Plan and configure a high availability and disaster recovery environment →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
DP-300 Auto-failover groups Practice Question
Your company runs a mission-critical application on Azure SQL Database in the East US region. You need to ensure automatic failover with zero data loss in case of a regional outage. Which deployment option should you use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Students often confuse zone redundancy (within region) with geo-redundancy (cross-region). Zone redundancy protects against datacenter failures within a region but does not cover regional outages. For regional disaster recovery with zero data loss, you must use auto-failover groups with synchronous replication, which is only available in Business Critical or Premium tiers.
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
✓
Deploy a Business Critical tier database and configure an auto-failover group with a readable secondary in a paired region.
To achieve automatic failover with zero data loss during a regional outage, you need a solution that supports synchronous replication for a secondary replica in another region. Azure SQL Database Business Critical tier (or Premium tier) supports auto-failover groups with a readable secondary in a paired region, where the secondary is kept in sync synchronously, ensuring no data loss (RPO=0). Option A correctly describes this configuration. General Purpose tier (Option B) uses asynchronous geo-replication, which has potential data loss. Hyperscale tier (Option C) supports zone redundancy but not synchronous replication across regions for auto-failover groups. Serverless tier (Option D) is not suitable for mission-critical workloads and does not provide the required availability guarantees.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Deploy a Business Critical tier database and configure an auto-failover group with a readable secondary in a paired region.
Why this is correct
Correct. Business Critical tier with auto-failover group and readable secondary in a paired region provides synchronous replication, ensuring zero data loss and automatic failover.
- ✗
Deploy a General Purpose tier database with geo-replication.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. General Purpose tier geo-replication is asynchronous, meaning potential data loss (RPO > 0).
- ✗
Deploy a Hyperscale tier database with zone redundancy.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Hyperscale tier does not support synchronous replication for auto-failover groups; its geo-replication is asynchronous, and zone redundancy is within-region only.
- ✗
Deploy a Serverless tier database with active geo-replication.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Serverless tier is not designed for mission-critical workloads and lacks the required availability and replication features.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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.
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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.