I have a statement like this with pyspark:

target_tbl.alias("target")\

            .merge(stage_df.hint("broadcast").alias("source"), merge_join_expr)\

                .whenMatchedUpdateAll()\

                .whenNotMatchedInsertAll()\

                .whenNotMatchedBySourceDelete()\

                .execute()

It is not accepting the broadcast hint. I am getting the following:

Join hint ignored: This query has a join hint '(strategy=broadcast)' that is not associated with any join operator and will thus be ignored. Investigate the query to see if the hint is placed correctly.

In this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2k9PICWdx0&t=797s

it is said that this approach is working