DP-700 Ingest and Transform Data Practice Question
You are configuring a Data Factory Pipeline to perform an incremental load from an Azure SQL Database to a Fabric Warehouse. Which THREE components or features are essential for implementing a watermark-based incremental load? (Choose THREE)
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often omit the step to update the watermark table after execution, focusing only on retrieval and filtering while forgetting that watermark states must persist for future runs.
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
✓
A Lookup activity to retrieve the last stored watermark value.
Incremental loading requires tracking the last processed record to avoid re-processing the entire dataset. A watermark-based approach uses a value (like a timestamp or ID) to identify new data. This necessitates a way to store the last watermark, a way to retrieve the new maximum watermark, and a way to filter the source query accordingly.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
A Lookup activity to retrieve the last stored watermark value.
Why this is correct
The Lookup activity is essential for reading the previous high-watermark value from a configuration table. This value is then passed as a parameter to the source query in the subsequent Copy activity, ensuring that only records created or modified after this value are selected for the current ingestion.
- ✓
A Script activity to update the watermark table after a successful load.
Why this is correct
After the data has been successfully moved to the Warehouse, the watermark table must be updated with the new maximum value found during the current run. The Script activity allows you to execute the necessary SQL UPDATE statement against the control database to maintain the state for the next run.
- ✓
A Copy activity with a parameterized source query.
Why this is correct
The Copy activity performs the actual data movement. To make it incremental, its source query must be dynamic, using the watermark values retrieved by the Lookup activities. This filtering at the source is what prevents full table scans and ensures that only the delta of data is transferred.
- ✗
A Shortcut to the Azure SQL Database.
Why it's wrong here
Shortcuts are currently used for file-based or Fabric-native storage and do not apply to Azure SQL Database for incremental pipeline logic. Even if they did, a shortcut provides access to the whole table and does not inherently manage the logic required to track and filter incremental changes over time.
- ✗
Mirroring for Azure SQL Database.
Why it's wrong here
Mirroring is an alternative to pipelines that provides automated, continuous replication. If you are using Mirroring, you would not need to manually build a watermark-based pipeline. Since the question specifically asks for the components of a watermark-based pipeline, Mirroring is not a component of that manual process.
About these practice questions
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Microsoft exam blueprint
This DP-700 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-700 exam.