DP-203 Develop data processing Practice Question
You are a data engineer at a financial services company. You are developing a data processing pipeline that uses Azure Data Factory to copy transactional data from an Azure SQL Database to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. The pipeline runs daily and processes about 10 GB of data. You need to implement error handling for the pipeline. Specifically, if the copy activity fails due to a transient error, the pipeline should retry automatically. If the retry fails, the pipeline should log the error and send an email alert to the operations team. What should you do?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is choosing Azure Monitor alerts alone, which notify but do not retry, or over-engineering with Functions when the built-in retry policy already meets the requirement.
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
✓
Configure the copy activity with retry policy (retry count = 2, retry interval = 30 seconds). Add a failure path to a web activity that calls an Azure Logic App to send an email.
Configuring the copy activity's retry policy (retry count and interval) handles transient failures automatically at the activity level. Adding a failure dependency path to a Web activity that invokes a Logic App provides the required logging and email alert when retries are exhausted. This directly satisfies both the retry and notification requirements.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Configure the copy activity with retry policy (retry count = 2, retry interval = 30 seconds). Add a failure path to a web activity that calls an Azure Logic App to send an email.
Why this is correct
The copy activity's retry policy handles transient faults automatically, and the failure output path routes to a Web activity invoking a Logic App for email. This satisfies both stated requirements: automatic retry, then logging and alerting when retries are exhausted.
- ✗
Use Azure Functions to implement custom retry logic and send email.
Why it's wrong here
Azure Data Factory copy activities already expose a built-in retry property that handles transient faults natively, so a Function adds orchestration overhead without satisfying the requirement. Functions suit custom transformation or event-driven processing logic, not replacing ADF's own retry and alerting mechanisms.
- ✗
Create an Azure Monitor alert for failed pipeline runs and configure an action group to send an email.
Why it's wrong here
Azure Monitor alerts fire after a pipeline run has already failed, so no automatic retry of the transient copy activity occurs; the requirement demands retry logic first, then alerting. Azure Monitor alerting is correct for notifying on failures generally, but it cannot satisfy the automatic retry condition on its own.
- ✗
Set the pipeline retry to 2 and add a storage event trigger on the error file.
Why it's wrong here
Pipeline-level retry reruns the whole pipeline rather than the failed copy activity, and a storage event trigger fires on blob creation, not on error conditions, so no alert reaches the operations team. Storage event triggers suit reacting to new files landing in Data Lake Storage Gen2.
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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.