DP-300 Configure and manage automation of tasks Practice Question
You are designing an automated backup retention policy for an Azure SQL Database. The business requirement is to retain daily backups for 30 days, weekly backups for 12 weeks, monthly backups for 12 months, and yearly backups for 7 years. Which backup retention type should you configure?
⚠ Common exam trap
DP-300 often tests the confusion between PITR (short-term, up to 35 days) and LTR (long-term, up to 10 years), tempting candidates to pick PITR or Azure Backup when multi-year tiered retention is required.
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
✓
Long-term retention (LTR) policy
Long-term retention (LTR) policy in Azure SQL Database is specifically designed to retain full backups beyond the default PITR window, supporting configurable weekly, monthly, and yearly retention periods. The requirement of 30 days daily, 12 weeks weekly, 12 months monthly, and 7 years yearly maps exactly to LTR's weekly/monthly/yearly retention options, which can be set independently.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Point-in-time restore (PITR) retention
Why it's wrong here
Point-in-time restore retention governs continuous restore granularity within a short window, not the weekly, monthly and yearly archival tiers required. It tempts administrators because PITR underpins database recovery, but it suits continuous restore capability rather than long-term retention configuration.
- ✗
Backup vault with Azure Backup
Why it's wrong here
A Backup vault with Azure Backup protects workloads such as VMs and file shares, not Azure SQL Database's native backup chain, so it cannot express daily, weekly, monthly and yearly retention tiers for that database. It tempts administrators wanting long-term offsite copies, but suits IaaS workload protection instead.
- ✓
Long-term retention (LTR) policy
Why this is correct
Long-term retention extends Azure SQL Database backups beyond the default 7–35 day point-in-time window, storing full backups in RA-GRS blob storage on separate daily, weekly, monthly and yearly schedules. This directly satisfies the stem's 7-year yearly retention requirement, which the built-in short-term policy cannot provide.
- ✗
Automated backup policy
Why it's wrong here
The automated backup policy offers only a basic default retention window and cannot express the separate weekly, monthly and yearly tiers the requirement demands. It tempts administrators because it is the default backup mechanism, but it suits simple short-term retention rather than long-term tiered schedules.
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.
Key term
Azure SQL Database Backup
Azure SQL Database Backup is a fully managed, automated service that creates and stores copies of your SQL database data and transaction logs in Azure storage, enabling point-in-time recovery and long-term retention for data protection and business continuity.
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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-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.