DP-203 Structured Streaming Practice Question
You are a data engineer for a healthcare company that processes patient data. You have an Azure Databricks workspace with a cluster configured for data processing. You need to implement a solution that processes streaming data from Azure Event Hubs, enriches it with reference data stored in Azure Cosmos DB, and writes the output to Delta Lake in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. The solution must ensure that the data processing is fault-tolerant and can handle schema evolution. The reference data is updated infrequently. You need to choose an approach that minimizes complexity and cost. What should you do?
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
✓
Use Azure Databricks Structured Streaming to read from Event Hubs, use a streaming static join to enrich with reference data from Cosmos DB, and write to Delta Lake. Enable schema evolution on the Delta table.
Azure Databricks Structured Streaming provides a scalable and fault-tolerant way to process streaming data from Event Hubs. Using a streaming static join efficiently enriches the stream with infrequently updated reference data from Cosmos DB without the complexity of change data capture. Writing to Delta Lake enables schema evolution natively, and the solution minimizes cost by leveraging existing Databricks infrastructure. Option A is incorrect because Auto Loader is for batch file ingestion, not streaming from Event Hubs, and Change Data Capture adds unnecessary complexity. Option B is incorrect because using batch processing (Azure Data Factory copy) increases latency and complexity compared to a streaming approach. Option C is incorrect because Azure Stream Analytics would introduce additional service cost and lacks the flexibility of Databricks for schema evolution and advanced transformations.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use Azure Databricks Auto Loader with Delta Live Tables to ingest streaming data, and use Change Data Capture from Cosmos DB to update the reference data inline.
Why it's wrong here
Change Data Capture adds unnecessary complexity for infrequent updates.
- ✗
Use Azure Data Factory to copy data from Event Hubs to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 in batches, then use Azure Databricks to process and enrich with Cosmos DB.
Why it's wrong here
Batch processing increases latency and complexity.
- ✗
Use Azure Stream Analytics to ingest from Event Hubs, join with Cosmos DB reference data, and output to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 in Parquet format.
Why it's wrong here
Adds extra service and cost without benefit.
- ✓
Use Azure Databricks Structured Streaming to read from Event Hubs, use a streaming static join to enrich with reference data from Cosmos DB, and write to Delta Lake. Enable schema evolution on the Delta table.
Why this is correct
Simplifies processing and handles schema evolution.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to Azure Data Engineering
Key term
Azure Databricks
Azure Databricks is a fast, easy, and collaborative Apache Spark-based analytics platform optimized for Azure that lets data teams prepare data, run machine learning models, and build data pipelines using a single workspace.
Key term
Azure Data Factory
Azure Data Factory is a cloud-based data integration service that lets you create, schedule, and orchestrate data pipelines to move and transform data from various sources to destinations.
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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.