Answer: Importing Spark ML libraries and creating sessions

The correct answer is **D**. The first step in any data science project involving Spark ML is to import the necessary Spark ML libraries and establish sessions. This foundational step is crucial for setting up the environment, which includes initializing SparkContext and SparkSession. These components are essential for managing and processing data distributed across a Spark cluster. Only after this setup can subsequent steps like data preprocessing, model training, and result interpretation be effectively carried out using Spark MLlib.

Author: LeetQuiz Editorial Team