DP-203 Practice Test 27 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Your Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 account stores sensitive data. You need to audit who accesses the data and when, and you want to send the audit logs to a Log Analytics workspace for analysis. What should you configure?

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

Accepted Answer

Diagnostic settings on the storage account. Diagnostic settings on the storage account can stream audit logs (like read, write, delete) to Log Analytics for analysis. Option A is incorrect because Azure Activity Logs capture control plane operations, not data plane access. Option B is incorrect because Microsoft Sentinel is a SIEM that would consume logs from diagnostic settings, not a direct configuration for log collection. Option C is incorrect because Azure Monitor alerts are for notifications based on metrics or logs, not for collecting logs.

Answer

Azure Activity Logs

Answer

Microsoft Sentinel

Answer

Azure Monitor alerts

Question 2

You have an Azure Data Factory pipeline that copies data from an on-premises SQL Server to Azure Blob Storage. The pipeline is failing with a 'Gateway is offline' error. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The Self-Hosted Integration Runtime is not running or cannot connect to the Azure Data Factory service.. The Self-Hosted Integration Runtime (SHIR) acts as the gateway between on-premises data sources and Azure Data Factory. If the SHIR is not running or cannot communicate with the Azure Data Factory service, the pipeline fails with a 'Gateway is offline' error. Option A is incorrect because using the Azure Integration Runtime for an on-premises source would cause a different error, not 'Gateway is offline'. Option B is incorrect because region configuration for the Azure Integration Runtime is irrelevant when a SHIR is required. Option C is incorrect because the error relates to the gateway, not to SQL Server remote connection settings.

Answer

The Azure Integration Runtime is being used instead of a Self-Hosted Integration Runtime.

Answer

The Azure Integration Runtime is not configured to use the correct region.

Answer

The source SQL Server is not configured to allow remote connections from Azure.

Question 3

Which TWO options are correct approaches to handle schema drift in Azure Data Factory Mapping Data Flows?

Accepted Answer

Enable 'Allow schema drift' in the source transformation.. Enabling 'Allow schema drift' in the source transformation is the primary mechanism in Mapping Data Flows to handle incoming columns that are not defined in the dataset schema. This setting allows the data flow to dynamically adapt to changes in the source data structure, such as new or missing columns, without requiring manual schema updates.

Answer

Use a conditional split to route rows with different schemas to separate sinks.

Answer

Define a rigid schema in the source dataset and reject rows that don't match.

Answer

Disable schema drift to improve performance.

Question 4

Which TWO actions should you take when monitoring Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 to detect security threats?

Accepted Answer

Use Azure Security Center and Azure Defender for Storage.. Option A is correct because Azure Security Center (now Microsoft Defender for Cloud) with Azure Defender for Storage provides threat detection specifically for storage accounts, including anomalous access patterns, suspicious IP addresses, and unusual data exfiltration attempts against Data Lake Storage Gen2. Option B is correct because enabling diagnostic settings on the storage account and streaming the logs (such as StorageRead, StorageWrite, and StorageDelete) to Azure Sentinel allows security teams to correlate events, build analytics rules, and detect threats across the environment. Option C is incorrect because soft delete is a data protection and recovery feature for accidental deletion, not a security threat detection mechanism. Option D is incorrect because firewall and virtual network service endpoints restrict network access to the storage account, which is a preventive control rather than a monitoring or detection action. Option E is incorrect because alerting on the 'Transactions' metric only tracks volume and availability of requests, not security-relevant behavior or threat indicators.

Answer

Enable soft delete for blobs to recover from accidental deletions.

Answer

Configure firewall and virtual network service endpoints.

Answer

Set up alerting on the 'Transactions' metric.

Question 5

Which TWO components are required to set up a streaming data pipeline using Azure Synapse Analytics? (Select two.)

Accepted Answer

Azure Event Hubs. To set up a streaming data pipeline in Azure Synapse Analytics, you need a streaming ingestion source and a processing engine. Azure Event Hubs (Option B) is the correct ingestion service for real-time streaming data. Azure Synapse Pipelines (or Spark) (Option E) provides the processing engine to transform and analyze the streaming data. Azure Data Factory (Option A) is primarily for batch data integration, not streaming. Azure Analysis Services (Option C) is for OLAP modeling, not streaming. Azure Blob Storage (Option D) is a storage destination, not a required component for streaming ingestion or processing.

