DP-900 Practice Exam 51 — 20 Questions

Question 1

A logistics company stores shipping waybill data as JSON documents. Each document contains fields like 'shipmentId', 'destination', and 'items', but the number of items and the fields within each item can vary between shipments. Which category best describes this type of data?

Accepted Answer

Semi-structured data. JSON documents with varying fields and nested structures like 'items' that differ between shipments are a classic example of semi-structured data. Unlike structured data with a fixed schema, semi-structured data uses tags or markers (like JSON key-value pairs) to separate data elements, allowing for flexibility in the number and type of fields per record. This aligns with the DP-900 definition of semi-structured data, which includes formats such as JSON, XML, and Parquet.

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Operational data

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Unstructured data

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Structured data

Question 2

A retail company stores product inventory data in a SQL database, customer reviews as JSON files, and product images as JPEG files. Which of the following accurately describes the types of data stored?

Accepted Answer

D. Structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data are stored.. The company stores product inventory data in a SQL database, which enforces a fixed schema (tables, rows, columns) and is therefore structured data. Customer reviews stored as JSON files are semi-structured because they have a flexible schema (key-value pairs) but no rigid table structure. Product images as JPEG files are unstructured because they lack any predefined schema or organization. Option D correctly identifies that all three data types are present.

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A. Only structured data is stored because the SQL database contains the primary records.

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B. Only semi-structured and unstructured data is stored because JSON and images are not purely structured.

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C. Only unstructured data is stored because images have no predefined schema.

Question 3

A retail company operates an e-commerce website that processes customer orders (insert, update, delete) throughout the day. The same company also runs reports on sales trends at the end of each quarter. Which type of data processing workload does the order processing represent?

Accepted Answer

B) Transactional processing (OLTP). Order processing involves inserting, updating, and deleting individual customer orders in real time as they occur. This is the classic definition of an Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) workload, which is optimized for high-volume, low-latency transactions that maintain ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) properties. The e-commerce website requires immediate data consistency for each order, which is the hallmark of transactional processing.

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A) Batch processing

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C) Analytical processing (OLAP)

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D) Stream processing

Question 4

A healthcare company stores patient records in a relational database with fixed columns (PatientID, Name, DOB, BloodType). Medical images such as X-rays are stored as DICOM files. Clinical notes are stored as free-text documents. Which of the following correctly classifies these data types from most structured to least structured?

Accepted Answer

Patient records (structured), DICOM files (semi-structured), Clinical notes (unstructured). Patient records in a fixed-column relational database are structured data because they conform to a rigid schema with defined data types. DICOM files are semi-structured because they contain a structured header with metadata tags (e.g., patient ID, study date) alongside an unstructured binary image payload. Clinical notes as free-text documents are unstructured because they lack a predefined schema or organization, making them difficult to query without natural language processing.

Answer

Patient records (structured), DICOM files (structured), Clinical notes (unstructured)

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Patient records (semi-structured), DICOM files (unstructured), Clinical notes (structured)

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Patient records (unstructured), DICOM files (semi-structured), Clinical notes (structured)

Question 5

A retail company stores data about their products in different formats. Product ID and price are stored in a relational database table. Product descriptions are stored as plain text files. Product images are stored as JPEG files. Which of the following best categorizes these data types in order?

Accepted Answer

Structured, unstructured, unstructured. Product ID and price in a relational database table are structured because they follow a fixed schema with rows and columns. Product descriptions as plain text files have no predefined structure, making them unstructured. Product images as JPEG files are also unstructured because they consist of binary data without a schema. Thus, the order is structured, unstructured, unstructured, which matches option B.

Answer

Structured, semi-structured, unstructured

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Structured, semi-structured, structured

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Semi-structured, structured, unstructured

Question 6

A hospital collects patient data from multiple sources. Source A stores patient vitals as a continuous stream of readings from wearable devices. Source B stores historical medical records in a relational database with fixed columns (PatientID, Diagnosis, AdmissionDate). Source C stores doctor's notes as unstructured text files. Which statement correctly describes the structure of data from these sources?

Accepted Answer

Source A is structured, Source B is structured, Source C is unstructured.. Source A stores patient vitals as a continuous stream from wearable devices, which is structured data because it typically consists of time-stamped numeric readings with a fixed schema (e.g., timestamp, heart rate, blood pressure). Source B uses a relational database with fixed columns (PatientID, Diagnosis, AdmissionDate), which is classic structured data. Source C contains unstructured text files (doctor's notes) with no predefined schema. Therefore, Option B correctly identifies all three sources.

Answer

Source A is semi-structured, Source B is structured, Source C is unstructured.

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Source A is structured, Source B is unstructured, Source C is semi-structured.

