DP-203 Develop data processing Practice Question
You are designing a streaming solution in Azure Synapse Analytics using the serverless SQL pool to query streaming data in real-time. The data is ingested via Azure Event Hubs and processed using Azure Stream Analytics. The output of Stream Analytics is written to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 in Delta Lake format. You need to ensure that the serverless SQL pool can query the latest data with minimal latency. Which approach should you use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse serverless SQL pool with dedicated SQL pool and assume features like materialized views or scheduled pipelines are available, or they may think CETAS can directly ingest from Event Hubs, which is not supported.
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
✓
Create an external table in serverless SQL pool that points to the Delta Lake folder and query it directly.
Serverless SQL pool can directly query Delta Lake format files stored in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 by creating an external table with LOCATION pointing to the Delta folder. This allows real-time querying of the latest streaming data without any data movement or transformation, achieving minimal latency since Stream Analytics writes continuously to Delta Lake.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Ingest data directly from Event Hubs into serverless SQL pool using CETAS (CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE AS SELECT).
Why it's wrong here
Serverless SQL pool does not have real-time ingestion capabilities.
- ✗
Use a materialized view in serverless SQL pool that refreshes every minute.
Why it's wrong here
Serverless SQL pool does not support materialized views.
- ✗
Load the streaming data into a dedicated SQL pool using a scheduled pipeline and then query it from serverless SQL pool.
Why it's wrong here
This adds latency and is not real-time.
- ✓
Create an external table in serverless SQL pool that points to the Delta Lake folder and query it directly.
Why this is correct
Serverless SQL pool supports Delta Lake format and can query it as soon as data is written.
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
Learn chapter
Introduction to Azure Data Engineering
Key term
Azure Synapse Analytics
Azure Synapse Analytics is a cloud-based data integration, warehousing, and analytics service that brings together big data and data warehouse capabilities under one platform.
Key term
Azure Stream Analytics
Azure Stream Analytics is a fully managed, real-time data processing service that analyzes and transforms high volumes of streaming data from various sources to deliver low-latency insights and trigger actions.
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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.