Microsoft Azure Security Engineer Certification Data Engineering on Microsoft Azure: Design & Implement Data Storage 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: You need to store petabytes of unstructured data in Azure with geo-redundant replication and hierarchical namespace support for analytics. Which storage option best meets these requirements?
- Azure Blob Storage with GRS
- Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 with GRS (Correct answer)
- Azure Files with GRS
- Azure Queue Storage with GRS
Correct answer: Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 with GRS
Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 provides hierarchical namespace support for analytics workloads along with geo-redundant replication options.
Question 2: Which Azure Synapse Analytics pool type is best suited for running T-SQL queries against data stored in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 without loading the data into a dedicated pool?
- Dedicated SQL pool
- Serverless SQL pool (Correct answer)
- Apache Spark pool
- Data Explorer pool
Correct answer: Serverless SQL pool
Serverless SQL pool in Azure Synapse Analytics allows querying data directly in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 using T-SQL without ingesting it.
Question 3: An organization needs to enforce column-level encryption on sensitive data stored in Azure SQL Database. Which feature should they implement?
- Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
- Always Encrypted (Correct answer)
- Dynamic Data Masking
- Row-Level Security
Correct answer: Always Encrypted
Always Encrypted protects sensitive data at the column level, ensuring the database engine never has access to plaintext values.
Question 4: You are designing a data lake architecture that requires ACID transactions, schema enforcement, and time-travel capabilities on large datasets. Which format should you use?
- Parquet
- CSV
- Delta Lake (Correct answer)
- ORC
Correct answer: Delta Lake
Delta Lake provides ACID transactions, schema enforcement, and time-travel (versioning) capabilities on top of data lake storage.
Question 5: Which Azure storage redundancy option provides the highest durability by replicating data synchronously to a secondary region in addition to local copies?
- Locally Redundant Storage (LRS)
- Zone-Redundant Storage (ZRS)
- Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS)
- Geo-Zone-Redundant Storage (GZRS) (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Geo-Zone-Redundant Storage (GZRS)
GZRS combines zone-redundant storage within the primary region with geo-replication to a secondary region, offering the highest durability.
Question 6: You need to implement a slowly changing dimension (SCD) Type 2 in Azure Synapse Analytics. Which approach correctly tracks historical changes?
- Overwrite the existing row with updated values
- Add a new row with effective date columns and mark old row as inactive (Correct answer)
- Delete old rows and insert new ones
- Use a separate archive table for changed rows
Correct answer: Add a new row with effective date columns and mark old row as inactive
SCD Type 2 preserves history by inserting a new row for each change and updating the old row's end date or active flag.
Question 7: An Azure Data Factory pipeline needs to read data from an on-premises SQL Server. Which component must be installed on the on-premises network?
- Azure Data Gateway
- Self-Hosted Integration Runtime (Correct answer)
- Azure-SSIS Integration Runtime
- Azure Integration Runtime
Correct answer: Self-Hosted Integration Runtime
The Self-Hosted Integration Runtime must be installed on-premises to enable secure connectivity between ADF and on-premises data sources.
You need to store petabytes of unstructured data in Azure with geo-redundant replication and hierarchical namespace support for analytics.
Which storage option best meets these requirements?