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Source A is semi-structured, Source B is semi-structured, Source C is unstructured.

Question 7

A company uses Azure SQL Database for a customer relationship management (CRM) application. The database has a table named Orders that stores order details. The company needs to ensure that the OrderDate column is automatically set to the current date and time when a new row is inserted, without any application-side logic. Which T-SQL construct should be used?

Accepted Answer

DEFAULT constraint with GETDATE(). Option B is correct because the DEFAULT constraint with GETDATE() automatically populates the OrderDate with the current date and time on insertion. Option A is wrong because CHECK enforces data integrity, not default values. Option C is wrong because UNIQUE ensures uniqueness. Option D is wrong because PRIMARY KEY identifies rows uniquely.

Answer

CHECK constraint

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UNIQUE constraint

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PRIMARY KEY constraint

Question 8

A retail company stores customer transaction data in a relational database. Each transaction is recorded with a fixed schema including TransactionID, CustomerID, ProductID, Quantity, and TotalAmount. Which type of data does this represent?

Accepted Answer

Structured data. Option C is correct because the data conforms to a fixed schema with defined columns (TransactionID, CustomerID, ProductID, Quantity, TotalAmount) and data types, which is the defining characteristic of structured data. In a relational database, this schema enforces consistency and allows for efficient querying using SQL, making it a classic example of structured data.

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Unstructured data

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Semi-structured data

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Binary data

Question 9

A healthcare provider stores patient admission data in a relational database table with columns for PatientID, Name, and AdmissionDate. Progress notes are stored as free-text documents. Lab results are stored as XML files that contain varying fields depending on the test type. Which of the following correctly categorizes these three data types in order: relational table, progress notes, lab results?

Accepted Answer

Structured, Unstructured, Semi-structured. The relational table with PatientID, Name, and AdmissionDate enforces a fixed schema with defined data types, making it structured data. Progress notes as free-text documents have no predefined structure or schema, classifying them as unstructured data. Lab results in XML files use tags to organize data but allow varying fields per test type, which is the hallmark of semi-structured data. Option A correctly maps these in order: structured, unstructured, semi-structured.

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Structured, Semi-structured, Unstructured

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Semi-structured, Unstructured, Structured

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Unstructured, Structured, Semi-structured

Question 10

A retail company processes customer orders throughout the day. Each order involves inserting a new record into a database table, updating inventory counts, and deleting temporary cart data. At the end of each week, the company runs a query that aggregates all orders by product category and region to generate a sales report. Which of the following best describes these two workloads?

Accepted Answer

Order processing is OLTP; weekly reporting is OLAP. Order processing involves frequent, small transactions (inserts, updates, deletes) that are typical of Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) workloads, which prioritize data integrity and low-latency writes. The weekly sales report aggregates large volumes of historical data by product category and region, which is characteristic of Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) workloads that support complex queries and data summarization. Option C correctly identifies these two distinct workload types.

Answer

Order processing is OLAP; weekly reporting is OLTP

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Order processing is batch processing; weekly reporting is streaming processing

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Both workloads are OLTP

Question 11

A ride-sharing company processes trip requests from customers. Each trip is recorded as a single transaction that updates the driver's status, calculates the fare, and logs the ride. At the end of each month, the company runs reports that aggregate millions of trips to determine average wait times and revenue per driver. Which pair of terms best describes these two distinct workloads?

Accepted Answer

OLTP and OLAP. The first workload (trip request processing) is a classic OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) system because each trip is a single, atomic transaction that updates driver status, calculates fare, and logs the ride in real time. The second workload (monthly aggregation reports) is OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) because it queries millions of historical trip records to compute averages and revenue summaries. These two patterns have fundamentally different data storage and query optimization requirements, making OLTP and OLAP the correct pair.

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Batch processing and stream processing

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ETL and ELT

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Relational and non-relational

Question 12

A retail company processes historical sales data in a nightly batch job that loads aggregated reports into a data warehouse. Additionally, the company analyzes live customer interactions from their website to provide real-time product recommendations. Which pair of terms correctly describes these two data processing approaches?

Accepted Answer

Batch processing and streaming processing. The nightly batch job that loads aggregated reports into a data warehouse is a classic example of batch processing, where data is processed in large, scheduled chunks. The real-time analysis of live customer interactions for product recommendations is streaming processing, which handles data continuously as it arrives. Option B correctly pairs these two distinct processing paradigms.

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OLTP and OLAP

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Structured data and unstructured data

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Relational and NoSQL

Question 13

A logistics company collects data from fleet sensors. Each sensor sends a JSON message containing the vehicle ID, timestamp, and a variable set of measurements such as engine temperature, tire pressure, and fuel level. The structure of the JSON message differs between sensor types and sometimes includes optional fields. How should this data be classified?

