AZ-305 Design data storage solutions Practice Test 13 — 15 Questions

Question 1

You are designing a disaster recovery solution for an Azure SQL Database. The database is in the West US region. You need to ensure that if the entire West US region becomes unavailable, the database can be failed over to another region within 1 hour with minimal data loss. The solution must be cost-effective for a development environment. What should you recommend?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Configure active geo-replication to a secondary database in a paired region. Active geo-replication (Option A) meets the RTO of 1 hour and provides near-zero RPO by asynchronously replicating transactions to a secondary database in a paired region. It is cost-effective for a development environment because active geo-replication allows the secondary database to have a different compute size (e.g., fewer vCores) than the primary, reducing cost for the secondary. Auto-failover groups require the secondary to match the primary's service tier and compute size, increasing cost.

Answer

Configure auto-failover groups with a secondary in a paired region

Answer

Deploy an Always On availability group across two regions using Azure VMs

Answer

Take daily backups and store them in a different region

Question 2

Refer to the exhibit. You have an Azure Storage account with hierarchical namespace enabled. You create this JSON policy to assign to a container. Users report that they can access the container from any IP, not just the specified range. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

IP address conditions are not supported in RBAC for Azure Storage data plane operations. RBAC roles for Azure Storage data plane operations do not support IP address conditions in role assignments. IP address conditions are only supported for Azure Resource Manager (control plane) RBAC roles, not for data plane operations like accessing blob or container data. Since the policy uses RBAC with an IP condition, the condition is ignored, and access is allowed from any IP.

Answer

Hierarchical namespace disables IP-based restrictions

Answer

Anonymous access is enabled on the container

Answer

The resource scope is incorrect; RBAC cannot be assigned at the container level

Question 3

You are a cloud architect at a healthcare company. They have an existing application running on Azure VMs in a single region. The application uses SQL Server on a VM for its database. The company is migrating to Azure SQL Managed Instance for better manageability and compliance. The database is 2 TB and requires point-in-time restore (PITR) capability with a retention period of 35 days. The workload is critical with an RPO of 5 minutes and an RTO of 2 hours. The company wants to minimize costs while meeting these requirements. Which of the following should you recommend?

Accepted Answer

Use Azure SQL Managed Instance with automated backups configured for 35-day retention and a backup storage redundancy of Locally Redundant Storage (LRS). Azure SQL Managed Instance's automated backups with a 35-day retention period and LRS storage meet the PITR requirement while minimizing cost. LRS is the cheapest redundancy option and sufficient for PITR within a single region, as the RPO of 5 minutes is satisfied by the default transaction log backup frequency (every 5-10 minutes). The RTO of 2 hours is achievable by restoring from these backups, and no cross-region replication is needed since the workload is single-region.

Answer

Use Azure SQL Managed Instance with active geo-replication to a secondary region

Answer

Use Azure SQL Managed Instance with long-term retention (LTR) backups

Answer

Use Azure SQL Database with the Hyperscale service tier

Question 4

A multinational company stores large amounts of unstructured data (documents, images) that must be read with low latency from multiple global regions. Data is written primarily in one region but read globally. Cost optimization is a key requirement. Which Azure storage replication option should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Blob Storage with read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS). B is correct because RA-GRS provides geo-redundant storage with read access to the secondary region, enabling low-latency reads from multiple global regions while maintaining cost efficiency. The data is written primarily in one region, but RA-GRS allows read requests to be served from the secondary region without additional compute costs, meeting the global read requirement.

Answer

Azure Blob Storage with geo-redundant storage (GRS)

Answer

Azure Files with premium shares

Answer

Azure NetApp Files

Question 5

A startup is building a social media analytics platform that processes streaming data. They need a data store for time-series events with high write throughput and fast timestamp-based range queries. Which Azure data store is most suitable for this workload?

Accepted Answer

Azure Table Storage. Azure Table Storage is a NoSQL key-value store that supports high-volume, low-latency writes and efficient range queries on the PartitionKey and RowKey, which can be structured as a timestamp for time-series data. Its schema-less design and ability to scale to massive throughput without sharding overhead make it ideal for streaming event ingestion and timestamp-based retrieval.

