DP-300 Plan and implement data platform resources Practice Question
Your Azure SQL Managed Instance is experiencing performance degradation. You suspect a query plan regression caused by parameter-sensitive plan issues. Which feature should you use to identify and resolve the issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse Intelligent Insights or Automatic tuning as the solution for plan regression, but these features do not provide the ability to manually force a specific plan, which is required for parameter-sensitive plan issues where you need to pin a known good plan.
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
✓
Query Store with Query Store Hints
Query Store with Query Store Hints is the correct feature because it allows you to identify parameter-sensitive plan regression by analyzing historical execution plans stored in Query Store, and then force a specific plan using a hint without changing application code. This directly addresses the root cause of parameter-sensitive plan issues, where different parameter values lead to suboptimal cached plans.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Intelligent Insights
Why it's wrong here
Intelligent Insights uses telemetry to detect and diagnose performance regressions automatically, but it does not identify or resolve parameter-sensitive plan issues; Query Store with forced plans does. It is tempting because it does surface performance degradation alerts, but it is the right choice only for general diagnosis, not parameter sniffing remediation.
- ✗
Automatic tuning
Why it's wrong here
Automatic tuning applies plan forcing and index recommendations, but it does not specifically detect parameter-sensitive plan issues; Query Store captures the plans needed to identify and force a stable one. It is tempting because it does remediate plan regressions automatically, but it is the correct choice only when the regression is already identified.
- ✓
Query Store with Query Store Hints
Why this is correct
Query Store captures execution plans and runtime statistics, exposing regressed plans for a specific query. Query Store Hints then force a known-good plan without code changes, directly resolving parameter-sensitive plan regression on the Managed Instance.
- ✗
Database Advisor
Why it's wrong here
Database Advisor surfaces index and parameterisation recommendations from workload analysis, but it does not capture the per-query plan history needed to pinpoint parameter-sensitive regressions; Query Store does. It is tempting because it does offer tuning guidance, but it is the right choice only for broad recommendation review, not plan-level diagnosis.
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Related to this question
Learn chapter
Monitoring Database Performance with Azure Tools
Key term
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Azure SQL Managed Instance is a fully managed cloud database service that gives you nearly all the features of Microsoft SQL Server on your own server, without you having to manage the hardware or operating system.
Key term
Query Store
Query Store is a built-in SQL Server feature that captures and stores a history of query execution plans and performance data for easy monitoring and troubleshooting.
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