DP-900 Describe core data concepts Practice Test 16 — 15 Questions

Question 1

You are reviewing a Data Factory mapping data flow definition. What is the primary purpose of this data flow?

Accepted Answer

Remove duplicate OrderIDs by counting them. The mapping data flow includes an Aggregate transformation configured with a group by on OrderID and a count aggregation. This removes duplicate OrderIDs by collapsing multiple rows with the same OrderID into a single row and counting the occurrences, which is the primary purpose of the data flow.

Answer

Pivot the data by OrderID

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Filter rows where OrderID is null

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Merge two data sources

Question 2

Which THREE of the following are valid Azure data storage services? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Azure Files. Azure Files provides fully managed file shares in the cloud that can be accessed via the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol or the Network File System (NFS) protocol. It is a valid Azure data storage service because it stores data as files in a hierarchical structure, making it suitable for lift-and-shift scenarios for on-premises file servers.

Answer

Azure Redis Cache

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Azure Service Bus

Question 3

Which TWO of the following are characteristics of structured data? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Stored in rows and columns. Structured data is organized in a tabular format with rows and columns, which is the defining characteristic of relational databases like SQL Server or Azure SQL Database. This structure enforces a fixed schema, meaning the data types and relationships are defined before data is entered, ensuring consistency and enabling efficient querying via SQL.

Answer

No predefined schema

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Key-value pairs

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Schema-on-read

Question 4

A company stores customer transaction data in Azure Blob Storage. They need to query the data using SQL-based tools without moving the data. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Synapse Serverless SQL pool. Azure Synapse Serverless SQL pool allows you to query data directly from Azure Blob Storage using T-SQL without moving or copying the data. It uses a pay-per-query model and supports reading common file formats like Parquet, CSV, and JSON, making it ideal for ad-hoc querying over data lakes.

Answer

Azure SQL Database

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Azure Analysis Services

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Azure Cosmos DB

Question 5

A data engineer needs to load data from an on-premises SQL Server database to Azure Synapse Analytics every hour with minimal latency. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Data Factory. Azure Data Factory (ADF) is the correct choice because it provides a fully managed, code-free ETL service that can connect to on-premises SQL Server via self-hosted integration runtime, and load data into Azure Synapse Analytics with low latency using a scheduled trigger (e.g., every hour). ADF supports incremental data loading and parallel copy activities, minimizing latency while handling the required frequency.

Answer

Azure Databricks

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Azure SQL Database

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Azure HDInsight

Question 6

Your company uses Azure SQL Database and needs to ensure that transactions are durable even if the database instance fails. Which feature should you enable?

Accepted Answer

Zone-redundant storage. Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) replicates your Azure SQL Database transaction logs and data files synchronously across three Azure availability zones within the same region. This ensures that even if an entire zone fails, committed transactions are preserved and the database remains available, providing durability at the storage layer without requiring a separate database replica.

Answer

Active geo-replication

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Transparent Data Encryption

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Auto-failover groups

Question 7

A retail company wants to run real-time analytics on streaming clickstream data from their website. Which Azure service should they use to ingest and process the data?

Accepted Answer

Azure Stream Analytics. Azure Stream Analytics is a real-time analytics and event-processing engine designed to ingest, process, and analyze high-velocity streaming data, such as clickstream data from a website. It can directly consume data from Azure Event Hubs or IoT Hub and output results to sinks like Power BI, Azure SQL Database, or Azure Data Lake Storage, making it the correct choice for real-time analytics on streaming data.

Answer

Azure Analysis Services

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Azure Data Lake Storage

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Azure SQL Database

Question 8

A multinational corporation needs to store archival data for 10 years with the lowest possible storage cost, while still being able to retrieve it within 24 hours if needed. Which Azure storage tier should they use?

Accepted Answer

Archive Blob Storage. Archive Blob Storage is the correct choice because it is designed for long-term retention of data that is rarely accessed, offering the lowest storage cost among Azure blob tiers. The 10-year retention requirement and 24-hour retrieval window align perfectly with Archive's capabilities, as data can be rehydrated to a hot or cool tier within hours (typically up to 15 hours for standard priority rehydration).

