[FAQ Bot] NEW: Why does Kestra support conditional branching within a single workflow i

_questions/data-engineering-zoomcamp/module-2/019_b7ff18706c_conditional-branching-within-workflow.md

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+---
+id: b7ff18706c
+question: Why does Kestra support conditional branching within a single workflow instead
+  of separate flows?
+sort_order: 19
+---
+
+Kestra supports conditional branching within a single workflow to reuse shared orchestration logic while allowing dataset-specific behavior. This approach reduces duplication, keeps related steps together, and makes execution paths explicit within a single workflow definition.
+
+When to use a single-workflow branch:
+- Reuse common steps (e.g., data validation, enrichment) across datasets.
+- Implement dataset-specific paths (e.g., Yellow vs Green taxi) within the same flow.
+
+How to implement:
+- Use a branching mechanism in Kestra (e.g., a condition or switch node) to evaluate a runtime variable (such as the dataset type) and route to the appropriate sub-path.
+- Place shared steps before the branch; place dataset-specific steps inside each branch.
+- Decide how branches converge: continue with a common tail after the branch or treat branches as separate end states.
+
+Best practices:
+- Keep branches modular and minimal; extract shared logic into subflows where possible.
+- Centralize error handling and logging to ensure consistency across branches.
+- Test each branch with representative inputs and monitor branch-specific failures separately.
+
+Example (illustrative pseudo YAML):
+```
+- id: route_by_dataset
+  type: branch
+  when:
+    - condition: ${workflow.variables.dataset_type == 'yellow'}
+      then:
+        - - id: yellow_tasks
+            tasks: [ yellow_validate, yellow_transform ]
+    - else:
+        - - id: green_tasks
+            tasks: [ green_validate, green_transform ]
+- id: end
+  type: terminate
+```
+
+Note: Adapt the exact branch/task names to your Kestra workflow definitions. The key idea is to place shared logic before the branch, branch on dataset/type, and then execute dataset-specific steps within each branch.