DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment
You are planning high availability for an Azure SQL Database that runs an e-commerce application. The database uses the Business Critical service tier. Which TWO features are automatically enabled to provide high availability within a single region? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is conflating single-region automatic HA (built into Business Critical) with cross-region DR features like auto-failover groups and active geo-replication, which are separate and manually configured.
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
✓
Automatic failover to a secondary replica if the primary becomes unavailable.
Option A is correct because in the Business Critical tier Azure SQL Database automatically provisions a primary replica plus secondary replicas and performs automatic failover to a secondary if the primary becomes unavailable, with no user action required. Option B is correct because Business Critical uses Always On availability group technology to maintain multiple synchronous replicas (one primary and two secondary) within the same region, ensuring data redundancy and fast failover. Option C is incorrect because auto-failover groups are a user-configured feature for cross-region disaster recovery, not an automatic single-region HA capability. Option D is incorrect because active geo-replication is a manually configured cross-region replication feature, not automatically enabled for single-region HA. Option E is incorrect because read scale-out using a readable secondary is an optional configuration for offloading read workloads, not an automatic HA mechanism.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Automatic failover to a secondary replica if the primary becomes unavailable.
Why this is correct
Business Critical provisions a primary plus secondary replicas with synchronous commit, so the platform automatically redirects connections to a healthy replica when the primary fails. This built-in failover satisfies the single-region high availability requirement without manual intervention.
- ✓
Multiple synchronous replicas (one primary, two secondary) in the same region.
Why this is correct
Business Critical provisions one primary plus two synchronous secondary replicas locally, using Always On availability groups to commit every transaction to all three before acknowledgement. This built-in architecture satisfies the single-region high availability constraint automatically, requiring no configuration, and delivers the low-latency failover the e-commerce workload demands.
- ✗
Auto-failover groups with a secondary in another region.
Why it's wrong here
Auto-failover groups replicate to a secondary in a different region, providing cross-region disaster recovery rather than the within-region redundancy the question asks about. They are tempting because they deliver automatic failover, and they would be correct when the requirement is regional resilience with a readable secondary elsewhere.
- ✗
Active geo-replication to a paired region.
Why it's wrong here
Active geo-replication copies the database to a paired region asynchronously, addressing regional outages instead of single-region high availability. It appeals because it offers a readable secondary and manual failover, and it would be the right answer if the scenario demanded cross-region business continuity rather than local redundancy.
- ✗
Read scale-out with a readable secondary replica.
Why it's wrong here
Read scale-out routes read-only connections to a read-only replica for offloading reporting workloads; it is not the automatic within-region availability mechanism that keeps the primary online during failures. It would be correct when the goal is isolating analytics queries from transactional traffic, not ensuring local uptime.
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Related to this question
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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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Same concept, more angles
2 more ways this is tested on DP-300
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. You have an Azure SQL Database that uses the Business Critical service tier with zone redundancy enabled. The database is deployed in a single region. You want to ensure that if a zone fails, the database remains available with minimal downtime. How does zone redundancy achieve this?
easy- ✓ A.It maintains multiple synchronous replicas in different availability zones within the region.
- B.It creates read-only replicas in other zones that can be promoted to primary.
- C.It replicates data to a secondary region for failover.
- D.It uses asynchronous replication to a standby replica in another zone.
Why A: In Azure SQL Database Business Critical with zone redundancy, the primary compute and storage are synchronously replicated across multiple availability zones within the same region. If the zone hosting the primary fails, the platform automatically fails over to a replica in another zone with no data loss and minimal downtime, because the replicas are kept in sync via synchronous commit.
Variation 2. You have an Azure SQL Database in the Business Critical tier with zone redundancy enabled. The database experiences a brief outage due to a zone failure. How does the platform automatically recover?
easy- A.You must perform a manual failover to a secondary replica.
- ✓ B.A replica in another availability zone is automatically promoted to primary.
- C.The database is restored from the latest backup.
- D.The database becomes read-only until the zone is restored.
Why B: When zone redundancy is enabled in Business Critical, Azure SQL Database maintains replicas across multiple availability zones. If a zone fails, the platform automatically detects the failure and promotes a replica from a surviving zone to primary, typically within seconds to a minute, with no manual intervention. This is built-in HA, not disaster recovery.
JA
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
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