DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment
This DP-300 practice question tests your understanding of plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
You are planning a disaster recovery strategy for an Azure SQL Database that supports a critical application. The database is 500 GB in size and you need to recover it within 1 hour (RTO) with a maximum data loss of 5 minutes (RPO). Which Azure SQL Database feature should you use?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Active geo-replication to a secondary server in a paired region.
Option D is correct. Active geo-replication provides asynchronous replication with an RPO of a few seconds to a few minutes, and failover can be initiated manually within minutes, meeting the RTO and RPO. Option A is wrong because point-in-time restore does not provide a separate secondary region. Option B is wrong because long-term retention is for archival, not DR. Option C is wrong because failover groups use geo-replication but the RPO is still asynchronous; the question asks for the feature, and geo-replication is the core.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Long-term retention (LTR) backups.
Why it's wrong here
LTR is for archival retention beyond 35 days, not for DR with low RTO/RPO.
✗
Point-in-time restore (PITR) with geo-redundant backup storage.
Why it's wrong here
PITR can take hours to restore a large database and does not meet the RTO of 1 hour.
✗
Auto-failover group with a secondary in a different region.
Why it's wrong here
Auto-failover groups use geo-replication; the underlying feature is geo-replication.
✓
Active geo-replication to a secondary server in a paired region.
Why this is correct
Active geo-replication offers low RPO (seconds to minutes) and fast failover, meeting the requirements.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
→Underline the problem statement mentally.
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this DP-300 question in full detail.
Identify which DP-300 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment — This question tests Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Active geo-replication to a secondary server in a paired region. — Option D is correct. Active geo-replication provides asynchronous replication with an RPO of a few seconds to a few minutes, and failover can be initiated manually within minutes, meeting the RTO and RPO. Option A is wrong because point-in-time restore does not provide a separate secondary region. Option B is wrong because long-term retention is for archival, not DR. Option C is wrong because failover groups use geo-replication but the RPO is still asynchronous; the question asks for the feature, and geo-replication is the core.
What should I do if I get this DP-300 question wrong?
Identify which DP-300 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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