DP-203 Develop data processing Practice Question
Your company runs a streaming job in Azure Stream Analytics that ingests data from Event Hubs and outputs to Azure Synapse Analytics. The job is failing with a 'Watermark delay' alert and the output to Synapse is delayed by over 30 minutes. The input rate is 5,000 events per second. The job uses a 1-minute tumbling window. What is the most likely cause of the delay?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse a watermark delay alert with late-arriving events (Option B), but the alert indicates the job is falling behind overall, not just handling late data, and the 30-minute delay points to insufficient compute resources rather than data timing issues.
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 Stream Analytics job is under-provisioned in terms of Streaming Units (SUs).
A watermark delay alert in Azure Stream Analytics indicates that the job is falling behind in processing incoming data. With an input rate of 5,000 events per second and a 1-minute tumbling window, the job requires sufficient Streaming Units (SUs) to keep up. Under-provisioned SUs cause backpressure, leading to output delays exceeding 30 minutes.
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 output schema in Synapse does not match the Stream Analytics output.
Why it's wrong here
Schema mismatch would cause errors, not watermark delay.
- ✗
The Event Hubs has a large number of late-arriving events.
Why it's wrong here
Late events would cause late output, not watermark delay.
- ✗
The tumbling window size is too large.
Why it's wrong here
1-minute window is small and should not cause delay.
- ✓
The Stream Analytics job is under-provisioned in terms of Streaming Units (SUs).
Why this is correct
Insufficient SUs cause backpressure and watermark delay.
Visual reference
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to Azure Data Engineering
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.
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.
About these practice questions
One of 760 original DP-203 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. 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.