Answer

Azure Cosmos DB with SQL API

Answer

Azure SQL Database with columnstore index

Answer

Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2

Question 6

A company ingests millions of IoT events per second from sensors around the world. Each event is a JSON message with timestamp, device ID, and readings. They need to support real-time analytics dashboards and also store all raw data for long-term historical analysis. They want to minimize operational overhead. Which Azure data storage solution should they recommend?

Accepted Answer

Azure Event Hubs with Capture to Azure Data Lake Storage.. Azure Event Hubs is designed for high-throughput data ingestion, capable of handling millions of events per second. By enabling the Capture feature, data is automatically and durably persisted to Azure Data Lake Storage in Avro format, providing a serverless, low-latency pipeline for real-time dashboards while storing raw data for long-term analytics. This minimizes operational overhead by eliminating the need to manage separate ingestion and storage infrastructure.

Answer

Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 for all data.

Answer

Azure Cosmos DB for both real-time and historical data.

Answer

Azure Time Series Insights (TSI) Standard.

Question 7

A company needs a fully managed NoSQL database for a JSON document-oriented application that requires low latency (single-digit milliseconds) for reads and writes at any scale. The application will run globally and needs multi-region writes with automatic failover. Which Azure data store should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Cosmos DB. Azure Cosmos DB is the correct choice because it is a fully managed NoSQL database that natively supports JSON documents, offers single-digit millisecond latency for reads and writes at any scale, and provides multi-region writes with automatic failover through its multi-master replication capability. Its global distribution model allows you to configure multiple write regions, ensuring high availability and low latency worldwide.

Answer

Azure Table Storage

Answer

Azure SQL Database

Answer

Azure Cache for Redis

Question 8

A company wants to store raw data from IoT devices, social media feeds, and transactional databases for analytics. They need a storage solution that supports a hierarchical namespace for organizing data into directories and allows fine-grained access control at the directory and file level. They also need to query the data using Azure Synapse Analytics in-place. Which Azure storage solution should they use?

Accepted Answer

B. Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2) is the correct choice because it provides a hierarchical namespace that organizes data into directories and subdirectories, supports POSIX-like fine-grained access control at the directory and file level via ACLs, and can be queried in-place by Azure Synapse Analytics using its built-in serverless SQL pool or dedicated SQL pool. This combination of hierarchical namespace, granular security, and direct analytics integration makes it ideal for the described raw data storage and analytics scenario.

Answer

A

Answer

C

Answer

D

Question 9

A company runs a line-of-business application on Azure VMs that requires a highly available, low-latency SMB file share with support for active-active access from multiple VMs. The application requires high IOPS and throughput, and the file share must be mountable on both Linux and Windows VMs. Which Azure file storage solution should they recommend?

Accepted Answer

B. Azure NetApp Files provides a fully managed, high-performance file share service that supports both SMB and NFS protocols. It offers low-latency, high IOPS and throughput, and enables active-active access from multiple VMs. It can be mounted on both Linux and Windows VMs, meeting all stated requirements. While Azure Files Premium also provides SMB shares, Azure NetApp Files is better suited for demanding, low-latency workloads requiring high performance.

Answer

A

Answer

C

Answer

D

Question 10

A media company stores large video files that are accessed once a month for audits. When needed, they must be available for download immediately (within seconds). The company wants to minimize storage costs. Which Azure Blob Storage access tier should they use?

Accepted Answer

Cool tier. The Cool tier is optimal for this scenario because it balances low storage cost with high availability and low latency access. Video files accessed once a month for audits require immediate download (within seconds), which Cool tier supports with the same millisecond latency as Hot tier, but at a lower storage price. Archive tier would introduce a multi-hour rehydration delay, making it unsuitable for on-demand access within seconds.

