DP-300 Plan and implement data platform resources Practice Question
You are designing a data archiving solution for an Azure SQL Database. The database contains a table with over 100 million rows of historical sales data that is rarely accessed. You need to reduce storage costs while keeping the data available for occasional queries. What should you do?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often choose partitioning or compression (A or B) because they reduce storage size, but they fail to recognize that the question explicitly asks for cost reduction by moving data to cheaper storage, not just shrinking it within the same expensive tier.
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
✓
Use Stretch Database to migrate cold data to Azure Blob Storage
Stretch Database (now deprecated but still tested in DP-300) transparently migrates cold data from an Azure SQL Database table to Azure Blob Storage while keeping the data online and queryable via T-SQL. This reduces storage costs for rarely accessed historical data without requiring application changes, as the database engine automatically routes queries to the appropriate storage tier.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Partition the table by date and compress each partition
Why it's wrong here
Partitioning and compression help performance and space, but cold data still resides in SQL Database storage.
- ✗
Use page compression on the table
Why it's wrong here
Page compression reduces size but cold data remains in the database, still incurring costs.
- ✗
Delete old data and store it in Azure Blob Storage as CSV files
Why it's wrong here
Data is no longer queryable via SQL without additional tools.
- ✓
Use Stretch Database to migrate cold data to Azure Blob Storage
Why this is correct
Stretch Database moves cold data to Azure Blob Storage transparently, reducing storage costs while keeping data queryable via SQL Server.
Quick reference
Azure Blob Storage Tier Comparison
| Tier | Storage Cost | Retrieval Cost | Latency | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot | Highest | Lowest | Immediate | Active data, frequent reads |
| Cool | Lower | Higher | Immediate | Data accessed < once / month |
| Cold | Lower still | Higher | Immediate | Data accessed < once / quarter |
| Archive | Lowest | Highest + rehydration delay | Hours | Long-term compliance retention |
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Overview of Azure Data Platform Options
Key term
Azure SQL Threat Detection
Azure SQL Threat Detection is a built-in security feature that continuously monitors your Azure SQL database for suspicious activities and sends alerts when potential threats are found.
Key term
Azure SQL Auditing
Azure SQL Auditing is a feature that tracks and records database events, such as data changes and logins, and writes them to an audit log for security monitoring and compliance.
About these practice questions
One of 906 original DP-300 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-300 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-300 exam.