DP-300 cheat sheet
A one-page reference for the Microsoft Azure Database Administrator Associate exam: the format, how the domains are weighted, and the glossary terms for this exam.
Exam at a glance
Vendor
Microsoft
Level
Associate
Questions
60
Time
100 min
Mock pass mark
70%
Domains
5
Practice Qs
144
Code
DP-300
Domain weightings
How much of the exam each domain covers. Spend your study time in proportion — the heavier the domain, the more questions you'll see.
Key terms
- Azure SQL Database
- Azure SQL Database is a fully managed platform-as-a-service relational database. DP-300 covers deploying, securing, monitoring, and optimizing it as a core platform.
- Azure SQL Managed Instance
- Azure SQL Managed Instance is a managed deployment option with near-complete SQL Server compatibility. DP-300 covers configuring, securing, and providing HA/DR for it.
- Transact-SQL
- Transact-SQL (T-SQL) is Microsoft's SQL dialect used to query and administer SQL databases. DP-300 requires using T-SQL for administration, security, and backup/restore.
- Transparent Data Encryption
- Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) encrypts SQL database files at rest without application changes. DP-300 covers implementing TDE for data-at-rest security.
- Always Encrypted
- Always Encrypted protects sensitive column data so it is never revealed in plaintext to the database engine. DP-300 covers implementing it, including with VBS enclaves.
- Dynamic data masking
- Dynamic data masking obscures sensitive data in query results for non-privileged users without changing stored data. DP-300 covers it among compliance controls.
- Row-level security
- Row-level security restricts which rows a user can access based on their identity or role. DP-300 covers implementing it for sensitive data.
- Query Store
- Query Store captures query execution plans and runtime statistics over time to diagnose performance regressions. DP-300 covers configuring and monitoring with Query Store.
- Dynamic management view
- A dynamic management view (DMV) exposes server and database state for diagnosing performance and health. DP-300 covers identifying performance issues using DMVs.
- Execution plan
- An execution plan shows how the SQL engine executes a query, used to find inefficiencies. DP-300 covers reviewing execution plans to optimize query performance.
- SQL Server Agent
- SQL Server Agent is a service that schedules and runs automated administrative jobs. DP-300 covers creating and managing Agent jobs, alerts, and notifications.
- Elastic job
- An elastic job runs scheduled T-SQL tasks across many Azure SQL databases. DP-300 covers creating and configuring elastic jobs for automation.
- Always On availability group
- An Always On availability group provides high availability and disaster recovery by replicating databases across replicas. DP-300 covers configuring availability groups on Managed Instance and VMs.
- Active geo-replication
- Active geo-replication creates readable secondary replicas of an Azure SQL database in other regions for disaster recovery. DP-300 covers configuring it and failover groups.