DP-900 Describe an analytics workload on Azure Practice Test 8 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A manufacturing company collects sensor data from thousands of IoT devices. The data arrives as a stream of time-stamped readings with a fixed schema (DeviceID, Timestamp, Temperature, Pressure, Vibration). They need to store this data and support both real-time dashboards showing the last hour of data and complex analytical queries over years of historical data. The solution must minimize storage costs and provide sub-second response for real-time queries. Which Azure service is best suited for this workload?

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

Accepted Answer

Azure Data Explorer. Azure Data Explorer (ADX) is purpose-built for high-performance analysis of large volumes of streaming telemetry data. It supports ingestion from IoT hubs, automatic indexing for sub-second queries on recent data (e.g., last hour), and cost-effective long-term storage via hot/cold tiering for years of historical analytics. Its columnar storage and Kusto Query Language (KQL) are optimized for time-series and aggregation queries, making it ideal for this mixed real-time and historical workload.

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Azure Cosmos DB with SQL API

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Azure SQL Database

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Azure Table Storage

Question 2

A retail company needs to analyze streaming clickstream data from their website to detect shopping cart abandonment in real-time. They want to use Azure Stream Analytics to output results that can be visualized on a live dashboard. Which output sink allows the fastest data visualization for a real-time dashboard in Power BI?

Accepted Answer

Power BI dataset. Power BI dataset is the correct output sink because Azure Stream Analytics can directly stream data into a Power BI dataset via the Power BI output adapter, enabling real-time dashboard updates with sub-second latency. This integration uses the Power BI REST API to push streaming data events, which Power BI then visualizes immediately without requiring intermediate storage or batch processing.

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Azure Blob Storage

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Azure Event Hubs

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Azure SQL Database

Question 3

A data engineer is designing a data lake architecture in Azure. They plan to first ingest raw data from various sources into a landing zone in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. Then they will clean, validate, and deduplicate that data in a second zone. Finally, they will create aggregated, business-ready datasets in a third zone for analysts. This layered approach is known as which architecture?

Accepted Answer

Medallion architecture. The medallion architecture (bronze, silver, gold) is a layered data lake design pattern where raw data lands in the bronze zone, is cleaned and deduplicated in the silver zone, and aggregated into business-ready datasets in the gold zone. This directly matches the described three-zone ingestion, transformation, and aggregation pipeline in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2.

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Star schema

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Snowflake schema

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Lambda architecture

Question 4

A company needs to run complex SQL queries on petabytes of data stored in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. They want to pay only for the queries they run and do not want to manage any infrastructure. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Synapse Serverless SQL pool. Azure Synapse Serverless SQL pool is the correct choice because it enables running complex SQL queries directly against data in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 without provisioning any infrastructure. It uses a pay-per-query billing model, charging only for the amount of data processed, which aligns with the requirement to pay only for queries run and avoid infrastructure management.

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Azure Synapse dedicated SQL pool

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Azure SQL Database

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Azure HDInsight

Question 5

A retail company receives daily sales data as CSV files in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. They need to load this data into an Azure Synapse Analytics dedicated SQL pool every night. The process must be automated, scheduled, and include error handling for failed loads. Which Azure service should they use to orchestrate this pipeline?

Accepted Answer

Azure Data Factory. Azure Data Factory (ADF) is the correct choice because it is a cloud-based ETL and data integration service designed specifically for orchestrating and automating data pipelines. It supports scheduled triggers, can copy CSV files from Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 into an Azure Synapse dedicated SQL pool, and provides built-in error handling via retry policies, activity-level error outputs, and pipeline failure notifications.

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Azure Stream Analytics

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Azure Databricks

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Azure Logic Apps

Question 6

A company uses Azure Synapse Analytics dedicated SQL pool for its data warehouse. Every night, they need to load 500 GB of new sales data from CSV files stored in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. The loading process must be automated, scheduled, and include error handling (e.g., skip corrupt rows and log them). Which Azure service should be used to orchestrate this load pipeline?

