DP-300 Practice Test 8 — 10 Questions

Question 1

Refer to the exhibit. You are reviewing an ARM template for an Azure SQL Database. The template configures backup retention. What is the effect of this configuration?

Accepted Answer

Point-in-time restore (PITR) backups are retained for 7 days, and differential backups occur every 12 hours.. The ARM template configures the backup retention settings for Azure SQL Database. By default, Azure SQL Database automatically performs full backups every week, differential backups every 12 hours, and transaction log backups every 5–10 minutes. The configuration shown sets the point-in-time restore (PITR) retention period to 7 days, meaning you can restore the database to any point within the last 7 days. Differential backups occur every 12 hours to support efficient PITR, but the retention setting directly controls how far back you can perform a point-in-time restore.

Answer

Full backups are taken every 12 hours and retained for 7 days.

Answer

Long-term retention (LTR) is set to 7 days.

Answer

Transaction log backups are taken every 12 hours.

Question 2

You manage an Azure SQL Database in the Business Critical service tier. The database must be highly available within a single region. Which TWO features contribute to this high availability?

Accepted Answer

Multiple synchronous replicas (4 replicas). The correct answers are B and E. In the Business Critical service tier, multiple synchronous replicas (at least 4) provide local high availability within a region. Additionally, enabling zone-redundant configuration distributes these replicas across availability zones within the same region, further improving availability. Options A and D (Active geo-replication and Auto-failover groups) are cross-region disaster recovery features and do not contribute to intra-region high availability. Option C (Always On availability groups) is the underlying technology for the replicas but is not a separate feature; the question asks for features that contribute to high availability, and the replicas themselves are the feature.

Answer

Active geo-replication

Answer

Always On availability groups

Answer

Auto-failover groups

Question 3

A company uses Azure SQL Database and wants to automatically send an email notification when an index fragmentation exceeds 30% for any database. Which solution should they implement?

Accepted Answer

Use Azure Automation runbook to query sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats and send email. Azure Automation runbooks can query fragmentation and send emails via SendGrid. Elastic Database Jobs can check fragmentation but cannot send emails directly. Azure Monitor alerts can trigger on metrics like DTU but not on index fragmentation. Azure Logic Apps can receive data but require custom setup.

Answer

Create an Azure Monitor alert based on fragmentation

Answer

Use Elastic Database Jobs to check fragmentation and send email

Answer

Configure SQL Agent job to send email

Question 4

You are a database administrator for a medium-sized e-commerce company. The company runs its online transaction processing (OLTP) workload on an Azure SQL Database in the General Purpose service tier (DTU-based, S3). The database is used for order processing, inventory management, and customer data. Recently, during peak shopping hours (10 AM to 2 PM), users have reported that order entry forms take several seconds to submit, and inventory queries are timing out. Monitoring shows that DTU usage regularly hits 100% during these hours, with high PAGELATCH_IO waits. You need to resolve the performance issue with minimal cost increase. What should you do?

Accepted Answer

Migrate to the vCore model with Hyperscale service tier. Migrate to the vCore model with Hyperscale service tier. The issue is high DTU usage with PAGELATCH_IO waits, indicating resource contention on I/O. Hyperscale architecture separates compute and storage, eliminating such bottlenecks and providing near-instant scaling for peak loads. Option A (increase storage) does not address DTU limits. Option B (increase to S4) adds more DTUs but retains the same architecture limitations that cause PAGELATCH_IO. Option C (read replica) only offloads read queries, not write-heavy OLTP.

Answer

Increase the max storage size to 1 TB

Answer

Increase the service tier to S4 during peak hours

Answer

Create a read-only replica and offload reporting queries

Question 5

Your company has an Azure SQL Managed Instance in the West US region. You need to configure a disaster recovery solution that provides automatic failover to a secondary region with minimal data loss. The solution must also allow read-only access to the secondary database for reporting purposes. Which option should you use?

Accepted Answer

Configure a failover group between the primary and secondary managed instances.. Failover groups are the native disaster recovery feature for Azure SQL Managed Instance, providing automatic failover, a readable secondary (via read-only intent), and minimal data loss with a synchronization mode that prioritizes data durability. Option A (auto-failover group with active geo-replication) is incorrect because active geo-replication is a separate feature for single databases and elastic pools, not managed instances; failover groups themselves include the auto-failover capability. Option C (log shipping) is not a built-in managed instance feature, does not provide automatic failover, and the secondary is not readable during normal operation. Option D (active geo-replication) is for single databases and elastic pools, not managed instances, and does not provide automatic failover.

Answer

Create an auto-failover group with active geo-replication.

