DA0-002 Visualization and Reporting Practice Question
A financial analyst is creating a quarterly report compliant with SOX. Which requirement is most critical for the report's audit trail?
⚠ Common exam trap
DA0-002 often tests the confusion between lineage (where data came from) and audit trail (who changed it and when) — candidates pick lineage because it sounds like traceability, but SOX specifically demands change attribution.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Audit trail of data changes
SOX compliance requires that financial reports be traceable and that any change to reported data be attributable to a specific user at a specific time. An audit trail of data changes (B) provides exactly this: a tamper-evident record of who changed what, when, and why, which is the core control auditors test for financial reporting integrity. Without it, the report cannot be defended as accurate or complete during an audit.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Row-level security
Why it's wrong here
Row-level security restricts which rows each user can query; it controls access rather than recording who changed what. It is tempting because SOX demands access control, but the audit trail requires immutable logging of data changes, not query filtering.
- ✓
Audit trail of data changes
Why this is correct
SOX requires verifiable traceability of who changed financial data, when, and what the prior value was. An audit trail of data changes provides this immutable record, satisfying the compliance requirement for the quarterly report's audit trail.
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Data lineage
Why it's wrong here
Data lineage traces data's origin and transformations, supporting reproducibility and impact analysis. It cannot satisfy SOX's audit-trail requirement, which demands tamper-evident records of who accessed or altered the report and when. Data lineage would be the right choice when validating source-to-target mappings during migration or debugging a metric's calculation.
- ✗
Data dictionary
Why it's wrong here
A data dictionary documents field definitions and metadata; it does not record who accessed or altered figures, so it cannot evidence SOX change history. It is tempting because dictionaries support governance and data lineage, and would be the right choice when the requirement is standardising terminology or documenting schema across systems.
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Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
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