DP-203 Practice Question: Secure, monitor, and optimize data storage and data processing
You are monitoring an Azure Data Factory pipeline that copies data from an on-premises SQL Server to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. The pipeline uses a self-hosted integration runtime. You notice that the copy activity sometimes takes much longer than expected, and you suspect network bottlenecks. You need to optimize the copy performance by adjusting the degree of parallelism. Which setting should you modify?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that increasing Data Integration Units (DIUs) directly controls parallelism. DIUs allocate compute resources, but the degree of parallelism for data movement is set by 'parallelCopies'.
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
✓
The 'parallelCopies' property in the copy activity.
The 'parallelCopies' property in a copy activity determines how many parallel threads are used to read from the source and write to the sink. For network-bound transfers, increasing this value can improve throughput by utilizing more concurrent connections. However, it should be tuned based on the capabilities of the source and sink to avoid overwhelming them.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The 'parallelCopies' property in the copy activity.
Why this is correct
The 'parallelCopies' property controls the number of parallel threads used by the copy activity to read from and write to data stores. Increasing it can improve throughput when the source and sink can handle the load, but it must be balanced with available resources. This directly addresses network bottlenecks by allowing more concurrent connections.
- ✗
The 'maxConcurrentConnections' property in the linked service.
Why it's wrong here
The 'maxConcurrentConnections' property limits the number of concurrent connections to the data store, but it is not the primary setting to control parallelism for a copy activity. It is more relevant for controlling load on the source or sink. The copy activity's 'parallelCopies' is the direct control for parallel reads and writes.
- ✗
The 'dataIntegrationUnits' property in the copy activity.
Why it's wrong here
Data Integration Units (DIUs) measure the compute power used by the copy activity, but they are not directly related to the degree of parallelism for network transfers. DIUs affect the overall performance, but the question specifically asks about adjusting parallelism to address network bottlenecks. Increasing DIUs may help, but it is not the targeted setting.
- ✗
The 'throughput' setting in the self-hosted integration runtime configuration.
Why it's wrong here
The self-hosted integration runtime does not have a 'throughput' setting. Its performance is influenced by the machine's resources and network. While you can scale the IR by adding nodes, there is no direct throughput parameter. The copy activity's parallelism is controlled at the activity level, not the IR.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Implement Azure Data Factory Pipelines
Key term
Data Transformation Pipelines
Data transformation pipelines are automated sequences of steps that take raw data from a source, clean and reshape it into a usable format, and then load it into a destination for analysis or storage.
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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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.