DP-900 Describe core data concepts Practice Question
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.
You need to design a data storage solution for an e-commerce platform that requires ACID transactions for order processing and high availability across regions. Which Azure service meets these requirements?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication
Azure SQL Database with active geo-region replication supports ACID transactions natively and provides automatic failover to a secondary region, ensuring high availability across regions. This meets the e-commerce platform's need for transactional consistency and regional resilience.
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 Database for MySQL with read replicas
Why it's wrong here
MySQL read replicas are asynchronous and may not provide strong consistency.
✗
Azure Synapse Analytics
Why it's wrong here
Synapse is not designed for transactional workloads.
✓
Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication
Why this is correct
Active geo-replication provides readable secondaries in other regions for HA.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Azure Cosmos DB with multiple write regions
Why it's wrong here
Cosmos DB multi-write regions use eventual consistency unless configured otherwise.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse 'high availability' with 'multi-region writes' and choose Cosmos DB, overlooking that ACID transactions require a relational database with strict consistency guarantees, not just eventual consistency or single-document atomicity.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Active geo-replication in Azure SQL Database uses asynchronous replication to create up to four readable secondary databases in different Azure regions, with automatic failover via a configurable failover policy. Under the hood, it leverages SQL Server's Always On availability groups technology, ensuring transaction log records are shipped to secondaries while maintaining primary transaction consistency. In a real-world scenario, if the primary region experiences an outage, the platform can automatically fail over to a secondary region with minimal data loss (RPO of up to 5 seconds) and continue processing orders with full ACID compliance.
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.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this DP-900 question in full detail.
Describe core data concepts — This question tests Describe core data concepts — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Azure SQL Database with active geo-replication — Azure SQL Database with active geo-region replication supports ACID transactions natively and provides automatic failover to a secondary region, ensuring high availability across regions. This meets the e-commerce platform's need for transactional consistency and regional resilience.
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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Question Discussion
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