DP-200 Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield DP-200 facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. What Azure SQL Database feature automatically identifies performance recommendations such as missing indexes or plan regression? → Automatic Tuning
2. In Azure Synapse Analytics, what is a PolyBase external table used for? → Querying data stored outside Synapse such as ADLS Gen2 without importing it
3. Which Azure Data Factory trigger type fires pipelines on a recurring wall-clock schedule, such as every day at 8:00 AM UTC? → Schedule trigger
4. Which Azure SQL Database feature allows encrypting specific sensitive columns so that data is only decrypted by authorized client applications? → Always Encrypted
5. What is the maximum size of a single document in Azure Cosmos DB? → 2 MB
6. Which Azure feature allows you to classify and label sensitive data in Azure SQL Database and Azure Synapse Analytics? → Data Discovery & Classification
7. Which Azure service enables you to build real-time dashboards and reports from streaming data ingested through Azure Event Hubs? → Power BI with streaming datasets
8. Which Azure Data Factory feature provides a visually designed, code-free interface for building complex data transformation logic that runs on Spark? → Mapping Data Flow
9. Which Azure tool provides a unified monitoring experience for metrics, logs, and alerts across Azure data services? → Azure Monitor
10. What is the primary benefit of using Azure Data Factory's data flow (mapping data flow) over a custom Spark script? → Codeless, visually designed transformations that run on Spark clusters
11. What is the purpose of a partition key in Azure Event Hubs? → To route related events to the same partition, preserving order for that key
12. Which columnar file format is natively optimized for Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 and Azure Synapse Analytics analytics workloads? → Parquet
13. Which network connectivity option is required by Azure Database Migration Service when migrating to Azure SQL Managed Instance? → Azure ExpressRoute or VPN Gateway
14. What Azure service would you use to apply machine learning models to streaming data in real time without writing custom code? → Azure Stream Analytics with Azure Machine Learning integration
15. In Azure Data Factory, which construct is a logical grouping of activities that together perform a unit of work? → Pipeline
16. In Azure Databricks, what does the term 'cluster auto-scaling' mean? → Dynamically adding or removing worker nodes based on workload demand
17. In Azure Databricks, which command is used to optimize a Delta table by compacting small files into larger ones? → OPTIMIZE
18. Which Azure Key Vault object type is used to store and manage symmetric or asymmetric cryptographic keys for data encryption? → Keys
19. In Azure Cosmos DB, what does the Request Unit (RU) measure? → The cost of database operations in terms of CPU, memory, and I/O
20. In Azure Synapse Analytics, you have a data warehouse. You must ensure that c rests. What do you want to enable? → Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
21. Which feature in Azure Synapse Analytics allows querying CSV or Parquet files in ADLS Gen2 without creating a dedicated SQL pool? → Serverless SQL pool
22. In Azure Databricks, what is a Delta Lake table? → An ACID-compliant storage layer built on Parquet files with a transaction log
23. Which Azure service provides centralized audit logging for data access and queries across Azure SQL Database and Azure Synapse Analytics? → Azure SQL Auditing
24. Which Azure Data Factory activity is used to copy data from a source dataset to a sink dataset? → Copy activity
25. Which Azure Data Factory Integration Runtime type enables lift-and-shift of on-premises SSIS packages to run in the cloud? → Azure-SSIS Integration Runtime
26. Which encryption option ensures Azure Cosmos DB data is encrypted both at rest and in transit? → Encryption at rest is enabled by default; in-transit uses TLS automatically
27. What Azure feature enables you to define and enforce policies that require all Azure SQL Databases in a subscription to have TDE enabled? → Azure Policy
28. What does the VACUUM command do on a Delta Lake table? → Removes old data files no longer referenced by the transaction log
29. Which type of Azure Data Factory Integration Runtime must be installed on an on-premises machine to access private network data sources? → Self-hosted Integration Runtime
30. In Azure Synapse Analytics dedicated SQL pool, which distribution type should be used for small dimension tables to avoid data movement during joins? → Replicated distribution