AZ-305 Design data storage solutions Practice Test 3 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company runs a high-performance computing (HPC) workload that requires low-latency access to large files (hundreds of GB) from thousands of Azure VMs concurrently. The files must be accessible via the NFS protocol and the solution must be a fully managed, POSIX-compliant file system that can scale throughput linearly with capacity. Which Azure storage solution should they choose?

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

Accepted Answer

Azure NetApp Files. Azure NetApp Files is the correct choice because it provides a fully managed, POSIX-compliant NFS file system that can scale throughput linearly with capacity. It is designed for HPC workloads requiring low-latency access to large files from thousands of concurrent VMs, offering sub-millisecond latency and high throughput that increases as you add capacity.

Answer

Azure Files (premium tier)

Answer

Azure Blob Storage with NFS 3.0 support

Answer

Azure HPC Cache

Question 2

A company needs to store audit logs for 7 years to meet compliance requirements. The logs are generated at a high volume and must be cost-effective. They need to run occasional queries on recent logs (less than 30 days old) but rarely on older ones. Which Azure storage solution should they recommend?

Accepted Answer

Azure Blob Storage with lifecycle management to Archive tier. Azure Blob Storage with lifecycle management to the Archive tier is the correct solution because it provides a cost-effective storage hierarchy for high-volume audit logs. Lifecycle management can automatically move logs from the Hot or Cool tier to the Archive tier after 30 days, aligning with the requirement to keep recent logs queryable while minimizing costs for older logs that are rarely accessed. The Archive tier offers the lowest storage cost, making it ideal for 7-year retention of audit data.

Answer

Azure SQL Database

Answer

Azure Cosmos DB

Answer

Azure Log Analytics

Question 3

A company needs to store and retrieve large binary files (e.g., images and videos) for a web application. The data must be accessible via HTTPS URLs and support both public read access for anonymous users and private access for administrators. The solution must be highly durable and cost-effective for storing terabytes of data. Which Azure storage solution should they recommend?

Accepted Answer

Azure Blob Storage. Azure Blob Storage is the correct choice because it is designed for storing large amounts of unstructured data, such as images and videos, and supports both public anonymous read access (via a public container or blob-level access policy) and private access (via shared access signatures or Azure AD authentication). It provides HTTPS URL access for direct retrieval, offers 99.9999999999% (11 nines) durability for hot and cool tiers, and is cost-effective for terabytes of data due to its tiered storage options (hot, cool, archive).

Answer

Azure Files

Answer

Azure Queue Storage

Answer

Azure Table Storage

Question 4

A global e-commerce company stores product catalog data in a JSON document format. The application requires low-latency reads and writes from multiple geographic regions. The solution must support multi-region writes with automatic conflict resolution and provide a guaranteed 99th percentile latency. Which Azure Cosmos DB API and consistency level should they choose?

Accepted Answer

SQL API with Session consistency. The SQL API with Session consistency is correct because it supports multi-region writes with automatic conflict resolution using last-writer-wins (LWW) and provides a guaranteed 99th percentile latency. Session consistency is the most widely used level for globally distributed applications, offering read-your-writes guarantees while maintaining low latency across regions.

Answer

Table API with Eventual consistency

Answer

SQL API with Strong consistency

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MongoDB API with Bounded staleness consistency

Question 5

A company runs a data analytics application that stores large volumes of structured data in a relational format. The data is write-intensive and the application needs to scale horizontally for high throughput. The solution must support SQL queries, including joins and ACID transactions. Which Azure database service should they choose?

Accepted Answer

Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Hyperscale (Citus). Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Hyperscale (Citus) is correct because it provides horizontal scaling (sharding) across multiple nodes while preserving full SQL support, including JOINs and ACID transactions. Citus distributes data across worker nodes using a coordinator node, enabling write-intensive workloads to achieve high throughput through parallelized writes. This makes it ideal for large-volume, relational, write-heavy analytics applications that require relational integrity.

Answer

Azure SQL Database Hyperscale

Answer

Azure Cosmos DB (SQL API)

Answer

Azure Synapse Analytics

Question 6

A company runs a data analytics workload that processes large amounts of unstructured data (images and videos). The data is accessed frequently for the first month, then rarely. They need to store the data cost-effectively for 7 years to meet compliance. The solution must support fast retrieval of data within the first month. Which Azure storage solution should they recommend?

Accepted Answer

Azure Blob Storage with hot tier for 30 days, then lifecycle management to cool tier for 6 months, then archive tier. Azure Blob Storage with hot tier for the first 30 days meets the fast retrieval requirement for frequently accessed data, while lifecycle management automatically moves data to cool tier for 6 months and then to archive tier for the remaining 7-year compliance period, minimizing cost. The archive tier offers the lowest storage cost for rarely accessed data, and lifecycle policies ensure seamless transitions without manual intervention.

Answer

Azure Blob Storage with premium tier for 30 days, then lifecycle to archive tier

Answer

Azure Files with lifecycle management

Answer

Azure Disk Storage with snapshots

Question 7

A company stores large video files for a media streaming application. The files are accessed infrequently but need to be available instantly when requested. The company wants to minimize storage costs while ensuring high durability. Which Azure Blob Storage access tier should they use?

Accepted Answer

Cool tier. The Cool tier is the optimal choice because it is designed for data that is accessed infrequently but requires instant availability (millisecond latency). It provides lower storage costs than the Hot tier. The Cold tier also offers instant access, but it is intended for rarely accessed data stored for at least 90 days and has higher access costs. The Archive tier is not suitable because it requires rehydration, which can take hours, violating the 'available instantly' requirement.

