DA0-002 Data Concepts and Environments Practice Question
A retail analytics team is building a data catalog and must document the metadata for a new sales fact table. The team needs to record structural metadata that describes how the data is organized. Which two items qualify as structural metadata for this table? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is treating any catalog entry as structural metadata, when ownership, freshness, and business definitions describe governance, operations, and semantics rather than the table's organization.
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
✓
The primary key constraint that enforces uniqueness on the sales transaction identifier
Structural metadata describes how data is organized: the columns and their data types, plus constraints such as primary keys that define row identity. Ownership, refresh timestamps, and business definitions describe accountability, operational state, and semantics respectively, which fall under administrative, operational, or descriptive categories. Documenting the column list with types and the primary key constraint therefore satisfies the structural requirement for the catalog.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The name of the business owner accountable for the sales data
Why it's wrong here
Ownership information identifies who is accountable for the data, which is administrative or governance metadata rather than structural. It does not describe how the table's values are organized or typed. Documenting an owner is valuable for stewardship workflows, but it does not help a query engine understand the table's shape, so it does not qualify here.
- ✓
The primary key constraint that enforces uniqueness on the sales transaction identifier
Why this is correct
A primary key constraint defines how rows are uniquely identified and how the table's structure enforces integrity, which is structural metadata. It tells consumers which column or columns distinguish records and informs join planning and validation. Ownership and load timestamps describe governance and operations, not the table's internal organization, so the constraint is the structural element.
- ✓
The list of columns in the table with each column's declared data type
Why this is correct
Column names together with their declared data types describe how the table is physically and logically organized, which is the definition of structural metadata. This information lets tools validate queries, generate schemas, and map the table into a catalog. It says nothing about who owns the data or when it was last loaded, confirming it is structural rather than administrative or descriptive.
- ✗
The timestamp recording when the table was last refreshed from the source system
Why it's wrong here
A last-refresh timestamp describes the operational state of the data pipeline and is often classified as operational or administrative metadata. It does not describe the table's columns, types, or constraints, so it does not define structure. Analysts use freshness information for trust and scheduling decisions, but it plays no role in describing how the table is organized.
- ✗
A free-text business definition explaining what a completed sale means to the merchandising team
Why it's wrong here
A business definition clarifies semantics and is best classified as descriptive or business metadata. It helps consumers interpret the data but does not specify column types, keys, or other organizational details. Because the question asks specifically for structural metadata, a semantic definition does not qualify even though it is valuable catalog content.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
This DA0-002 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the DA0-002 exam.