, scaling, monitoring, and troubleshooting the cloud resources and services. This can be time-consuming and costly, and may distract from the core business objectives2
• Low flexibility: A cloud-based backend system may not support all the frameworks and libraries that the data scientists need to use for their training jobs. This can limit the choices and capabilities of the data scientists, and affect the quality and performance of their models3
• Poor integration: A cloud-based backend system may not integrate well with other cloud services or tools that the data scientists need to use for their machine learning workflows, such as data processing, model deployment, or model monitoring. This can create compatibility and interoperability issues, and reduce the efficiency and productivity of the data scientists.

Therefore, it may be better to use a managed service instead of a cloud-based backend system to submit training jobs. A managed service is a service that is provided and operated by a third-party provider, and offers various benefits, such as:

• Low maintenance: A managed service handles the administration and management of the cloud resources and services, and abstracts away the complexity and details of the underlying infrastructure. This can save time and money, and allow the data scientists to focus on their core tasks2
• High flexibility: A managed service can support multiple frameworks and libraries that the data scientists need to use for their training jobs, and allow them to customize and configure their training environments and parameters. This can enhance the choices and capabilities of the data scientists, and improve the quality and performance of their models3
• Easy integration: A managed service can integrate seamlessly with other cloud services or tools that the data scientists need to use for their machine learning workflows, and provide a unified and consistent interface and experience. This can solve the compatibility and interoperability issues, and increase the efficiency and productivity of the data scientists.

One of the best options for using a managed service to submit training jobs is to use the AI Platform custom containers feature to receive training jobs using any framework. AI Platform is a Google Cloud service that provides a platform for building, deploying, and managing machine learning models. AI Platform supports various machine learning frameworks, such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn, and XGBoost, and provides various features, such as hyperparameter tuning, distributed training, online prediction, and model monitoring.

The AI Platform custom containers feature allows the data scientists to use any framework or library that they want for their training jobs, and package their training application and dependencies as a Docker container image. The data scientists can then submit their training jobs to AI Platform, and specify the container image and the training parameters. AI Platform will run the training jobs on the cloud infrastructure, and handle the scaling, logging, and monitoring of the training jobs. The data scientists can also use the AI Platform features to optimize, deploy, and manage their models.

The other options are not as suitable or feasible. Configuring Kubeflow to run on Google Kubernetes Engine and receive training jobs through TFJob is not ideal, as Kubeflow is mainly designed for TensorFlow-based training jobs, and does not support other frameworks or libraries. Creating a library of VM images on Compute Engine and publishing these images on a centralized repository is not optimal, as Compute Engine is a low-level service that requires a lot of administration and management, and does not provide the features and integrations of AI Platform. Setting up Slurm workload manager to receive jobs that can be scheduled to run on your cloud infrastructure is not relevant, as Slurm is a tool for managing and scheduling jobs on a cluster of nodes, and does not provide a managed service for training jobs.

References: 1: Cloud computing 2: Managed services 3: Machine learning frameworks : [Machine learning workflow] : [AI Platform overview] : [Custom containers for training]

 Vertex AI Workbench is an integrated development environment (IDE) that allows you to create and run Jupyter notebooks on Google Cloud. Vertex AI Pipelines is a service that allows you to create and manage machine learning workflows using Vertex AI components. To submit a Vertex AI Pipeline job from a Vertex AI Workbench instance, you need to have the appropriate permissions to access the Vertex AI resources. The Identity and Access Management (IAM) Vertex AI User role is a predefined role that grants the minimum permissions required to use Vertex AI services, such as creating and deploying models, endpoints, and pipelines. By assigning the Vertex AI User role to the Vertex AI Workbench instance, you can ensure that the instance has sufficient permissions to submit a Vertex AI Pipeline job. You can assign the role to the instance by using the Cloud Console, the gcloud command-line tool, or the Cloud IAM API. References: The answer can be verified from official Google Cloud documentation and resources related to Vertex AI Workbench, Vertex AI Pipelines, and IAM.

• Vertex AI Workbench | Google Cloud
• Vertex AI Pipelines | Google Cloud
• Vertex AI roles | Google Cloud
• Granting, changing, and revoking access to resources | Google Cloud

 Oversampling is a technique for dealing with imbalanced datasets, where the majority class dominates the minority class. It balances the distribution of classes by increasing the number of samples in the minority class. Oversampling can improve the performance of a classifier by reducing the bias towards the majority class and increasing the sensitivity to the minority class.

In this case, the dataset includes transactions, of which 1% are identified as fraudulent. This means that the fraudulent transactions are the minority class and the non-fraudulent transactions are the majority class. A random forest model trained on this dataset might have a low recall for the fraudulent transactions, meaning that it might miss many of them and fail to detect fraud. This could have a high cost for the bank and its customers.

One way to overcome this problem is to oversample the fraudulent transactions 10 times, meaning that each fraudulent transaction is duplicated 10 times in the training dataset. This would increase the proportion of fraudulent transactions from 1% to about 10%, making the dataset more balanced. This would also make the random forest model more aware of the patterns and features that distinguish fraudulent transactions from non-fraudulent ones, and thus improve its accuracy and recall for the minority class.

For more information about oversampling and other techniques for imbalanced data, see the following references:

• Random Oversampling and Undersampling for Imbalanced Classification
• Exploring Oversampling Techniques for Imbalanced Datasets