Answer

Hot tier

Answer

Cold tier

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Archive tier

Question 8

A company runs a high-throughput time-series workload that stores sensor data from IoT devices. Data is ingested at a rate of millions of events per second. The application requires low-latency queries (under 100 ms) on recent data (less than 30 days old) and the ability to run occasional analytical queries on historical data older than 30 days. The solution must automatically move cold data to a cost-optimized tier and provide built-in analytics. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Time Series Insights (TSI). Azure Time Series Insights is being retired (August 2024) and should not be used. The scenario matches Azure Data Explorer (ADX), which provides high-throughput time-series ingestion, sub-100ms queries on hot data, automatic warm/cold tiering, and built-in analytics. None of the offered options are correct; consider replacing TSI with Azure Data Explorer.

Answer

Azure Cosmos DB with analytical store

Answer

Azure Event Hubs with Azure Data Lake Storage

Answer

Azure SQL Database with elastic query

Question 9

A data platform must support analytical queries over petabytes of files in a data lake, while preserving hierarchical namespaces and fine-grained ACLs. Which storage service should you design around?

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 POSIX-like ACLs, enabling fine-grained access control at the file and directory level while supporting petabyte-scale analytical workloads. It is built on Azure Blob Storage, providing high-throughput and parallel processing for big data analytics engines like Azure Synapse, Spark, and Hadoop.

Answer

Azure Files premium shares.

Answer

Azure Table Storage.

Answer

Azure Queue Storage.

Question 10

A global company stores customer profile data in JSON format. The application requires low-latency writes and reads from multiple regions. The solution must support multi-region writes with automatic conflict resolution and provide high availability. Which Azure Cosmos DB configuration should they choose?

Accepted Answer

SQL API with eventual consistency and multi-region writes enabled. The scenario demands low-latency multi-region writes with automatic conflict resolution and high availability. Azure Cosmos DB's SQL API supports multi-region writes with eventual consistency, which is the only consistency level that allows multi-region writes. Eventual consistency provides the lowest latency and highest availability, and Cosmos DB's automatic conflict resolution handles concurrent writes across regions using last-writer-wins (LWW) or custom conflict resolution policies.

Answer

MongoDB API with strong consistency and multi-region writes enabled

Answer

Table API with consistent prefix consistency and single-region writes

Answer

Gremlin API with session consistency and multi-region writes enabled

Question 11

A company wants to store application configuration settings and secrets (e.g., database connection strings, API keys) securely with automatic rotation. Access must be controlled and audited. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Key Vault. Azure Key Vault is the correct choice because it is designed specifically for securely storing and managing secrets, keys, and certificates. It supports automatic rotation of secrets via integration with Azure managed identities and event grid notifications, and provides fine-grained access control through Azure RBAC and access policies, with full auditing via Azure Monitor and diagnostic logs.

Answer

Azure App Configuration

Answer

Azure Storage Queues

Answer

Azure Service Bus

Question 12

A healthcare analytics platform stores semi-structured JSON documents and requires globally distributed low-latency reads with tunable consistency. Which Azure data platform should be recommended?

Accepted Answer

Azure Cosmos DB. Azure Cosmos DB is the correct choice because it natively supports semi-structured JSON documents, offers globally distributed multi-region writes and reads with low-latency (typically <10 ms at the 99th percentile), and provides tunable consistency levels (from strong to eventual) via its multi-master replication protocol. This directly matches the requirements for a healthcare analytics platform needing global distribution and flexible consistency.

Answer

Azure Files premium shares

Answer

Azure Data Factory

Answer

Azure SQL Managed Instance

Question 13

An enterprise data platform must store petabytes of raw files for analytics and support fine-grained access control through Microsoft Entra ID. Which storage solution should be selected?

Accepted Answer

Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2) combines a hierarchical namespace with Azure Blob Storage, enabling petabyte-scale storage for raw files and fine-grained access control via POSIX-like ACLs integrated with Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD). This makes it the ideal solution for enterprise analytics requiring both massive capacity and granular security.

Answer

Azure Queue Storage

Answer

Azure Disk Storage attached to one VM

Answer

Azure Cache for Redis

Question 14

A globally distributed application requires multi-region writes to a NoSQL database and must tolerate regional write outages. Which Azure service capability should be selected?

Accepted Answer

Azure Cosmos DB multi-region writes. Azure Cosmos DB multi-region writes is the correct choice because it provides active-active replication across multiple Azure regions, enabling writes to be accepted in any configured region and automatically replicated. This design ensures that if one region experiences a write outage, the application can continue writing to other regions without interruption, meeting the requirement for multi-region writes and regional write outage tolerance.

Answer

Azure Table Storage RA-GRS

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Azure SQL Database serverless only

Answer

Azure Files geo-redundant storage

Question 15

Drag and drop the steps to migrate an on-premises SQL Server database to Azure SQL Database using the Data Migration Assistant (DMA) into the correct order.

Accepted Answer

Install DMA, then Assess, then Fix issues, then Migrate and Monitor. The correct sequence for migrating an on-premises SQL Server database to Azure SQL Database using the Data Migration Assistant is: first, install the DMA tool; second, run an assessment to identify compatibility issues; third, fix the identified issues; and finally, perform the migration and monitor the process. This order ensures that all potential problems are resolved before migration, reducing the risk of downtime or data loss.

Answer

Assess, then Install DMA, then Fix issues, then Migrate and Monitor

Answer

Install DMA, then Migrate and Monitor, then Assess, then Fix issues

Answer

Fix issues, then Install DMA, then Assess, then Migrate and Monitor