When a managed catalog table that contains Delta Lake data is dropped, both the table metadata and the associated data files are deleted. This is because managed tables in Azure Databricks are fully controlled by the database manager. When a managed table is dropped, it not only removes the metadata associated with the table from the catalog but also deletes all data files that are stored in the underlying file system. This ensures that there are no leftover data remnants, maintaining a clean data environment and preventing potential data integrity issues.
For context, in contrast to managed tables, if you were dealing with unmanaged tables (external tables), the metadata would be removed, but the underlying data files would remain intact in their original storage location. However, in this scenario specifically involving managed tables in Delta Lake, the correct understanding is that both the metadata and the data files are removed upon dropping the table.