DP-203 Design and implement data storage Practice Question
A company uses Azure SQL Database for an OLTP application. They need to run complex analytical queries without impacting OLTP performance. Which solution should they implement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse high-availability features (failover groups, geo-replication) with workload isolation, assuming any replication solves the performance impact, whereas only a dedicated readable secondary explicitly separates read-only analytical traffic from the primary OLTP workload.
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
✓
Create a readable secondary replica
Creating a readable secondary replica (Option C) offloads read-only analytical queries to a synchronized copy of the database, isolating them from the primary OLTP workload. Azure SQL Database supports this via Active Geo-Replication or Hyperscale named replicas, ensuring the primary remains unaffected by heavy analytical processing.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable automatic tuning
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Automatic tuning optimizes query performance but does not offload queries.
- ✗
Enable geo-replication
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Geo-replication creates a readable secondary, but it is primarily for disaster recovery, not specifically for analytical queries.
- ✓
Create a readable secondary replica
Why this is correct
Correct. A readable secondary replica allows read-only queries without affecting the primary.
- ✗
Create a failover group
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Failover groups are for high availability and disaster recovery, not for offloading read queries.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DP-203 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft 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 DP-203 exam.