AZ-305 Design data storage solutions Practice Test 7 — 15 Questions

Question 1

You are designing a globally distributed application that requires low-latency reads and writes for a web application with user session data. The solution must support multi-master writes and provide 99.999% availability. Which Azure data service meets these requirements?

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

Accepted Answer

Azure Cosmos DB. Azure Cosmos DB is the correct choice because it natively supports multi-master writes across multiple regions, enabling low-latency reads and writes globally. It offers a 99.999% availability SLA when configured with multiple write regions, and its turnkey global distribution ensures user session data is replicated with consistency options tailored for web applications.

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Azure SQL Database

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Azure Cache for Redis

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Azure Table Storage

Question 2

You are designing a solution to store large binary files (videos) that are accessed infrequently but must be retained for 7 years for compliance. The solution must minimize storage costs while allowing retrieval within 24 hours. Which Azure storage tier should you use?

Accepted Answer

Archive tier. The Archive tier is the correct choice because it is the lowest-cost storage tier for infrequently accessed data that must be retained for long periods (7 years). It allows retrieval within 24 hours via standard rehydration, meeting the compliance requirement while minimizing storage costs. The other tiers (Premium, Hot, Cool) are more expensive and designed for higher-frequency access, making them unsuitable for this cost-optimization scenario.

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Premium tier

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Cool tier

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Hot tier

Question 3

You need to design a data storage solution for a high-throughput event processing pipeline. The solution must ingest millions of events per second, support exactly-once processing semantics, and allow replay of events from the past 7 days. Which Azure service should you use as the event ingestion store?

Accepted Answer

Azure Event Hubs. Azure Event Hubs is the correct choice because it is a big data streaming platform and event ingestion service designed for high-throughput scenarios, capable of ingesting millions of events per second. It supports exactly-once processing semantics through checkpointing and offset management, and it provides event retention for up to 7 days by default (configurable up to 90 days), enabling event replay. This makes it ideal for a high-throughput event processing pipeline that requires reliable ingestion and replay capabilities.

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Azure Service Bus

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Azure IoT Hub

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Azure Queue Storage

Question 4

You are designing a hybrid storage solution where on-premises applications need low-latency access to file shares hosted in Azure. The solution must cache frequently accessed files locally and sync changes bidirectionally. Which Azure feature should you use?

Accepted Answer

Azure File Sync. Azure File Sync is the correct choice because it enables bidirectional syncing of Azure file shares with on-premises Windows Servers, caching frequently accessed files locally for low-latency access while automatically syncing changes back to Azure. This meets the hybrid requirement of local caching and bidirectional sync without requiring full migration or dedicated network circuits.

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Azure Data Box

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Azure NetApp Files with ExpressRoute

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Azure Blob Storage with Azure Files migration

Question 5

You are designing a solution for a financial application that requires strong consistency for read and write operations across multiple Azure regions. The solution must support active-active configuration and provide fractional millisecond latency for single-digit KB payloads. Which data service should you choose?

Accepted Answer

Azure Cosmos DB with strong consistency. Azure Cosmos DB cannot provide both strong consistency and active-active writes. Strong consistency requires a single write region. When you enable multi-region writes, the maximum consistency level is bounded staleness. Therefore, none of the listed options satisfy all requirements simultaneously.

Answer

Azure SQL Database with failover groups

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Azure Table Storage with geo-replication

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Azure Cache for Redis with geo-replication

Question 6

You need to design a storage solution for a website that hosts static content (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) and requires low-cost, scalable storage with integrated CDN delivery. Which Azure service should you use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Blob Storage with static website hosting and Azure CDN. Azure Blob Storage with static website hosting provides a cost-effective, scalable storage solution for static content (HTML, CSS, JavaScript). By enabling Azure CDN on top of the storage account, you achieve low-latency global content delivery and offload traffic from the origin, reducing costs and improving performance for end users.

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Azure Files with SMB protocol

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Azure Content Delivery Network only

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Azure App Service

Question 7

Which TWO of the following are benefits of using Azure Cosmos DB for a globally distributed application?

Accepted Answer

Multiple consistency models to choose from. Azure Cosmos DB offers multiple well-defined consistency models (strong, bounded staleness, session, consistent prefix, and eventual) that allow developers to balance consistency, availability, and latency according to application needs. This is a key benefit for globally distributed applications because it enables tuning data guarantees across regions without sacrificing performance.

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Support for foreign key constraints across containers

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Built-in support for transactional replication

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Native support for SQL Server stored procedures

Question 8

Which THREE of the following are best practices for designing an Azure SQL Database solution for performance and scalability?

Accepted Answer

Use appropriate indexes to optimize query performance. Appropriate indexes, such as clustered and nonclustered indexes, reduce the number of data pages scanned during query execution, directly improving query performance. In Azure SQL Database, index tuning is critical for minimizing I/O and CPU overhead, especially for large tables or complex joins.

Answer

Avoid using stored procedures to reduce complexity

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Disable automatic tuning to maintain consistent performance

Question 9

Which TWO of the following are valid replication options for Azure Blob Storage?

