DP-900 Describe core data concepts Practice Test 4 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company stores customer data in three formats: a relational table with fixed columns for CustomerID, Name, and Email; product reviews stored as JSON documents with varying fields such as rating and comment; and product demonstration videos in MP4 format. Which of the following correctly lists these data types from most structured to least structured?

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

Accepted Answer

Relational table, JSON documents, MP4 videos. Data structuredness is determined by schema rigidity. A relational table has a fixed schema with predefined columns (CustomerID, Name, Email), making it the most structured. JSON documents have a flexible schema where fields like rating and comment can vary per document, placing them in the semi-structured category. MP4 videos are unstructured binary data with no inherent schema, making them the least structured.

Answer

Relational table, MP4 videos, JSON documents

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JSON documents, relational table, MP4 videos

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MP4 videos, JSON documents, relational table

Question 2

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. 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 3

A logistics company tracks package deliveries. When a package is scanned at a distribution center, the system immediately updates the delivery status in a database so customers can see the live tracking information. At the end of each day, the company runs a job that aggregates all delivery status changes into a report for operational analysis. Which of the following best describes these two data processing workloads?

Accepted Answer

The status update is a real-time workload, and the daily report is a batch workload.. The immediate status update upon scanning is a real-time workload, as it processes data instantly for live customer visibility. The end-of-day aggregation job is a batch workload, as it processes accumulated data in a scheduled, non-real-time manner for operational reporting.

Answer

Both are batch processing workloads.

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Both are real-time processing workloads.

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The status update is a batch workload, and the daily report is a real-time workload.

Question 4

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.

Answer

A) Batch processing

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C) Analytical processing (OLAP)

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D) Stream processing

Question 5

A healthcare organization stores patient records in a relational database table with fixed columns for PatientID, Name, and DateOfBirth. Additionally, they store clinical notes as free-form text files for each patient visit. Which statement correctly classifies these data types?

Accepted Answer

Patient records are structured data, and clinical notes are unstructured data.. Patient records stored in a relational database table with fixed columns (PatientID, Name, DateOfBirth) conform to a predefined schema, making them structured data. Clinical notes stored as free-form text files lack a fixed schema or organization, which classifies them as unstructured data. Option B correctly identifies this distinction.

Answer

Both patient records and clinical notes are examples of unstructured data.

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Both patient records and clinical notes are examples of structured data.

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Patient records are unstructured data, and clinical notes are semi-structured data.

Question 6

An e-commerce company runs a data pipeline that reads all orders from the previous hour, aggregates total sales per product category, and writes the results to a reporting database. The pipeline executes at the start of every hour. Which type of data processing workload does this pipeline represent?

Accepted Answer

Batch processing. This pipeline reads all orders from the previous hour, aggregates total sales per product category, and writes results to a reporting database at the start of every hour. This is a classic batch processing workload because data is collected over a fixed time window (one hour) and processed as a single, scheduled job, not continuously. Batch processing is ideal for non-real-time, high-volume data transformations like hourly sales aggregation.

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Stream processing

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Transactional processing

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Interactive processing

Question 7

A retail company collects raw clickstream data from its website as JSON files. Data scientists need to run exploratory analytics on this raw data without a predefined schema. BI analysts also need to generate weekly sales reports from aggregated transactional data stored in a relational format. Which combination of data storage approaches best meets these needs?

Accepted Answer

Store raw data in Azure Data Lake Storage and aggregated data in Azure SQL Database. Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) is optimized for storing raw, schema-on-read data like JSON files, enabling data scientists to run exploratory analytics without a predefined schema. Azure SQL Database provides a relational structure with ACID compliance, ideal for BI analysts generating weekly sales reports from aggregated transactional data. This combination directly addresses both unstructured raw data and structured reporting needs.

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Store raw data in Azure Blob Storage and aggregated data in Azure Cosmos DB

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Store raw data in Azure Table Storage and aggregated data in Azure Data Lake Storage

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Store raw data in Azure SQL Database and aggregated data in Azure Blob Storage

Question 8

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.

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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 9

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 10

A company collects data from multiple sources: IoT sensor streams, social media feeds, and CSV files from legacy systems. They want to store all this data in its original format without any transformation, so that data scientists can later apply machine learning models or run ad-hoc queries. Which data storage pattern best describes this approach?