Answer

Cool Blob Storage

Answer

Premium Blob Storage

Answer

Hot Blob Storage

Question 9

A healthcare organization needs to store patient records that must be immutable and cannot be modified or deleted for 7 years due to regulatory compliance. Which Azure feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Blob Storage immutable storage. Azure Blob Storage immutable storage is correct because it provides WORM (Write Once, Read Many) capabilities that prevent data from being modified or deleted for a specified retention period. This directly meets the regulatory requirement for patient records to remain immutable for 7 years, as the policy is enforced at the storage level and cannot be overridden by any user, including administrators.

Answer

Microsoft Purview

Answer

Azure Policy

Answer

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Question 10

A company wants to run SQL queries on data stored in Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL. Which API should they use?

Accepted Answer

Core (SQL) API. The Core (SQL) API is the native API for Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL, designed to query JSON documents using a SQL-like syntax. Since the requirement is to run SQL queries on data stored in Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL, this API directly supports that need without requiring any protocol translation or schema mapping.

Answer

Gremlin API

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Cassandra API

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MongoDB API

Question 11

A data analyst needs to create interactive dashboards that display real-time data from Azure SQL Database. Which Microsoft tool should they use?

Accepted Answer

Power BI. Power BI is the correct tool because it is designed specifically for creating interactive dashboards and reports, and it supports real-time data connectivity to Azure SQL Database through DirectQuery or streaming datasets. This allows the data analyst to visualize live data without manual refreshes, meeting the requirement for real-time dashboards.

Answer

Microsoft Excel

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Microsoft Copilot

Answer

Azure Data Studio

Question 12

An e-commerce company uses Azure Cosmos DB for its product catalog. They need to ensure that read requests are served from the nearest Azure region to reduce latency. Which feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

Cosmos DB multi-region reads. Cosmos DB multi-region reads allows you to configure your database account to be read from multiple Azure regions, enabling the SDK to automatically route read requests to the nearest region based on the client's location. This reduces latency by serving reads from a local replica without requiring a separate global load-balancing service.

Answer

Azure Front Door

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Azure Content Delivery Network

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Microsoft Traffic Manager

Question 13

Which TWO Azure services are primarily used for data integration and orchestration?

Accepted Answer

Azure Logic Apps. Azure Logic Apps is correct because it is a serverless workflow service that integrates apps, data, and services using connectors and triggers, making it ideal for data integration and orchestration. Azure Data Factory is correct because it is a cloud-based ETL and data integration service that orchestrates and automates data movement and transformation across various data stores.

Answer

Azure Synapse Analytics

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Azure Stream Analytics

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Azure Analysis Services

Question 14

Which TWO are advantages of using a NoSQL database like Azure Cosmos DB over a relational database like Azure SQL Database?

Accepted Answer

Flexible schema design. Option C (Flexible schema design) is correct because Azure Cosmos DB is schema-agnostic: documents in the same container can have different structures, and new fields can be added without migrations or ALTER TABLE operations, which suits rapidly evolving or semi-structured data. Option D (Horizontal scaling across multiple regions) is correct because Cosmos DB is natively partitioned and distributes data across partitions and Azure regions, supporting multi-region writes and turnkey global distribution with low latency, whereas Azure SQL Database scales primarily vertically and requires additional configuration (e.g., geo-replication, sharding) for comparable horizontal/global scale. Option A (Support for complex joins) is not an advantage of NoSQL here, since Cosmos DB has limited join support (joins are intra-document, not cross-container like SQL joins). Option B (ACID transactions across multiple records) is not unique to NoSQL, as Azure SQL Database provides full ACID transactions across tables, and Cosmos DB's transactional scope is limited to a logical partition. Option E (Enforced referential integrity) is a relational strength, not a NoSQL advantage, since Cosmos DB does not enforce foreign key constraints.

Answer

Support for complex joins

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ACID transactions across multiple records

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Enforced referential integrity

Question 15

A company wants to store historical sales data for long-term analysis. The data is accessed infrequently but must be retained for 7 years. Which Azure storage tier minimizes cost while meeting these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Cool storage tier. The Cool storage tier is designed for data that is accessed infrequently but must be retained for extended periods, offering lower storage costs than Hot tier while still providing low-latency access when needed. With a 30-day minimum storage duration and a cost structure optimized for infrequent reads, it balances cost and accessibility for 7-year retention of historical sales data.

Answer

Archive storage tier

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Premium storage tier

Answer

Hot storage tier