Answer

Hot tier

Answer

Cold tier

Answer

Archive tier

Question 11

A startup is building a new mobile app backend. They need a fully managed relational database service with built-in high availability, automatic backups, and built-in intelligence to optimize performance. They want to minimize administrative overhead for tasks like patching and scaling. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure SQL Database. Azure SQL Database is a fully managed Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) relational database that includes built-in high availability (99.99% SLA), automatic backups with point-in-time restore, and built-in intelligence features like automatic tuning, adaptive query processing, and intelligent insights. This minimizes administrative overhead for patching, scaling, and performance optimization, making it ideal for a startup that wants to focus on app development rather than database management.

Answer

SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines

Answer

Azure Database for MySQL

Answer

Azure Cosmos DB

Question 12

A company needs a data storage solution for a global application that frequently accesses recent data and less frequently older data. Data is unstructured blobs. They want to automatically move blobs to cool storage after 30 days and to archive storage after 90 days. Additionally, blobs must be retained for 7 years and cannot be deleted or modified during that period. Which Azure Blob Storage features should they combine?

Accepted Answer

Use blob lifecycle management policies and time-based retention policies.. Blob lifecycle management policies automatically transition blobs from hot to cool after 30 days and to archive after 90 days, while time-based retention policies enforce immutability for a fixed period (7 years), preventing deletion or modification. This combination meets both the tiering and retention requirements without manual intervention.

Answer

Use blob lifecycle management policies and legal hold (immutable blobs).

Answer

Use Azure Storage Analytics and immutability policies.

Answer

Use Azure File Sync and lifecycle management.

Question 13

A company needs a fully managed NoSQL database for a new application with a key-value and document data model. They require single-digit millisecond latency at any scale, multi-region writes with automatic conflict resolution, and a serverless capacity option to handle unpredictable traffic. Which Azure data service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Cosmos DB. Azure Cosmos DB is the correct choice because it is a fully managed NoSQL database that supports both key-value and document data models natively. It guarantees single-digit millisecond latency at any scale, offers multi-region writes with automatic conflict resolution via its multi-master replication, and provides a serverless capacity mode that automatically scales based on demand, making it ideal for unpredictable traffic.

Answer

Azure Table Storage

Answer

Azure Cache for Redis

Answer

Azure SQL Database

Question 14

A company needs to store large amounts of unstructured data (log files) for analytics. The data is accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then occasionally for the next 90 days, and rarely after that but must be retained for 7 years for compliance. The data must not be modified or deleted during the retention period, and administrative access must not be able to bypass this restriction. They want to minimize storage costs. Which combination of Azure Blob Storage features should they configure?

Accepted Answer

Configure a lifecycle management policy to move blobs to Cool tier after 30 days and to Archive tier after 120 days. Apply a time-based retention policy with a retention period of 2,555 days and lock it.. It combines a lifecycle management policy to automatically transition blobs from Hot to Cool after 30 days and to Archive after 120 days, minimizing storage costs. The time-based retention policy with a locked retention period of 2,555 days (7 years) ensures that blobs cannot be modified or deleted during the retention period, and locking the policy prevents administrative bypass, meeting the compliance requirement.

Answer

Enable soft delete and versioning on the storage account, and use a custom script to delete blobs after 7 years. Manually move blobs to Cool and Archive tiers using Azure PowerShell.

Answer

Set each blob's access tier to Cool on upload, then manually change to Archive after 30 days. Enable Azure Backup on the storage account for retention.

Answer

Apply a legal hold on the container to prevent deletion, and configure a lifecycle policy to move blobs to Archive after 30 days.

Question 15

A company runs large-scale analytics workloads using Apache Hadoop and Spark. They need a cloud storage solution that is fully compatible with the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and provides unlimited storage with high throughput for parallel processing. They also want to take advantage of tiered storage to reduce costs for older data. Which Azure data service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2) is the correct choice because it combines a hierarchical namespace with Azure Blob Storage, providing full HDFS compatibility. This allows Apache Hadoop and Spark workloads to use the `wasbs://` or `abfss://` driver for unlimited storage and high throughput parallel processing, while also supporting tiered storage (hot, cool, archive) to reduce costs for older data.

Answer

Azure Blob Storage

Answer

Azure Files

Answer

Azure Disk Storage