DP-203 Develop data processing Practice Question
You are building a data processing pipeline in Azure Synapse Analytics. The pipeline should read data from Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 (Parquet files), apply transformations using a mapping data flow, and write the results to a dedicated SQL pool table. The source data contains personally identifiable information (PII). You need to mask the PII columns (e.g., email) using a data masking function within the data flow. Which transformation should you use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse the Derived Column transformation with the Select transformation (which can also rename or drop columns but does not support expression-based masking), or assume that masking must be done in the sink (dedicated SQL pool) rather than within the data flow itself.
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
✓
Derived Column transformation
The Derived Column transformation in mapping data flows allows you to create new columns or modify existing ones using expressions, including built-in data masking functions like `mask()`, `maskEmail()`, or `substring()`. This is the correct transformation to apply PII masking on columns such as email addresses within the data flow pipeline before writing to the dedicated SQL pool.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Derived Column transformation
Why this is correct
Derived Column can apply expressions, including hash functions like SHA2 for masking PII.
- ✗
Join transformation
Why it's wrong here
Join merges data from two sources based on a key, not for masking.
- ✗
Aggregate transformation
Why it's wrong here
Aggregate is used for grouping and aggregating, not masking individual columns.
- ✗
Pivot transformation
Why it's wrong here
Pivot rotates rows into columns, unrelated to data masking.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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