DP-900 Exam Overview

DP-900 sits at the fundamentals level. Expect broad recognition questions about data concepts, workload types, and Azure data-service selection. The exam is not centered on coding, database tuning, or building production pipelines.

Strong preparation starts with the concepts behind the service names. Know the difference between transactional and analytical workloads, structured and unstructured data, relational and non-relational models, batch and streaming data, and reporting versus data engineering workflows.

Azure SQL Database and related Azure database services appear as managed relational options. Review tables, keys, relationships, SQL statements, normalization, transactions, and when a relational database is preferred over a document or file-based design.

Non-relational questions usually test data model fit. Choose document storage for flexible JSON documents, key-value patterns for simple lookups, graph models for connected relationships, and object storage for files. Azure Cosmos DB is the central Azure NoSQL service to recognize.

Analytics questions ask how data becomes insight. Know the roles of data warehouses, data lakes, lakehouses, ETL and ELT, batch processing, streaming, Power BI reports, dashboards, and foundational Microsoft Fabric concepts.

Verify current exam objectives and delivery details with Microsoft’s official DP-900 exam page before scheduling. Avoid planning around unofficial format claims, local bank statistics, or outdated study pages.