Answer

Use log shipping to a secondary managed instance.

Answer

Enable active geo-replication on the database.

Question 6

Refer to the exhibit. You are reviewing an ARM template for an Azure SQL Database. The template configures backup retention. What is the effect of this configuration?

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

Accepted Answer

Long-term retention properties (weeklyRetention, monthlyRetention, yearlyRetention) are not valid in a backupShortTermRetentionPolicies resource.. The ARM template shows both short-term retention (PITR) and long-term retention (LTR) properties. However, the resource type is 'backupShortTermRetentionPolicies', which only supports short-term retention properties like retentionDays. Long-term retention properties (weeklyRetention, monthlyRetention, yearlyRetention) belong to a different resource type ('backupLongTermRetentionPolicies'). Including them in the same resource will cause a deployment error. Option B correctly identifies this. Option A is incorrect because the JSON syntax is valid (camelCase is used in ARM templates). Option C is incorrect because diffBackupIntervalInHours is not relevant to this issue. Option D is incorrect because 28 days is within the allowed range for PITR (up to 35 days).

Answer

The JSON syntax is invalid because property names use camelCase instead of PascalCase.

Answer

The diffBackupIntervalInHours should be 12 for a business-critical database.

Answer

The retentionDays value of 28 exceeds the maximum allowed for PITR.

Question 7

Refer to the exhibit. A Logic App is configured to pause an Azure SQL Database named AdventureWorks every Friday at 8 PM. However, the database is not pausing. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The pause action is not supported for Azure SQL Database.. Azure SQL Database does not support pause/resume; only Azure SQL Data Warehouse (now Azure Synapse Analytics dedicated SQL pool) supports it. Therefore, the pause action is not supported for Azure SQL Database, making option D correct. Option A is incorrect because the connection authentication is not the issue here. Option B is incorrect because the recurrence trigger schedule is valid. Option C is incorrect because the API version is not the primary reason; the operation itself is unsupported.

Answer

The SQL connection is not authenticated.

Answer

The recurrence trigger uses a schedule that is not valid.

Answer

The API version specified is outdated.

Question 8

Which TWO statements about Azure SQL Database zone-redundant configuration are true? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

It can be enabled during database creation or by updating an existing database.. Options B and D are correct. Zone-redundant configuration can be enabled during database creation or by updating an existing database (B), and it provides resilience within a single Azure region across multiple availability zones (D). Option A is incorrect because zone-redundant configuration does not require a failover group; failover groups are used for geo-replication, not for zone redundancy. Option C is incorrect because zone-redundant configuration is available in both the General Purpose and Business Critical service tiers. Option E is incorrect because the cost impact varies by tier: General Purpose tier does not incur additional cost for zone redundancy, while Business Critical does; thus, the blanket statement that it always incurs additional cost is false.

Answer

It requires a failover group to be configured.

Answer

It is only available in the Business Critical service tier.

Answer

It incurs additional cost compared to non-zone-redundant configurations.

Question 9

Your company uses Azure SQL Database Hyperscale tier for a large data warehouse. You need to implement disaster recovery with the ability to perform point-in-time restore in the secondary region. What is the best approach?

Accepted Answer

Configure geo-replication to a secondary Hyperscale database in the secondary region.. Azure SQL Database Hyperscale tier supports geo-replication (currently in preview), which creates a readable secondary database in a different region. This secondary database also supports point-in-time restore within the secondary region, meeting the requirement for disaster recovery with point-in-time restore capability. Option B is incorrect because auto-failover groups are not supported for Hyperscale databases. Option C is incorrect because geo-restore of automated backups has a higher recovery point objective (RPO) compared to geo-replication. Option D is incorrect as failover groups are not supported for Hyperscale.

Answer

Configure auto-failover groups between regions.

Answer

Use geo-restore of automated backups.

Answer

Create a failover group with manual failover.

Question 10

Your company wants to ensure business continuity for an Azure SQL Database that is used by a critical application. The database must remain available in the event of a single availability zone failure within a region. Which configuration should you use?

Accepted Answer

Configure zone-redundant availability for the database. Azure SQL Database zone-redundant availability replicates the database across multiple availability zones within the same region, providing high availability in the event of a single zone failure. Option B (active geo-replication) replicates to a different region, which protects against regional outages but not specifically a zone failure. Option C (locally redundant storage) stores data within a single data center, offering no zone-level protection. Option D (read scale-out) provides read-only replicas but does not ensure write availability during a zone failure.

Answer

Use active geo-replication to a different region

Answer

Deploy the database with locally redundant storage

Answer

Configure read scale-out with a secondary replica