Accepted Answer

Data lake. A data lake is designed to store vast amounts of raw data in its native format (structured, semi-structured, or unstructured) without requiring upfront schema or transformation. This aligns perfectly with the scenario of ingesting IoT streams, social media feeds, and CSV files as-is, enabling data scientists to later apply machine learning or run ad-hoc queries directly against the raw data.

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Data warehouse

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Relational database

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Data mart

Question 11

A company stores customer contact information in a table with columns for CustomerID, Name, Email, and Phone. They also store customer support chat transcripts as plain text files. Which of the following correctly classifies these data types?

Accepted Answer

Customer contact information is structured; chat transcripts are unstructured. Customer contact information stored in a table with columns like CustomerID, Name, Email, and Phone is structured data because it has a fixed schema with rows and columns. Chat transcripts stored as plain text files have no predefined schema or organization, making them unstructured data. Therefore, option C correctly classifies the contact info as structured and the chat transcripts as unstructured.

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Both are structured data

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Customer contact information is structured; chat transcripts are semi-structured

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Both are semi-structured

Question 12

A company stores customer order data in a relational database table with columns like OrderID, CustomerID, and OrderDate. They also store product images as JPEG files, and customer feedback as JSON documents with varying fields. Which of the following correctly orders these data types from most structured to least structured?

Accepted Answer

B: Relational table, JSON documents, JPEG files. Relational tables enforce a fixed schema with rows and columns, making them the most structured. JSON documents have a flexible schema with varying fields, placing them in the middle. JPEG files are binary blobs with no inherent structure for querying, making them the least structured. Option B correctly orders these from most structured (relational table) to least structured (JPEG files).

Answer

A: JSON documents, Relational table, JPEG files

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C: JPEG files, Relational table, JSON documents

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D: Relational table, JPEG files, JSON documents

Question 13

A company stores customer data in a relational database with columns like CustomerID, Name, and Email. They also store product images as JPEG files in Azure Blob Storage, and customer feedback as JSON documents that contain varying fields such as rating, comments, and optional metadata. Which of the following correctly orders these data types from most structured to least structured?

Accepted Answer

Relational data, JSON, images. Relational data (CustomerID, Name, Email) is the most structured because it enforces a fixed schema with defined data types and constraints. JSON documents (customer feedback) are semi-structured: they have a flexible schema with optional fields like metadata, but still use key-value pairs. Images (JPEG files) are unstructured binary data with no inherent schema. Option C correctly orders them from most structured (relational) to least structured (images).

Answer

Relational data, images, JSON

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Images, JSON, relational data

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JSON, relational data, images

Question 14

A company stores employee records in a relational database table with columns EmployeeID, FirstName, LastName, Department. They also store employee handbooks as PDF files, and customer feedback as XML documents. Which of the following correctly classifies these data types?

Accepted Answer

Employee records: structured, Employee handbooks: unstructured, Customer feedback: semi-structured. Employee records in a relational database table have a fixed schema (columns and data types), making them structured data. Employee handbooks stored as PDF files have no internal schema and are binary blobs, classifying them as unstructured data. Customer feedback stored as XML documents have a flexible, self-describing schema with tags, making them semi-structured data.

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Employee records: structured, Employee handbooks: semi-structured, Customer feedback: unstructured

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Employee records: semi-structured, Employee handbooks: unstructured, Customer feedback: structured

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Employee records: unstructured, Employee handbooks: semi-structured, Customer feedback: structured

Question 15

A company stores customer records in a relational table with columns like CustomerID, Name, and Email. Product reviews are stored as JSON documents, and marketing images are stored as PNG files. Which of the following correctly orders these data types from most structured to least structured?

Accepted Answer

B. Customer records, Product reviews, Marketing images. Customer records in a relational table have a fixed schema with defined columns (e.g., CustomerID, Name, Email), making them the most structured. Product reviews stored as JSON documents are semi-structured because they have a flexible schema with key-value pairs but no fixed columns. Marketing images as PNG files are unstructured binary data with no inherent schema. Option B correctly orders these from most to least structured.

Answer

A. Product reviews, Customer records, Marketing images

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C. Marketing images, Customer records, Product reviews

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D. Customer records, Marketing images, Product reviews