Quick Answer
The answer is Azure Event Hubs, as it is the fully managed, real-time data ingestion service designed to capture and process millions of events per second from high-throughput sources like social media feeds. Its core technical function is to act as a scalable, low-latency endpoint that reliably receives streaming data before it is routed to downstream analytics services, making it the correct choice for capturing the stream at the point of entry. On the Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals DP-900 exam, this question tests your ability to distinguish between Azure services for real-time ingestion versus batch storage or processing; a common trap is confusing Event Hubs with Azure IoT Hub (which adds device management) or Azure Stream Analytics (which processes data after ingestion). Remember the memory tip: “Event Hubs is the front door for streaming data—it catches the stream first, then others analyze it.”
This DP-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe core data concepts. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company ingests streaming data from social media feeds and needs to process and analyze the data in real time. Which Azure service should they use to capture the stream?
Azure Stream Analytics
Why wrong: Azure Stream Analytics processes streaming data but does not ingest it.
Azure IoT Hub
Why wrong: Azure IoT Hub is designed for IoT device communication, not general social media streams.
Azure Event Hubs
Azure Event Hubs is a scalable event ingestion service for streaming data.
Azure Data Lake Storage
Why wrong: Azure Data Lake Storage is a storage service, not a streaming ingestion service.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Azure Event Hubs
Azure Event Hubs is a fully managed, real-time data ingestion service designed to capture and process millions of events per second from sources like social media feeds. It provides a scalable, low-latency endpoint for streaming data, making it the correct choice for capturing the stream before further analysis.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Azure Stream Analytics
Why it's wrong here
Azure Stream Analytics processes streaming data but does not ingest it.
Azure IoT Hub
Why it's wrong here
Azure IoT Hub is designed for IoT device communication, not general social media streams.
Azure Event Hubs
Why this is correct
Azure Event Hubs is a scalable event ingestion service for streaming data.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Azure Data Lake Storage
Why it's wrong here
Azure Data Lake Storage is a storage service, not a streaming ingestion service.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates confuse Azure Stream Analytics (a processing service) with Event Hubs (an ingestion service), or assume IoT Hub is suitable for non-IoT streaming data due to its similar event ingestion capability.
Detailed technical explanation
Event Hubs uses an AMQP 1.0 and HTTPS-based protocol for ingestion, supporting partitioned consumer groups to enable parallel processing. Under the hood, it persists events in a log-structured store with configurable retention (up to 7 days by default, extendable to 90), allowing replay of historical data. In a real-world scenario, a social media analytics pipeline might use Event Hubs to capture tweets at 10,000 events/second, then feed into Stream Analytics for sentiment analysis and Power BI for dashboards.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
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FAQ
Describe core data concepts — This question tests Describe core data concepts — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Azure Event Hubs — Azure Event Hubs is a fully managed, real-time data ingestion service designed to capture and process millions of events per second from sources like social media feeds. It provides a scalable, low-latency endpoint for streaming data, making it the correct choice for capturing the stream before further analysis.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
This DP-900 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-900 exam.
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