The DP-900 exam tests your knowledge of data and databases in Azure. Microsoft reviews the requirements of the DP-900 exam every two months to ensure that they are correct. This article is based on the August 2022 update.
The DP-900 exam requirements fall under the following skills:
- Describe core data concepts.
- Identify considerations for relational data on Azure.
- Describe considerations for working with non-relational data on Azure.
- Describe an analytics workload on Azure.
Microsoft does not publish a definitive list of all of the possible subjects within each skills. However, it does publish a suggested list. This should form the base of studying for this exam, along with additional wider reading.
The suggested list under the four broad skill sections are broken down as follows:
Describe core data concepts (25-30% of total marks)
Describe ways to represent data
- Describe features of structured data.
- Describe features of semi-structured.
- Describe features of unstructured data.
Identify options for data storage
- Describe common formats for data files.
- Describe types of databases.
Describe common data workloads
- Describe features of transactional workloads.
- Describe features of analytical workloads.
Identify roles and responsibilities for data workloads
- Describe responsibilities for database administrators.
- Describe responsibilities for data engineers.
- Describe responsibilities for data analysts.
Identify considerations for relational data on Azure (20-25% of total marks)
Describe relational concepts
- Identify features of relational data.
- Describe normalization and why it is used.
- Identify common structured query language (SQL) statements.
- Identify common database objects.
Describe relational Azure data services
- Describe the Azure SQL family of products including Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines.
- Identify Azure database services for open-source database systems.
Describe considerations for working with non-relational data on Azure (15-20% total marks)
Describe capabilities of Azure storage
- Describe Azure Blob storage.
- Describe Azure File storage.
- Describe Azure Table storage.
Describe capabilities and features of Azure Cosmos DB
- Identify use cases for Azure Cosmos DB.
- Describe Azure Cosmos DB APIs.
Describe an analytics workload on Azure (25-30% of total marks)
Describe common elements of large-scale analytics
- Describe considerations for data ingestion and processing.
- Describe options for analytical data stores.
- Describe Azure services for data warehousing, including Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Databricks, Azure HDInsight, and Azure Data Factory.
Describe consideration for real-time data analytics
- Describe the difference between batch and streaming data.
- Describe technologies for real-time analytics including Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Synapse Data Explorer, and Spark structured streaming.
Describe data visualization in Microsoft Power BI
- Identify capabilities of Power BI.
- Describe features of data models in Power BI.
- Identify appropriate visualizations for data.
How to learn these skills
To learn the skills needed for the DP-900 exam, look at our DP-900 course which covers all of the above topics.
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