Answer

Azure Data Factory

Answer

Azure Analysis Services

Answer

Azure Blob Storage

Question 6

Which TWO configurations are recommended to secure data processing in Azure Synapse Pipelines?

Accepted Answer

Store connection strings and secrets in Azure Key Vault and reference them via linked services.. Storing connection strings and secrets in Azure Key Vault and referencing them via linked services ensures secrets are stored securely and not exposed in pipeline definitions. Option D is correct: Enabling Managed Virtual Network (VNet) isolates data flows within a managed network boundary, preventing public network access. Option A is incorrect: Configuring a self-hosted integration runtime on a public cloud VM does not necessarily improve security; it may expose the runtime to the public internet. Option B is incorrect: Using the default Auto-resolve Integration Runtime is not recommended for secure data processing because it may use public endpoints and lacks network isolation. Option E is incorrect: Allowing all public IP addresses to access the Azure Synapse workspace exposes the workspace to potential security threats.

Answer

Configure a self-hosted integration runtime on a public cloud VM.

Answer

Use the default Auto-resolve Integration Runtime for all data flows.

Answer

Allow all public IP addresses to access the Azure Synapse workspace.

Question 7

You are designing a data lake architecture using Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. You need to optimize query performance for Azure Synapse Analytics serverless SQL. Which three design considerations should you follow? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Store data in Parquet format. Parquet is a columnar storage format that reduces I/O by reading only the columns needed for a query, which significantly improves performance in Azure Synapse serverless SQL. It also supports efficient compression and encoding schemes, making it ideal for analytical workloads on Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2.

Answer

Use many small files (under 64 MB) to increase parallelism

Answer

Store data in nested folder structures for better organization

Question 8

A company is migrating its on-premises SQL Server data warehouse to Azure Synapse Analytics. They have a fact table with 2 billion rows and 30 columns. The table is frequently joined on CustomerID and filtered on OrderDate. What is the recommended table design?

Accepted Answer

Hash-distribute on CustomerID and partition on OrderDate. Hash-distributing the fact table on CustomerID ensures that rows with the same CustomerID are co-located on the same distribution node, which makes joins on CustomerID efficient by avoiding data movement. Partitioning on OrderDate enables partition elimination when filtering by date, reducing the amount of data scanned. This combination optimizes both the join and filter operations for a large fact table in Azure Synapse Analytics.

Answer

Replicate the table to all nodes

Answer

Round-robin distribution with partitions on OrderDate

Answer

Hash-distribute on OrderDate and partition on CustomerID

Question 9

Your Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 account stores sensitive data. You need to audit who accesses the data and when, and you want to send the audit logs to a Log Analytics workspace for analysis. What should you configure?

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

Accepted Answer

Configure customer-managed keys in Azure Key Vault and enable Key Vault diagnostics logging.. Customer-managed keys (CMK) stored in Azure Key Vault allow you to control and audit key usage, and enabling Key Vault diagnostics logging captures access events. Option A is incorrect because infrastructure encryption uses platform-managed keys. Option B is incorrect because double encryption adds a second layer but does not directly provide logging of key access. Option D is incorrect because SSE with platform-managed keys does not give customer control or logging.

Answer

Enable infrastructure encryption on the storage account.

Answer

Enable double encryption using both platform-managed and customer-managed keys.

Answer

Use Azure Storage Service Encryption (SSE) with platform-managed keys.

Question 10

You are troubleshooting a failed Azure Synapse Pipeline execution. The pipeline uses a Copy activity to load data from an on-premises SQL Server to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. The error indicates a 'Connection timeout' to the on-premises source. The Integration Runtime is Self-Hosted and has been running successfully for months. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The on-premises network configuration has changed.. A 'Connection timeout' error when using a Self-Hosted Integration Runtime (SHIR) that has been running successfully for months indicates a network-level issue rather than an authentication or configuration problem. The most likely cause is a change in the on-premises network configuration (e.g., firewall rules, proxy settings, or DNS changes) that prevents the SHIR from reaching the SQL Server on the specified port (typically TCP 1433). Since the SHIR is already installed and was working, the timeout points to a connectivity break, not a credential or installation issue.

