DP-300 Practice Question: Monitor, configure, and optimize database resources
You need to configure Azure SQL Database to automatically adjust indexing based on workload patterns. Which feature should you enable?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mistake is to confuse features that provide recommendations (Azure Advisor, Intelligent Insights) or capture query performance data (Query Store) with Automatic tuning, which is the only feature that automatically applies index changes based on workload patterns without manual intervention.
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 tuning
Automatic tuning in Azure SQL Database continuously analyzes query execution plans and workload patterns, then automatically creates, drops, or rebuilds indexes to improve performance. It uses built-in intelligence to recommend and apply index changes without manual intervention, making it the correct feature for automatically adjusting indexing based on workload patterns.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Azure Advisor
Why it's wrong here
Azure Advisor issues recommendations from telemetry; it neither creates nor drops indexes, so the workload-driven adjustment does not happen. It is tempting because it does surface index recommendations, and would be correct when you want periodic best-practise guidance to action manually rather than automatic tuning.
- ✗
Intelligent Insights
Why it's wrong here
Intelligent Insights detects performance regressions and diagnoses their root cause; it reports rather than executes index changes, so indexing is never adjusted automatically. It is tempting because it analyses workload patterns, and would be correct when the requirement is alerting on degrading query performance rather than remediation.
- ✓
Automatic tuning
Why this is correct
Automatic tuning continuously analyses workload telemetry and applies index create, drop, and rebuild recommendations without manual intervention, directly satisfying the requirement to adjust indexing based on workload patterns. Unlike manual index maintenance or Query Store alone, it acts automatically, making it the appropriate choice for Azure SQL Database.
- ✗
Query Store
Why it's wrong here
Query Store captures query text, plans and runtime statistics for regression analysis; it does not create, drop or alter indexes, so no automatic tuning occurs. It is tempting because its captured workload data feeds tuning decisions, and it would be correct when you need to diagnose plan regressions or force a known-good plan.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Monitoring Database Performance with Azure Tools
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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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.