DP-300 Implement a secure environment Practice Question
You are the database administrator for an Azure SQL Database named HRDB. The security team mandates that the database must be protected against SQL injection attacks and that any suspicious activity must be automatically detected and reported. You need to enable a feature that provides this protection with minimal administrative effort. What should you enable?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse auditing or encryption with threat detection, assuming that logging or encrypting data automatically protects against SQL injection and alerts on suspicious behavior.
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
✓
Advanced Threat Protection
Advanced Threat Protection continuously monitors database activities and uses machine learning to identify potential vulnerabilities and anomalous access patterns, including SQL injection. It automatically raises alerts, satisfying the need for detection and reporting. The other features provide encryption, masking, or logging but lack the automated threat detection capability.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
Why it's wrong here
TDE encrypts data at rest, protecting the database files from unauthorized access. It does not analyze query patterns or detect SQL injection attempts. While important for data security, it does not provide the threat detection and alerting required by the security team.
- ✗
Auditing
Why it's wrong here
Auditing records database events to a log, which can help with forensic analysis, but it does not automatically detect or alert on suspicious activities like SQL injection. It is a passive logging mechanism and would require manual review or additional tools to identify threats, failing the requirement for automatic detection.
- ✓
Advanced Threat Protection
Why this is correct
Advanced Threat Protection for Azure SQL Database detects anomalous activities such as SQL injection attempts, unusual access patterns, and potential brute-force attacks. It sends alerts to the configured recipients and integrates with Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Enabling it requires minimal configuration and directly addresses the requirement for automatic detection and reporting of suspicious activity.
- ✗
Dynamic Data Masking
Why it's wrong here
Dynamic Data Masking obscures sensitive data in query results for non-privileged users, but it does not protect against SQL injection attacks. It is a data privacy feature, not a threat detection mechanism. It would not detect or report suspicious activity, so it does not meet the security team's requirement.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Implementing Auditing and Threat Detection
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 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.
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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
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.