DP-900 Describe an analytics workload on Azure Practice Question
A retail company uses Power BI to create sales reports. The data source is an Azure SQL Database that updates every 15 minutes. The reports must reflect near real-time data without manual refresh. Which Power BI feature should the company use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse DirectQuery with scheduled refresh, assuming that a 15-minute refresh schedule is sufficient for near real-time needs, but DirectQuery eliminates the refresh interval entirely by querying the source live.
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
✓
Use DirectQuery mode to connect to the Azure SQL Database.
DirectQuery mode allows Power BI to query the Azure SQL Database directly without importing data, ensuring that reports reflect the current state of the database each time a report is viewed. Since the database updates every 15 minutes, DirectQuery provides near real-time data without requiring manual or scheduled refresh operations.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use the on-premises data gateway to connect to Azure SQL Database.
Why it's wrong here
The on-premises data gateway is designed for connecting Power BI to data sources that live behind a corporate firewall. Azure SQL Database is a managed cloud service, so the Power BI service can connect to it directly without any gateway. Adding a gateway would introduce an unnecessary on-premises dependency, create an extra network hop, and could reduce reliability and performance. Therefore, this option does not help achieve near-real-time reporting.
- ✗
Import data with scheduled refresh every 15 minutes.
Why it's wrong here
Import mode copies data into Power BI's in-memory storage and then requires a separate scheduled refresh to update that copy. Even with a 15-minute refresh schedule, the data shown in reports can be up to 15 minutes stale, so it does not provide near real-time visibility. Frequent refreshes also consume premium capacity resources and may put extra load on the Azure SQL Database, especially if the refresh window is long. DirectQuery, by contrast, queries the live database directly.
- ✓
Use DirectQuery mode to connect to the Azure SQL Database.
Why this is correct
DirectQuery mode connects Power BI directly to Azure SQL Database so that each visual interaction sends native queries to the source database. The results reflect the current state of the underlying data at the moment the report is opened or refreshed, making this the appropriate choice for near-real-time reporting requirements. DirectQuery also leverages SQL Server security at the source, but performance depends on good indexing and query workload. This is the only option that keeps the report in sync with the live database without a refresh cycle.
- ✗
Create a Power BI dataflow to transform the data.
Why it's wrong here
Power BI dataflows are a cloud-based data preparation and transformation service that stores data in Azure Data Lake Storage. They are useful for building reusable ETL logic, but they don't enable live querying of Azure SQL Database; the transformed output resides in a separate data store and must be refreshed on a schedule. Dataflows add additional latency and a second layer of storage that is unnecessary when the source is already a cloud SQL database. For direct, near-real-time connectivity, DirectQuery is the correct approach.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Data Roles and Core Concepts
Key term
Report
A report in Azure data services is a structured output that summarizes, visualizes, or details data stored in cloud databases or data warehouses, often used for business intelligence and monitoring.
Key term
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Database is a fully managed relational database-as-a-service (DBaaS) in Microsoft Azure, based on the SQL Server engine, that handles scaling, backups, patching, and high availability automatically.
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