DP-300 Practice Question: Monitor, configure, and optimize database resources
Your organization runs a critical e-commerce application on Azure SQL Database. You notice that during peak hours, query performance degrades significantly. You have enabled Intelligent Insights and Query Store. Which diagnostic metric would you analyze first to identify the root cause of the performance degradation?
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
✓
DTU/CPU consumption
DTU/CPU consumption directly correlates with query performance during peak load. With Intelligent Insights and Query Store enabled, analyzing DTU/CPU consumption helps identify resource contention as the primary cause of degradation. Option A (Query store wait statistics) is useful for detailed analysis but is not the first metric to check. Option B (Deadlock count) is not a typical cause of sustained degradation. Option D (Failed connections) indicates availability issues, not performance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Query store wait statistics
Why it's wrong here
Query store wait statistics are valuable but are secondary; DTU/CPU consumption should be analyzed first as the top-level indicator of resource exhaustion.
- ✗
Deadlock count
Why it's wrong here
Deadlock count is infrequent and not the typical cause of sustained performance degradation during peak hours.
- ✓
DTU/CPU consumption
Why this is correct
DTU/CPU consumption is the primary metric to analyze because peak load directly increases resource usage, leading to performance degradation.
- ✗
Failed connections
Why it's wrong here
Failed connections indicate connectivity or availability issues, not query performance degradation.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Overview of Azure Data Platform Options
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.
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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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.