Deleting documents in Elasticsearch - Practice Problems & Coding Challenges

Challenge - 5 Problems

❓ Predict Output

intermediate

What is the output of this delete request?

Given this Elasticsearch delete request, what is the expected response status?

Elasticsearch

DELETE /library/_doc/123

A {"result":"deleted"}

B {"result":"not_found"}

C {"error":"index_not_found_exception"}

D {"result":"updated"}

💡 Hint

If the document exists, deleting it returns a deleted result.

The delete request returns {"result":"deleted"} if the document with ID 123 exists and is removed successfully.

❓ Predict Output

intermediate

What happens if you delete a non-existing document?

What is the response when deleting a document that does not exist in the index?

Elasticsearch

DELETE /library/_doc/9999

A {"result":"deleted"}

B {"result":"created"}

C {"error":"document_missing_exception"}

D {"result":"not_found"}

💡 Hint

Deleting a non-existing document returns not_found in the result.

If the document ID 9999 does not exist, the delete response shows {"result":"not_found"}.

🔧 Debug

advanced

Why does this delete request fail with an error?

Identify the error in this delete request and the cause of failure.

Elasticsearch

DELETE /library/_doc/

A SyntaxError: Missing document ID in the URL

B IndexNotFoundException: The index 'library' does not exist

C TypeError: Invalid HTTP method

D Success: Document deleted

💡 Hint

The delete API requires a document ID after the type.

The request is missing the document ID after _doc/. This causes a syntax error in the URL.

🧠 Conceptual

advanced

Which option correctly deletes documents matching a query?

Which Elasticsearch API call deletes all documents where status is obsolete?

A POST /library/_delete {"query": {"match_all": {}}}

B POST /library/_delete_by_query {"query": {"term": {"status": "obsolete"}}}

C DELETE /library/_delete_by_query {"query": {"term": {"status": "obsolete"}}}

D DELETE /library/_doc/_query {"term": {"status": "obsolete"}}

💡 Hint

The _delete_by_query API deletes documents matching a query.

Option B uses the correct _delete_by_query endpoint with a term query to delete documents where status is obsolete.

📝 Syntax

expert

What error does this delete request produce?

What error results from this malformed delete request?

Elasticsearch

DELETE /library/_doc/123 {"query": {"match_all": {}}}

A 500 Internal Server Error

B 404 Not Found: Document does not exist

C 400 Bad Request: Request body not allowed for DELETE on document API

D 200 OK: Document deleted successfully

💡 Hint

The document delete API does not accept a request body.

Sending a request body with a DELETE on a specific document ID causes a 400 Bad Request error because the API does not expect a body.