# Core Concepts

DeltaStream is a unified analytics platform that combines batch and stream processing and real-time analytics in one platform. Write queries in SQL, and DeltaStream routes them to the optimal execution engine – for example, Flink for streaming, Spark for batch, and ClickHouse for materialized views. 

You can also use DeltaStream’s SQL-based interface to build stream processing applications such as streaming pipelines, materialized views, microservices, and more. 

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**Note**   DeltaStream sits on top of your streaming data stores, meaning that you should already have one or more streaming stores such as Apache Kafka or AWS Kinesis.
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This section provides more details on the core concepts in DeltaStream.  Below is a brief walk-through of the most important constructs with which to familiarize yourself. 

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