DP-203 Develop data processing Practice Question
You are designing a data processing solution in Azure Synapse Analytics. The solution must use a serverless SQL pool to query data in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. The data is stored in Delta Lake format. Which of the following statements is true regarding querying Delta Lake tables with serverless SQL pool?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume Delta Lake requires special handling or conversion to Parquet, but serverless SQL pool natively supports Delta via OPENROWSET with FORMAT='DELTA', making options A and C incorrect, while option D misleads by suggesting external tables are the primary method.
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
✓
You can use the OPENROWSET function with the BULK option and FORMAT='DELTA' to query Delta Lake tables.
Serverless SQL pool in Azure Synapse Analytics supports querying Delta Lake tables directly using the OPENROWSET function with the BULK option and FORMAT='DELTA'. This allows you to read Delta Lake data stored in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 without needing to convert it to Parquet or create external tables first. The Delta format is natively supported, enabling time travel and schema evolution features.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Serverless SQL pool supports Delta Lake only if the files are in Parquet format.
Why it's wrong here
Delta Lake uses its own format, not Parquet.
- ✓
You can use the OPENROWSET function with the BULK option and FORMAT='DELTA' to query Delta Lake tables.
Why this is correct
OPENROWSET with FORMAT='DELTA' allows querying Delta Lake tables directly.
- ✗
Serverless SQL pool cannot query Delta Lake tables; you must convert them to Parquet first.
Why it's wrong here
Serverless SQL pool can query Delta Lake tables directly.
- ✗
You must create an external table in serverless SQL pool using the CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statement with the Delta format.
Why it's wrong here
You can use OPENROWSET without creating an external table.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This DP-203 question is part of Courseiva's 760-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. 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.