Accepted Answer

Azure Data Factory. Azure Data Factory (ADF) is the correct choice because it is a cloud-based ETL and data orchestration service that supports scheduled execution, error handling (e.g., skipping corrupt rows via fault tolerance settings in the Copy activity), and native integration with Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 and Azure Synapse dedicated SQL pool. ADF can automate the nightly 500 GB load using a trigger, and its mapping data flows or Copy activity can log errors to a separate file or table, meeting the requirement for automated, scheduled, and error-tolerant ingestion.

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Azure Stream Analytics

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Azure HDInsight

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Azure Logic Apps

Question 7

A data warehouse team uses Azure Synapse Analytics dedicated SQL pool to serve both business executives running weekly reports and data scientists running complex ad-hoc queries on large fact tables. The ad-hoc queries often consume excessive resources and degrade performance for the weekly reports. The team needs to ensure that the weekly reports always get guaranteed resources regardless of other concurrent queries. Which Synapse feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

Workload classification. Workload classification in Azure Synapse Analytics dedicated SQL pool allows the team to assign incoming queries to specific workload groups with predefined resource allocations. By classifying the weekly report queries into a group with guaranteed minimum resources (e.g., using `CREATE WORKLOAD CLASSIFIER` with `IMPORTANCE` and `REQUEST_MIN_RESOURCE_PERCENT`), the team ensures those queries always receive the necessary resources, even when ad-hoc data scientist queries are running concurrently. This directly addresses the need for predictable performance for critical reports.

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Result set caching

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Materialized views

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Columnstore indexes

Question 8

A manufacturing company needs to build an analytics solution for IoT sensor data. Thousands of devices send real-time temperature and vibration readings. The solution must: (1) ingest the streaming data reliably, (2) perform real-time aggregations (e.g., average temperature per device every minute), and (3) store the aggregated results in Azure Synapse Analytics for historical reporting and dashboards. Which combination of Azure services should be used?

Accepted Answer

Azure Event Hubs -> Azure Stream Analytics -> Azure Synapse Analytics. Azure Event Hubs is designed for high-throughput, reliable ingestion of streaming data from millions of IoT devices. Azure Stream Analytics can then perform real-time aggregations (like average temperature per device per minute) using a SQL-like query language. Finally, Azure Synapse Analytics provides a dedicated SQL pool or serverless SQL endpoint for storing and querying the aggregated results, enabling historical reporting and dashboards.

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Azure IoT Hub -> Azure Data Factory -> Azure Cosmos DB

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Azure Blob Storage -> Azure Databricks -> Azure SQL Database

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Azure Service Bus -> Azure Functions -> Azure Table Storage

Question 9

A manufacturing company collects real-time temperature data from thousands of IoT sensors. They need to build an analytics solution that processes the streaming data, computes the average temperature per device every minute, and outputs the results to a Power BI dashboard for near real-time visualization. Which Azure service should they use for the real-time stream processing?

Accepted Answer

Azure Stream Analytics. Azure Stream Analytics is the correct choice because it is a fully managed, real-time stream processing engine designed specifically for scenarios like this: ingesting high-velocity data from IoT sensors, performing time-windowed aggregations (e.g., average temperature per device every minute), and outputting results directly to Power BI for near real-time dashboards. It natively supports SQL-like query language for defining windowed computations and has built-in connectors for both IoT Hub/Event Hubs (input) and Power BI (output), making it the most efficient and purpose-built service for this streaming analytics workload.

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Azure Data Factory

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Azure Databricks

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Azure SQL Database

Question 10

A company needs to build a centralized analytics platform that can query both structured data in a relational data warehouse and unstructured data in a data lake using a single SQL-based interface. They want to minimize data movement and use a serverless, on-demand compute model for ad-hoc queries. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

B. Azure Synapse Serverless SQL pool. Azure Synapse Serverless SQL pool is correct because it provides a SQL-based interface to query both structured data in a relational data warehouse and unstructured data in a data lake (e.g., Parquet, CSV, JSON) without moving data. It uses a serverless, on-demand compute model that charges per query, making it ideal for ad-hoc analytics with minimal data movement.

