AZ-301 Research & Evidence-Based Practice 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An architect needs to analyze historical Azure resource performance data over 13 months to identify seasonal capacity trends. Which Azure service retains metric data for this duration?
- Azure Monitor Metrics (default 93-day retention)
- Azure Monitor Logs in a Log Analytics workspace with 1-year retention (Correct answer)
- Azure Advisor recommendations history
- Azure Service Health event log
Correct answer: Azure Monitor Logs in a Log Analytics workspace with 1-year retention
Azure Monitor Metrics retain data for 93 days by default; Log Analytics workspaces can be configured for up to 2 years retention, making them suitable for 13-month trend analysis.
Question 2: A solutions architect wants evidence-based proof that an application meets its 99.9% SLA before go-live. Which tool provides a composite SLA calculation across multiple Azure dependencies?
- Azure Pricing Calculator
- Azure SLA documentation combined with manual composite calculation (Correct answer)
- Azure Cost Management + Billing
- Azure Monitor alert rules
Correct answer: Azure SLA documentation combined with manual composite calculation
Azure publishes individual service SLAs; architects must multiply them together manually (or use the SLA calculator) to derive the composite SLA for a multi-service architecture.
Question 3: During a proof-of-concept for Azure SQL Database, you need to compare query performance under different service tiers with reproducible workloads. Which feature best supports this evidence gathering?
- Azure SQL Database Query Performance Insight (Correct answer)
- Azure SQL Database Hyperscale auto-scaling
- Azure Migrate assessment reports
- Azure Advisor cost recommendations
Correct answer: Azure SQL Database Query Performance Insight
Query Performance Insight surfaces top resource-consuming queries with execution metrics, enabling reproducible, evidence-based tier comparisons.
Question 4: An architect must justify adopting Azure Kubernetes Service over Azure App Service for a microservices workload. Which Azure-native tool produces comparative benchmark evidence through load testing?
- Azure Load Testing (based on Apache JMeter) (Correct answer)
- Azure Traffic Manager performance routing
- Azure Front Door health probes
- Azure Application Gateway WAF logs
Correct answer: Azure Load Testing (based on Apache JMeter)
Azure Load Testing lets architects run high-scale JMeter-based tests against both deployment options and compare latency and throughput metrics as evidence.
Question 5: A team is researching whether to enable Azure Defender for Storage. Which artifact provides the most authoritative evidence about threat detection capabilities and false-positive rates?
- Azure Security Center secure score history
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud threat intelligence reports and MITRE ATT&CK mapping (Correct answer)
- Azure Policy compliance dashboard
- Azure Monitor activity log
Correct answer: Microsoft Defender for Cloud threat intelligence reports and MITRE ATT&CK mapping
Microsoft Defender for Cloud maps detections to the MITRE ATT&CK framework and publishes threat intelligence reports that document detection coverage and accuracy evidence.
Question 6: You are evaluating Azure Cosmos DB consistency levels for a globally distributed application. Which approach provides the best empirical evidence for choosing between Session and Bounded Staleness?
- Running read/write benchmarks with Azure Cosmos DB emulator and measuring observed staleness under each level (Correct answer)
- Reading the Cosmos DB SLA whitepaper only
- Reviewing Azure Advisor cost recommendations
- Checking Azure Service Health for Cosmos DB incidents
Correct answer: Running read/write benchmarks with Azure Cosmos DB emulator and measuring observed staleness under each level
Empirical benchmarking with the Cosmos DB emulator under realistic workloads produces measurable staleness and latency data to justify consistency level selection.
Question 7: An architect needs to research the real-world network latency between Azure regions for a disaster recovery design. Which Microsoft-provided tool surfaces measured round-trip time data between Azure datacenters?
- Azure Network Watcher Connection Monitor (Correct answer)
- Azure Pricing Calculator bandwidth estimator
- Azure Advisor network recommendations
- Azure DNS diagnostic logs
Correct answer: Azure Network Watcher Connection Monitor
Azure Network Watcher Connection Monitor continuously measures actual round-trip latency between endpoints, providing empirical data for DR region selection.
AZ-301 Research & Evidence-Based Practice 2
An architect needs to analyze historical Azure resource performance data over 13 months to identify seasonal capacity trends.
Which Azure service retains metric data for this duration?