- A
Azure Synapse Analytics
Azure Synapse Analytics provides a cloud-based data warehouse that can scale to petabytes. It uses dedicated SQL pools for high-performance analytical queries and has built-in integration with Power BI, Azure Data Lake Storage, and other Azure services.
- B
Azure Analysis Services
Why wrong: Azure Analysis Services is an OLAP engine for creating semantic models that aggregate data from various sources. It is not a data warehouse itself; it requires a data source like Synapse or SQL Database to load data into memory for faster analysis.
- C
Azure Data Factory
Why wrong: Azure Data Factory is a data integration and ETL service used to orchestrate data movement and transformation. It does not provide a data warehouse for querying; it is used to load data into a warehouse.
- D
Azure HDInsight
Why wrong: Azure HDInsight is a managed big data platform for running open-source frameworks like Hadoop, Spark, and Hive. While Hive can provide SQL-like queries, it is not a fully managed data warehouse optimized for petabyte-scale analytics with Power BI integration out of the box.
DP-900 Describe an analytics workload on Azure Practice Question
This DP-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe an analytics workload on azure. 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 needs to run complex analytical queries that aggregate terabytes of sales data across multiple years. The queries are used for monthly business reports and are not latency-sensitive. The data is stored in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. The company wants a fully managed, petabyte-scale data warehouse solution that supports SQL queries and integrates with Power BI for reporting. Which Azure service should they use?
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
Azure Synapse Analytics
Azure Synapse Analytics (formerly SQL Data Warehouse) is a fully managed, petabyte-scale analytics service that provides a dedicated SQL pool for running complex, high-performance T-SQL queries against massive datasets. It natively integrates with Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 for reading data directly via PolyBase or external tables, and it offers built-in connectors to Power BI for reporting. This makes it the ideal choice for the described workload, which requires large-scale aggregation without low-latency demands.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Azure Synapse Analytics
Why this is correct
Azure Synapse Analytics provides a cloud-based data warehouse that can scale to petabytes. It uses dedicated SQL pools for high-performance analytical queries and has built-in integration with Power BI, Azure Data Lake Storage, and other Azure services.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Azure Analysis Services
Why it's wrong here
Azure Analysis Services is an OLAP engine for creating semantic models that aggregate data from various sources. It is not a data warehouse itself; it requires a data source like Synapse or SQL Database to load data into memory for faster analysis.
- ✗
Azure Data Factory
Why it's wrong here
Azure Data Factory is a data integration and ETL service used to orchestrate data movement and transformation. It does not provide a data warehouse for querying; it is used to load data into a warehouse.
- ✗
Azure HDInsight
Why it's wrong here
Azure HDInsight is a managed big data platform for running open-source frameworks like Hadoop, Spark, and Hive. While Hive can provide SQL-like queries, it is not a fully managed data warehouse optimized for petabyte-scale analytics with Power BI integration out of the box.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may confuse Azure Analysis Services (an OLAP modeling tool) with a data warehouse, or assume HDInsight is suitable for SQL-based reporting, but Synapse is the only fully managed, petabyte-scale SQL data warehouse with native Power BI integration.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure Synapse Analytics separates compute and storage, allowing you to scale compute resources independently of the data stored in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. It uses a massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture where data is distributed across 60 distributions, enabling fast aggregation of terabytes of data. The service also supports result-set caching and materialized views to optimize recurring monthly report queries, and it can pause compute to save costs when not in use.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
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
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this DP-900 question test?
Describe an analytics workload on Azure — This question tests Describe an analytics workload on Azure — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Azure Synapse Analytics — Azure Synapse Analytics (formerly SQL Data Warehouse) is a fully managed, petabyte-scale analytics service that provides a dedicated SQL pool for running complex, high-performance T-SQL queries against massive datasets. It natively integrates with Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 for reading data directly via PolyBase or external tables, and it offers built-in connectors to Power BI for reporting. This makes it the ideal choice for the described workload, which requires large-scale aggregation without low-latency demands.
What should I do if I get this DP-900 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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