Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
DP-300 Practice Question: Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment
Your company has an Azure SQL Database that uses a failover group with a secondary in a different region. You need to ensure that read-only queries are directed to the secondary database to offload the primary. What should you configure?
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
✓
Add ApplicationIntent=ReadOnly to the connection string and use the failover group listener.
Add ApplicationIntent=ReadOnly to the connection string and use the failover group listener. Azure SQL Database failover groups provide a read-only listener endpoint. When a client connects to the failover group listener with ApplicationIntent=ReadOnly in the connection string, the connection is automatically routed to the secondary database. This offloads read-only queries from the primary. Option B is incorrect because Traffic Manager is not needed; the failover group listener already handles routing. Option C is incorrect because read-scale is a feature for querying readable secondaries in a Business Critical tier, but it does not automatically route read-only queries to a geo-secondary. Option D is incorrect because using a separate connection string pointing directly to the secondary server defeats the purpose of automatic failover and redirection; the listener provides automatic routing and failover.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Add ApplicationIntent=ReadOnly to the connection string and use the failover group listener.
Why this is correct
The read-only listener routes to the secondary when ApplicationIntent=ReadOnly is specified.
- ✗
Use a Traffic Manager profile to route read traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Traffic Manager does not understand SQL read intent.
- ✗
Enable read-scale for the database.
Why it's wrong here
Read-scale is for read-only replicas within the same region, not for geo-secondary.
- ✗
Configure a separate connection string pointing to the secondary server.
Why it's wrong here
This requires manual management and does not automatically redirect if secondary becomes primary.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
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.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every DP-300 question from scratch — 906 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.