DP-300 Plan and implement data platform resources Practice Question
You are designing a disaster recovery strategy for an Azure SQL Database that uses the Business Critical tier. The primary region is East US, and you need to ensure automatic failover with zero data loss in case of a regional outage. The secondary region must be West US. You also need to minimize latency for read-only workloads in the secondary region. What should you implement?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse active geo-replication (asynchronous, manual failover) with failover groups (synchronous for Business Critical, automatic failover), and assume any readable secondary guarantees zero data loss regardless of replication mode.
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 a failover group with the primary in East US and a readable secondary in West US.
A failover group with a readable secondary in the Business Critical tier provides automatic failover with zero data loss because it uses synchronous replication. The readable secondary in West US minimizes latency for read-only workloads by allowing direct connections to the secondary replica. This meets all requirements: automatic failover, zero data loss, and low-latency reads in the secondary region.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Create a failover group with the primary in East US and a readable secondary in West US.
Why this is correct
Failover group provides automatic failover and readable secondary with synchronous replication for zero data loss.
- ✗
Create a failover group with the primary in East US and a non-readable secondary in West US using Basic tier.
Why it's wrong here
Basic tier does not support readable secondaries and may cause data loss.
- ✗
Configure active geo-replication with a readable secondary in West US.
Why it's wrong here
Active geo-replication requires manual failover, not automatic.
- ✗
Configure active geo-replication with a readable secondary in West US using Standard tier.
Why it's wrong here
Standard tier uses asynchronous replication, risking data loss.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Overview of Azure Data Platform Options
Key term
Azure SQL Performance Tuning
Azure SQL Performance Tuning is the process of optimizing the speed and efficiency of queries and database operations in Microsoft Azure SQL Database or SQL Managed Instance to reduce latency and improve throughput.
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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.