Answer

The SQL Server authentication credentials have expired.

Answer

The Self-Hosted Integration Runtime is not installed.

Answer

The Azure Storage account firewall is blocking access.

Question 11

Your organization uses Azure Synapse Analytics. You need to design a data transformation pipeline that processes streaming data from Azure Event Hubs, performs aggregations over a 5-minute tumbling window, and loads the results into a dedicated SQL pool table. Which Azure service should you use to implement the streaming transformation?

Accepted Answer

Azure Stream Analytics. Azure Stream Analytics is the appropriate service for real-time stream processing with windowed aggregations. Option B is wrong because Azure Data Factory is for batch orchestration. Option C is wrong because Spark Structured Streaming is for big data workloads but less integrated with SQL pools. Option D is wrong because Azure Functions is not designed for streaming windowed aggregations.

Answer

Azure Data Factory

Answer

Apache Spark for Azure Synapse

Answer

Azure Functions

Question 12

You have an Azure Data Factory pipeline that copies data from an on-premises SQL Server to Azure Blob Storage. The pipeline uses a self-hosted integration runtime and runs successfully during business hours. However, after a recent network security update, the pipeline fails with a connection error to the on-premises SQL Server. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

A firewall rule on the on-premises SQL Server is blocking the self-hosted integration runtime.. The self-hosted integration runtime (SHIR) connects to on-premises SQL Server via TCP port 1433 by default. A recent network security update likely added a firewall rule on the SQL Server or the on-premises network that blocks outbound or inbound traffic on this port, preventing the SHIR from establishing a connection. Since the pipeline ran successfully before the update, the most probable cause is a new firewall restriction targeting the SHIR's IP address or subnet.

Answer

The Azure Blob Storage account has been moved to a different subscription.

Answer

The self-hosted integration runtime node has been de-registered from Azure Data Factory.

Answer

The blob container has reached its maximum capacity.

Question 13

A data engineer needs to process a large dataset stored in Azure Blob Storage using Azure Databricks. The dataset consists of millions of small CSV files. The processing job is slow due to the overhead of reading many small files. Which technique should be used to improve performance?

Accepted Answer

Coalesce the small files into larger files using a Databricks notebook. Coalescing the millions of small CSV files into larger files reduces the metadata overhead and I/O operations when reading from Azure Blob Storage. Databricks can then process fewer, larger files more efficiently, as each task handles a substantial data chunk rather than incurring the cost of opening and closing many small files.

Answer

Increase the number of worker nodes in the cluster

Answer

Convert the CSV files to Parquet format

Answer

Use Delta Lake caching to store the data in memory

Question 14

You need to transform JSON data containing nested arrays into a tabular format for analysis in Azure Synapse Analytics. Which transformation in Azure Data Factory or Synapse Pipelines should you use?

Accepted Answer

Flatten transformation. The Flatten transformation is specifically designed to denormalize nested JSON arrays into a tabular format by expanding array elements into multiple rows while preserving parent attributes. In Azure Data Factory and Synapse Pipelines, this transformation handles complex hierarchical structures like arrays of objects, making it the correct choice for converting JSON with nested arrays into a row-based dataset suitable for analysis in Azure Synapse Analytics.

Answer

Join transformation

Answer

Derived Column transformation

Answer

Aggregate transformation

Question 15

A financial services company needs to store transaction data for audit purposes. The data must be immutable and cannot be modified or deleted for 7 years. Which Azure storage feature should be used?

Accepted Answer

Azure Blob Storage immutability policy (time-based retention).. Azure Blob Storage immutability policy with time-based retention ensures that blobs cannot be modified or deleted for a specified retention period (e.g., 7 years). This meets the audit requirement for immutable storage by locking the data at the storage level, preventing any writes or deletes until the retention interval expires. The policy is enforced at the container level and applies to all blobs within, making it the correct choice for regulatory compliance.

Answer

Azure Blob Storage soft delete.

Answer

Azure Blob Storage versioning.

Answer

Azure Files share snapshots.