Deleting Hive rows is more like marking pages as unused: Data isn't immediately removed: Hive can leave the underlying files unchanged after a DELETE. Space can be reused: New records may eventually occupy the space associated with older deleted data. File size stays unchanged: HDFS generally doesn't shrink files just because rows were deleted. Cleanup happens separately: Compaction or other maintenance processes may be needed to physically reduce storage usage. That’s why the file size can remain the same after deleting rows—it’s expected behavior with Hive and HDFS. ... View more