Accepted Answer

RA-GRS (Read-Access Geo-Redundant Storage). RA-GRS (Read-Access Geo-Redundant Storage) and ZRS (Zone-Redundant Storage) are both valid replication options for Azure Blob Storage. RA-GRS provides geo-redundancy with read access to the secondary region, while ZRS synchronously replicates data across three Azure availability zones within a single region. Although GRS and LRS are also replication options, the question specifically expects RA-GRS and ZRS as the correct pair based on the given options and typical exam focus on differentiating these two from the more common LRS and GRS.

Answer

GRS (Geo-Redundant Storage)

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LRS (Locally Redundant Storage)

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ASR (Azure Site Recovery)

Question 10

You are reviewing the encryption settings of an Azure Storage account using the above JSON output. What is the current encryption status for files stored in Azure Files shares in this account?

Accepted Answer

Files are encrypted at rest using Azure Storage encryption. The JSON output shows `"defaultEncryption": false` for the Azure Files share. However, Azure Storage Service Encryption (SSE) is always enabled for Azure Files and cannot be disabled. This property does not control encryption; it may relate to other settings. Therefore, files stored in Azure Files shares are always encrypted at rest using Microsoft-managed keys by default.

Answer

Files are encrypted because defaultEncryption is false

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Files are encrypted using customer-managed keys

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Files are not encrypted at rest

Question 11

You are deploying an Azure SQL Database using the ARM template snippet above. Which of the following describes the resulting database configuration?

Accepted Answer

Standard tier with 100 DTUs. The ARM template snippet specifies `requestedServiceObjectiveName: 'S0'`, which corresponds to the Standard service tier with 10 DTUs and a maximum database size of 250 GB. None of the provided options accurately describe this configuration: Option A incorrectly states 100 DTUs, Option B is incorrect because zone-redundancy is not enabled, Option C incorrectly states a 10 GB maximum size, and Option D is incorrect because it specifies Premium tier with 100 DTUs.

Answer

Zone-redundant deployment

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Maximum size of 10 GB

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Premium tier with 100 DTUs

Question 12

You are reviewing the data protection settings of an Azure Blob Storage container using the above JSON. Which of the following is true?

Accepted Answer

Previous versions of blobs are retained. The JSON shows that the `versioning` property is set to `Enabled` for the Blob Storage container. When versioning is enabled, every modification to a blob creates a new version, and previous versions are retained indefinitely (or until explicitly deleted or a lifecycle management policy removes them). This directly supports the statement that previous versions of blobs are retained.

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Deleted blobs are retained for 30 days

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Blobs can be restored to any point within the last 7 days

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Versioning is disabled

Question 13

Your company is designing a data storage solution for a global e-commerce platform. The solution must support high-frequency read and write operations with sub-millisecond latency, and must be able to handle schema-less JSON documents. Which Azure data service should you recommend?

Accepted Answer

Azure Cosmos DB. Azure Cosmos DB is the correct choice because it is a globally distributed, multi-model database service that offers guaranteed single-digit-millisecond latency for both reads and writes at the 99th percentile, making it ideal for high-frequency operations. It natively supports schema-less JSON documents through its SQL API, allowing flexible data models without requiring schema definitions or migrations.

Answer

Azure SQL Database

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Azure Blob Storage

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Azure Table Storage

Question 14

A multinational corporation needs to store sensitive customer data in Azure. The data must be encrypted at rest using a customer-managed key stored in Azure Key Vault, and the key must be rotated every 90 days. The solution must also support geo-redundancy for disaster recovery. Which combination of services should you recommend?

Accepted Answer

Azure SQL Database with Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) using customer-managed keys in Azure Key Vault, and active geo-replication. Azure SQL Database with Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) using customer-managed keys in Azure Key Vault, combined with active geo-replication, fully satisfies the requirements for encryption, key rotation, and geo-redundancy. TDE encrypts the database files at rest using a Database Encryption Key (DEK), which is protected by a customer-managed asymmetric key in Azure Key Vault; when the Key Vault key is rotated, Azure SQL automatically re-encrypts the DEK with the new key version without downtime. Active geo-replication asynchronously replicates committed transactions to a readable secondary in another region, with a typical RPO of under 5 seconds (not a guaranteed zero), and allows a manual or automatic failover for disaster recovery.

Answer

Azure Storage with customer-managed keys in Azure Key Vault and geo-redundant storage (GRS)

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Azure Cosmos DB with customer-managed keys in Azure Key Vault and multi-region writes

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Azure SQL Managed Instance with TDE and failover groups

Question 15

You need to design a storage solution for a large-scale media streaming application. The application serves video files to users worldwide. The solution must minimize latency for end-users and optimize content delivery costs. Which Azure service combination should you use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Blob Storage with Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN). Azure Blob Storage is optimized for storing large, unstructured data like video files, and when paired with Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN), it caches content at edge nodes worldwide. This combination minimizes latency for global users by serving videos from the nearest point of presence (PoP) and reduces egress costs by offloading traffic from the origin storage to the CDN's distributed network.

Answer

Azure Cosmos DB with multi-region writes

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Azure NetApp Files with Azure Front Door

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Azure Files with Azure File Sync