DP-900 Describe an analytics workload on Azure Practice Question
A company uses Azure Databricks for data engineering. The team wants to implement a medallion architecture (bronze, silver, gold) to organize data quality layers. In which layer should data be stored in a format optimized for analytics and reporting?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse the gold layer with the silver layer, assuming that cleaned data (silver) is sufficient for reporting, but the gold layer is specifically designed for analytics with aggregations and business logic applied.
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
✓
Gold layer
The gold layer in a medallion architecture contains data that has been refined, aggregated, and validated for business-level analytics and reporting. This layer stores data in a format optimized for query performance, such as Delta Lake with partitioning and Z-ordering, enabling efficient consumption by tools like Power BI or Azure Synapse.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Bronze layer
Why it's wrong here
Bronze holds raw, unvalidated ingested data in its original format, so it lacks the cleansing and columnar layout that analytics and reporting demand. It is tempting because bronze is the mandatory first landing zone for all source data, which would be correct if the question asked where ingested data is initially stored before transformation.
- ✓
Gold layer
Why this is correct
The gold layer holds refined, aggregated data modelled for business analytics and reporting. Bronze stores raw ingested data and silver holds cleansed, conformed data, so only gold satisfies the stem's requirement for a format optimised for analytics and reporting output.
- ✗
Silver layer
Why it's wrong here
The silver layer holds cleansed, conformed and deduplicated data used as an integration source; it is not tuned for reporting consumption. Analytics- and reporting-optimised data belongs in the gold layer. Silver would be correct when the requirement is validated, query-ready datasets for downstream transformation.
- ✗
Lakehouse layer
Why it's wrong here
The lakehouse is an architectural pattern spanning all three medallion layers, not a distinct quality tier, so it cannot designate where analytics-optimised storage belongs. It is tempting because lakehouse combines data lake flexibility with warehouse performance, which would be the right framing if the question asked how to describe the overall Databricks design rather than a specific layer.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
BigQuery vs Azure Synapse Analytics
Key term
Azure Databricks
Azure Databricks is a fast, easy, and collaborative Apache Spark-based analytics platform optimized for Azure that lets data teams prepare data, run machine learning models, and build data pipelines using a single workspace.
Key term
Power BI
Power BI is a Microsoft business analytics tool that transforms raw data into interactive visual reports and dashboards for informed decision-making.
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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.