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A. Azure SQL Database

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C. Azure HDInsight

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D. Azure Analysis Services

Question 11

A transportation company collects real-time GPS data from thousands of delivery vehicles. They need to process this streaming data to detect delays and generate alerts when a vehicle is behind schedule. Which Azure service should they use for the stream processing?

Accepted Answer

B. Azure Stream Analytics. Azure Stream Analytics is the correct choice because it is a fully managed, real-time stream processing engine designed to handle high-velocity data from sources like IoT devices and GPS sensors. It can ingest streaming data from Azure Event Hubs or IoT Hub, apply SQL-based queries to detect patterns such as delays, and output alerts to sinks like Azure Functions or Power BI in near real-time.

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A. Azure Data Factory

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C. Azure Data Lake Analytics

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D. Azure Analysis Services

Question 12

A data analyst needs to run ad-hoc SQL queries on large volumes of data stored as Parquet files in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. The queries are unpredictable, and the analyst wants to pay only for the compute resources consumed by each query. Which Azure Synapse Analytics compute model should be used?

Accepted Answer

Serverless SQL pool. Serverless SQL pool is the correct choice because it allows running ad-hoc SQL queries directly on data in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 without provisioning any fixed compute resources. It uses a pay-per-query billing model, charging only for the amount of data processed by each query, which aligns perfectly with the unpredictable query patterns described.

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Dedicated SQL pool

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Apache Spark pool

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Azure Data Explorer pool

Question 13

A manufacturing company installs temperature sensors in a factory. Sensor data is streamed to Azure Event Hubs. The company needs to detect when the average temperature of any sensor exceeds 100°F over a 5-minute sliding window and then send an alert. Which Azure service should be used for this real-time stream processing?

Accepted Answer

Azure Stream Analytics. Azure Stream Analytics is the correct choice because it is designed for real-time stream processing, including the ability to define a 5-minute sliding window over sensor data from Event Hubs, compute the average temperature per sensor, and trigger an alert when the threshold of 100°F is exceeded. It natively integrates with Event Hubs as an input and supports temporal window functions like TumblingWindow, HoppingWindow, and SlidingWindow for exactly this kind of time-based aggregation.

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Azure Functions

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Azure SQL Database

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Azure Logic Apps

Question 14

A data engineering team needs to build a pipeline that ingests streaming data from IoT devices into Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. The data arrives as JSON messages. They want to use a service that can capture the streaming data in near real-time and store it as files in the data lake without writing custom code for the ingestion. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Event Hubs with Capture. Azure Event Hubs with Capture is the correct choice because it natively ingests streaming JSON data from IoT devices in near real-time and automatically writes the data to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 as files without requiring any custom code. The Capture feature automatically persists the event stream to the specified storage destination at defined time or size intervals, making it ideal for serverless, code-free ingestion.

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Azure Data Factory

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Azure Stream Analytics

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Azure Synapse Pipelines

Question 15

A company uses Azure Synapse Analytics dedicated SQL pool for its data warehouse. Every day, they need to incrementally load 100 GB of new sales data from CSV files stored in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (ADLS Gen2). The load should use PolyBase for efficient parallel data transfer and must be orchestrated on a recurring schedule. Which Azure service should they use to create and manage this pipeline?

Accepted Answer

A: Azure Data Factory. Azure Data Factory (ADF) is the correct choice because it provides native orchestration and scheduling capabilities for data pipelines. It supports PolyBase as a sink to load data into Azure Synapse dedicated SQL pool in parallel, and it can directly read CSV files from ADLS Gen2. ADF's built-in triggers allow you to schedule the daily incremental load without additional coding.

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B: Azure Stream Analytics

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C: Azure Databricks

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D: Azure Logic Apps