mediumMultiple Choice
DP-203 Practice Question: Refer to the exhibit
Exhibit
Azure Synapse Analytics CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statement:
CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE [dbo].[Sales]
(
[SaleID] int,
[ProductID] int,
[SaleDate] datetime2(7),
[Quantity] int,
[Amount] decimal(10,2)
)
WITH
(
LOCATION = 'sales/2024/03/',
DATA_SOURCE = [ADLS_DataSource],
FILE_FORMAT = [ParquetFormat]
);
CREATE EXTERNAL FILE FORMAT [ParquetFormat]
WITH (
FORMAT_TYPE = PARQUET,
DATA_COMPRESSION = 'org.apache.hadoop.io.compress.SnappyCodec'
);
CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE [ADLS_DataSource]
WITH (
TYPE = HADOOP,
LOCATION = 'abfss://container@storage.dfs.core.windows.net',
CREDENTIAL = [StorageCredential]
);Refer to the exhibit. A data engineer creates an external table in Azure Synapse Analytics pointing to Parquet files in ADLS Gen2. The query 'SELECT * FROM Sales' returns 0 rows, but the files exist. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is assuming that 0 rows indicate a permission or format issue, when the most common cause is a simple path mismatch; candidates might overlook the importance of verifying the exact file location.
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 files are stored in a different container or path.
When an external table in Azure Synapse Analytics points to Parquet files in ADLS Gen2 and returns 0 rows despite files existing, the most likely cause is that the files are stored in a different container or path than the one specified in the external table's location. This mismatch means the table is querying an empty or non-existent location.
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 credential does not have read permission on the storage account.
Why it's wrong here
A missing read permission would raise an authorisation error, not return an empty result set, so the query would fail outright rather than succeed with zero rows. Credential scoping is genuinely required when a database-scoped credential must access storage outside the workspace's managed identity, which is a different failure mode entirely.
- ✓
The files are stored in a different container or path.
Why this is correct
External tables reference an explicit LOCATION path, so a mismatch between that path and where the Parquet files actually reside yields an empty result set rather than an error. Correcting the container or folder path in the table definition resolves the zero-row query.
- ✗
The external table is not refreshed after creation.
Why it's wrong here
External tables in Azure Synapse query the underlying files on every read, so no refresh step exists and stale metadata cannot produce zero rows. It is tempting because refresh concepts apply to other artefacts such as materialised views or cached datasets, but not to external tables.
- ✗
The Parquet files are compressed with Gzip instead of Snappy.
Why it's wrong here
Synapse's Parquet reader supports Gzip compression transparently, so a Gzip-compressed file still returns its rows rather than none. It is tempting because compression mismatches do cause read failures in some engines, but here the symptom would be an error, not an empty result set.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Microsoft exam blueprint
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.