Self-Study Guide: Microsoft Azure Certification DP-200: Implementing an Azure Data Solution
Microsoft recently released a certification named Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate. To get this tag you need to clear two examinations named:
- Exam DP-200: Implementing an Azure Data Solution
- Exam DP-201: Designing an Azure Data Solution
Read the article on Exam DP-201: Designing an Azure Data Solution here.
Clear two of the above examinations to get the Azure Data Engineer certification
*All images are taken from microsoft.com
Exam DP-200: Implementing an Azure Data Solution
Microsoft - “Candidates for this exam are Microsoft Azure data engineers who collaborate with business stakeholders to identify and meet the data requirements to implement data solutions that use Azure data services.
Azure data engineers are responsible for data-related tasks that include provisioning data storage services, ingesting streaming and batch data, transforming data, implementing security requirements, implementing data retention policies, identifying performance bottlenecks, and accessing external data sources.”
Skills To Demonstrate: Implementing Data Solution
Candidates for this exam must be able to implement data solutions that use the following Azure services: Azure Cosmos DB, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Azure Data Lake Storage, Azure Data Factory, Azure Stream Analytics, Azure Databricks, and Azure Blob storage.
DP-200: Examination Pattern
Total time 210 minutes will be there for attempting questions & reading instructions pre & post-examination. Out of 210 minutes, 180 minutes are there to answer 46 questions. One case studies will be asked as well.
You need a minimum of 700 out of 1000 to clear the examination.
Type of Questions
Below are the type of questions
- Single choice based on the scenario
- Multiple-choice questions
- Arrange in right sequence type questions
- A case study with multiple questions.
- Questions that cannot be skipped: There will be at least three questions in a sequence where you have to select from Yes or No. These questions cannot be skipped or re-answered afterward. (These will be in the starting itself)
My Experience
Found DP-200 to be easy as compared to many other Azure certifications like 775, 776, AZ-300 or AZ-301. I comfortably finished it within 100 minutes and had ample time left to recheck stuff. I can not reveal any questions but will give you the direction to prepare towards.
Case study: You will select suitable solutions for Liteware (company) based on its existing scenario. It consisted of 8 questions on Cosmos DB, Azure SQL Server, Azure SQL warehouse, Azure data factory & SSIS. The case study will be asked at the end.
A lot of questions were on optimizing, operating, loading and reading data from Azure SQL warehouse, I found them tricky and quite challenging. I need to work on SQL warehousing more :|
Study Guide
Here is a comprehensive list of study material covering DP-200 scope & questions.
*All links are either from Microsoft or publicly available blogs that I am just listing here …credit goes to respective authors
Microsoft is really cool in providing quality content for learning** I will share links for hands on labs as well, if you do hands on then DP-200 & DP-201 both are easy-peasy to crack.-------------------------------------------------------------Official Microsoft labs on DP-200 for anyone to learn from: https://github.com/MicrosoftLearning/DP-200-Implementing-an-Azure-Data-Solution Azure free account:https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/Microsoft Learn: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/browse/?products=azure&roles=data-engineer (Free hands-on-lab environments)----------------------------------------------------------------
Scope: Working with Data Storage
Choose a data storage approach in Azure https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/guide/technology-choices/data-store-comparisonIntroducing Azure Storage (Just know it exists)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-account-overviewIntroduction to Data Lake Storage
Create an Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/data-lake-storage-introductionhttps://www.blue-granite.com/blog/10-things-to-know-about-azure-data-lake-storage-gen2 (Good Article)Enabling Team Based Data Science with Azure Databricks
https://www.blue-granite.com/blog/3-reasons-to-choose-azure-databricks-for-data-science-and-big-data-workloadshttps://www.slideshare.net/databricks/building-an-enterprise-data-platform-with-azure-databricks-to-enable-machine-learning-and-data-science-at-scale-at-sams-clubAzure Databricks
Working & concepts with Azure Databricks
Reading Data using Azure Databricks
Performing Transformations with Azure Databrickshttps://docs.azuredatabricks.net/getting-started/concepts.html
ETL: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-databricks/databricks-extract-load-sql-data-warehouse Globally Distributed Database with Azure Cosmos DB
Create an Azure Cosmos DB database built to scale
Insert and query data in your Azure Cosmos DB databaseBuild a .NET Core app for Azure Cosmos DB in Visual Studio Code
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/consistency-levelshttps://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/whitepapers
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/databases-containers-itemshttps://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/how-to-multi-masterDistribute your Data Globally with Azure Cosmos DB
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/global-dist-under-the-hoodhttps://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/blog/a-technical-overview-of-azure-cosmos-db/ (must read)https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/best-practices/data-partitioning (Do read)Azure SQL Database
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-in/azure/sql-database/ (Read only concept section on left hand side)Azure SQL Data Warehouse
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-data-warehouse/sql-data-warehouse-tables-partition https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-data-warehouse/sql-data-warehouse-best-practiceshttps://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-data-warehouse/sql-data-warehouse-tables-overviewhttps://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-data-warehouse/massively-parallel-processing-mpp-architecture (Do read)Creating and Querying an Azure SQL Data Warehouse
Using PolyBase to Load Data into Azure SQL Data Warehouse (imp to understand polybase)
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/resources/videos/loading-data-with-polybase-in-azure-sql-data-warehouse/ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sql-data-warehouse/load-data-wideworldimportersdwPerforming Real Time Analytics with Stream Analytics https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/stream-analytics/stream-analytics-stream-analytics-query-patterns#query-example-send-data-to-multiple-outputs (one query multiple output possible go through it)https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/stream-analytics/stream-analytics-define-outputshttps://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/stream-analytics/stream-analytics-streaming-unit-consumptionhttps://azure.microsoft.com/is-is/blog/maximize-throughput-with-repartitioning-in-azure-stream-analytics/https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/stream-analytics/stream-analytics-parallelization (must read)https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/stream-analytics/streaming-technologies (read all concepts from left hand side)https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/stream-analytics/stream-analytics-define-inputs#stream-data-from-event-hubsOrchestrating Data Movement with Azure Data Factoryhttps://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/resources/videos/azure-data-factory-overview/https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/concepts-integration-runtime (super imp: understand when to use what)https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-lake-store/data-lake-store-security-overviewSecuring Azure Data Platforms
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security/azure-security-data-encryption-best-practices
If you need further help or have a question then write in the comments below or find me on LinkedIn.
Also, do let me know about any changes in the question pattern that you get, I will update the article for others. Thanks!!
