DP-203 Design and implement data storage Practice Question
A financial services company needs to store transaction data for audit purposes. The data must be immutable and cannot be modified or deleted for 7 years. Which Azure storage feature should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse soft delete or versioning with immutability, not realizing that only a locked time-based retention policy provides the strict write-once, read-many guarantee required for audit data that cannot be modified or deleted for a fixed duration.
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
✓
Azure Blob Storage immutability policy (time-based retention).
Azure Blob Storage immutability policy with time-based retention ensures that blobs cannot be modified or deleted for a specified retention period (e.g., 7 years). This meets the audit requirement for immutable storage by locking the data at the storage level, preventing any writes or deletes until the retention interval expires. The policy is enforced at the container level and applies to all blobs within, making it the correct choice for regulatory compliance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Azure Blob Storage immutability policy (time-based retention).
Why this is correct
Immutability policies enforce WORM (Write Once, Read Many) for a specified duration.
- ✗
Azure Blob Storage soft delete.
Why it's wrong here
Soft delete only retains deleted blobs for a period; it does not prevent modification.
- ✗
Azure Blob Storage versioning.
Why it's wrong here
Versioning retains history but does not prevent deletion of current version.
- ✗
Azure Files share snapshots.
Why it's wrong here
Share snapshots provide point-in-time copies but can be deleted.
Quick reference
Azure Blob Storage Tier Comparison
| Tier | Storage Cost | Retrieval Cost | Latency | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot | Highest | Lowest | Immediate | Active data, frequent reads |
| Cool | Lower | Higher | Immediate | Data accessed < once / month |
| Cold | Lower still | Higher | Immediate | Data accessed < once / quarter |
| Archive | Lowest | Highest + rehydration delay | Hours | Long-term compliance retention |
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 760 original DP-203 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
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.