Accepted Answer

Semi-structured data. The data is semi-structured because it conforms to a schema (JSON format with fields like vehicle ID and timestamp) but allows variability in structure, such as optional fields and different sets of measurements per sensor type. This flexibility is a hallmark of semi-structured data, which does not require a rigid tabular schema like structured data but still contains tags or markers to separate data elements.

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Structured data

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Unstructured data

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Relational data

Question 14

A research team needs to store thousands of PDF reports that vary in length and structure. The storage solution must allow flexible schema and support access from multiple programming languages via HTTP. Which data storage category best describes these reports?

Accepted Answer

Unstructured data. C is correct because PDF reports with varying length and structure are binary files that do not conform to a predefined data model or schema, which is the definition of unstructured data. Azure Blob Storage or Amazon S3 are typical services for storing such unstructured data, accessed via HTTP REST APIs from any programming language.

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Structured data

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Semi-structured data

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Transactional data

Question 15

A retail company stores customer data in three formats: a relational database table with fixed columns for CustomerID, Name, and Email; customer feedback as JSON documents with varying fields such as rating and comment; and product images as JPEG files. Which of the following correctly classifies these data types from most structured to least structured?

Accepted Answer

Relational table, JSON documents, image files. Option B is correct because relational tables enforce a fixed schema with defined columns and data types, making them the most structured. JSON documents are semi-structured, allowing varying fields and flexible schemas, while image files are unstructured binary data with no inherent schema. This ordering from most to least structured aligns with the core data classification concept in the DP-900 exam.

Answer

JSON documents, relational table, image files

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Image files, JSON documents, relational table

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Relational table, image files, JSON documents

Question 16

A company uses Azure SQL Database with the Business Critical service tier. They notice increased latency during peak hours. They need to improve performance without changing the application code. Which action should they take?

Accepted Answer

Increase the number of vCores. Option B is correct because increasing the number of vCores (scale up) provides more resources to handle peak load without code changes. Option A is wrong because adding read replicas helps read scalability but not write latency. Option C is wrong because changing to General Purpose might reduce performance. Option D is wrong because enabling auto-pause is for serverless, not for performance.

Answer

Add a read replica

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Enable auto-pause

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Change the service tier to General Purpose

Question 17

Which THREE of the following are features of Azure SQL Database that help ensure high availability and disaster recovery?

Accepted Answer

Zone-redundant databases. Options A, B, and E are correct. Active geo-replication provides disaster recovery to a secondary region. Automatic failover groups enable automatic failover to a secondary. Zone-redundant databases provide resilience within a region. Option C is wrong because read scale-out is for performance, not HA/DR. Option D is wrong because Query Store is for performance tuning.

Answer

Query Store

Answer

Read scale-out

Question 18

A healthcare organization is planning a data analytics platform. They will ingest data from various sources: structured patient records from a relational database, semi-structured JSON logs from medical devices, and unstructured physician notes as plain text files. Which characteristic of big data describes the different formats of data being ingested?

Accepted Answer

Variety. The question describes data in three distinct formats: structured (relational database), semi-structured (JSON logs), and unstructured (plain text). In big data terminology, 'Variety' specifically refers to the different types and formats of data being processed. This is a core concept in the 4 V's of big data, where Variety captures the heterogeneity of data sources and structures.

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Volume

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Velocity

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Veracity

Question 19

A social media company stores user profiles as JSON documents where each profile may have different attributes (e.g., some profiles include 'education' while others include 'work history'). The company also stores user-generated posts in a relational database table with fixed columns (PostID, UserID, Content, Timestamp). Which of the following best describes the data types used for user profiles and user posts?

Accepted Answer

User profiles are semi-structured data; posts are structured data.. User profiles are stored as JSON documents with varying attributes, which is a classic example of semi-structured data because it has some organizational properties (key-value pairs) but does not enforce a fixed schema. User posts are stored in a relational database table with fixed columns (PostID, UserID, Content, Timestamp), which is structured data because it adheres to a rigid schema with defined data types and relationships.

Answer

User profiles are structured data; posts are unstructured data.

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Both are semi-structured data.

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User profiles are unstructured data; posts are structured data.

Question 20

A marketing company collects data from social media feeds including text posts, images, and videos. The data arrives in various formats with no fixed structure or schema. This type of data is best described as:

Accepted Answer

C) Unstructured data. Unstructured data lacks a predefined data model or schema, making it ideal for storing text posts, images, and videos that arrive in varied formats. Unlike structured or semi-structured data, unstructured data cannot be easily organized into rows and columns or parsed with tags, which is why option C is correct for this scenario.

Answer

A) Structured data

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B) Semi-structured data

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D) Relational data