[manuzhang]

This draft verifies Iceberg against Spark 4.0.5 RC3 (b472a3aa3c4b71b5a6ff068ef396f757bd662e59) from Apache staging orgapachespark-1539. Maven version remains 4.0.5; staging is restricted to that version. Official tag, POM coordinates, artifact checksums and embedded revision are verified. Existing regressions are retained. New mixed-type subset-key joins cover SPARK-60203 with AQE/skew and partial clustering variants. Existing computed-key ordering and checkpointed-scan tests remain. Current PR head: 61f07d1e6d1c602731f86887242ede94176f6467.

Issues: SPARK-60203, SPARK-59905.

Test plan and results:

• Compare new mixed-key and computed-ordering cases against an SPJ-disabled baseline in LOCAL/DISTRIBUTED planning; assert non-leading key projection and relevant plan behavior. Focused run: 8 cases, 0 failures/errors. Use isolated candidate dependencies and assert the exact runtime revision.
• Prior RC2 comparison: 8 cases, 2 expected regression failures (two mixed-key type failures; partial-clustering variants and ordering cases passed). Exact prior runtime revision and published checksums verified; environmental/setup failures are excluded.
• Final-head local JDK21 validation: 145 tests, 145 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failures/errors. Full SPJ 80 and row-level SPJ 8, focused checkpoint/restart, filter/catalog checks, assemblies, checkstyle and formatting passed.
• Current PR check rollup: 42 success (observed 2026-10-22T19:47:44.428356+00:00). All currently reported checks are terminal.
• Spark CI core/extensions checkout verified at merge b6138dbcf0cc78eed467b6d21f9398289ef2f8a8, containing this exact PR head. All ten Spark matrix jobs passed.
• zizmor completed with success at 2026-10-22T19:44:23Z (original run, attempt 1); no runner/security configuration changes.
• Scope: default local checkpoint-manager integration; S3A/abortable close-failure injection and Spark async progress-tracking failure paths are not tested. Iceberg async planning is distinct. No merge or release vote.

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AI Disclosure

• Model: GPT-6
• Platform/Tool: Codex
• Human Oversight: unreviewed
• Prompt Summary: Update the existing candidate verification draft; generate targeted mixed-key/order regressions, verify fresh artifacts, run compatibility/checkpoint/SPJ validation, and follow exact-head CI.