What is deduplication in an Address Management System and what approach would you use?

What is deduplication in an Address Management System and what approach would you use?

• A. Deduplication removes duplicate address records using exact-match checks and fuzzy similarity scoring (Levenshtein/Jaccard), phonetic matching, and rule-based checks; combine results with a human review workflow.
• B. Deduplication means merging all addresses into a single canonical address automatically with no human intervention.
• C. Deduplication only uses exact-match checks.
• D. Deduplication is unnecessary if the data store enforces uniqueness on address_id.

Answer: (A)

Deduplication in an Address Management System means identifying records that refer to the same physical address and merging them into one canonical representation, while keeping track of where the data came from. The best approach uses a mix of matching signals rather than a single rule. Start with exact matches for straightforward duplicates, but also apply fuzzy similarity scoring to catch near-duplicates that differ by typos or small edits. Techniques like Levenshtein distance measure character-level differences, while Jaccard similarity looks at shared tokens to handle variations in wording or order. Phonetic matching can catch misspellings that sound alike, and rule-based checks help normalize common patterns (like expanding abbreviations, standardizing suffixes, and removing punctuation). Combine these signals into a scoring workflow and route ambiguous cases to a human reviewer. The human-in-the-loop step prevents incorrect merges and supports governance, especially when signals conflict or business rules require judgment. Once a merge is approved, create a single canonical record and preserve provenance so you can trace the original sources. This approach delivers reliable deduplication, improves data quality for mailings and analytics, and avoids the pitfalls of fully automatic or overly narrow methods.