Microsoft Certified: Azure Database Administrator Associate Advanced Practice Exam: Hard Questions 2025

You are designing a new Azure SQL Managed Instance (MI) deployment for a regulated workload. The security team requires that all client connections use private IPs only, and that data exfiltration to public endpoints be prevented. The application tier runs in an Azure virtual network (VNet) and must connect using Azure AD authentication. You must minimize administrative overhead and avoid custom routing appliances. What should you implement?

You manage an Azure SQL Database used by multiple internal applications. A recent incident showed that a contributor on the subscription was able to export a bacpac containing sensitive data to a storage account they controlled. The security requirement is to prevent data exfiltration via export/copy operations while still allowing DBAs to manage performance and schema. You must apply least privilege and minimize operational disruption. What should you do?

You are troubleshooting intermittent login failures to an Azure SQL Database. The application uses Entra ID integrated authentication. Failures spike during deployments when new instances scale out, and errors indicate token-related issues. You need to reduce authentication overhead and stabilize logins without weakening security. What is the best solution?

A mission-critical database in Azure SQL Database (single database) has unpredictable latency spikes. Query Store shows the top CPU query frequently switching between two execution plans. The query uses a parameterized predicate and is executed by different application paths with very different parameter selectivity. You need to stabilize performance with minimal risk of regressions and without changing application code. What should you do first?

You operate an Azure SQL Managed Instance that runs close to the CPU limit at peak hours. You identify a set of ad hoc queries coming from a legacy reporting tool, causing high compile time and plan cache bloat. You cannot modify the tool immediately. You need to reduce compilation overhead and improve overall throughput. What is the best mitigation?

A workload on Azure SQL Database experiences frequent timeouts during nightly ETL loads. Monitoring shows high log write waits and the transaction log reaches 100% used intermittently. The ETL runs in large explicit transactions that perform bulk updates and deletes. You cannot change the ETL logic immediately. What action is most likely to reduce timeouts and log-full events in the short term while preserving point-in-time restore capability?

You manage a business-critical Azure SQL Managed Instance. After enabling automatic backups to a long-term retention (LTR) policy, you receive alerts that backup storage consumption is growing rapidly. The retention requirement is fixed, but you can change what is being backed up. The database includes several very large staging tables that can be recreated. You want to reduce backup size and time while keeping compliance for the transactional schema. What should you do?

You need to standardize post-deployment configuration for hundreds of Azure SQL Databases across multiple subscriptions: enable Query Store settings, configure auditing to Log Analytics, set a specific automatic tuning policy, and create a contained user mapped to an Entra group. The solution must be idempotent, support drift detection, and be centrally governed. What should you use?

You are implementing an automated index and statistics maintenance approach for Azure SQL Database. You need to minimize overhead and avoid destabilizing workloads, but still address fragmentation and stale statistics for a mixed OLTP workload with frequent schema changes. You want the platform to handle as much as possible automatically. What is the best approach?

A company uses Azure SQL Database for an order-processing system and requires an RPO of near-zero for regional outages and an RTO under 30 minutes. The application is deployed in two Azure regions with active-active application tiers. You must choose a database strategy that supports fast failover and minimal data loss while keeping administration manageable. What should you implement?