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DP-203: Microsoft Azure Data Engineer

Associate Exam Study Guide
April 20, 2022 by manish

4.6/5 - (22 votes)

The DP 203 Certification is the next level after the DP-200 Designing an
Azure Data Solution and Implementing an Azure Data Solution certifications.
The article covers everything you should know before applying for DP-203
certification.

The topics covered in this blog are:

DP-203 Certification Overview

Who is Azure Data Engineer?
Why You Should Learn Data Engineer?
Who This Certification is for?
Benefits of DP-203 Certification
 DP-203 Exam Details
DP-203 Exam Skills Measured
How to Register for Azure DP 203 Exam
Pre-requisites for DP-203 Certification
DP 203 Study Guide
DP-203 Exam Retake Policy
DP 203 Exam Day Tips
Conclusion

DP-203 Certification Overview

The DP-203 is an advanced-level certification from Microsoft Azure for Data

Engineer. After getting DP-203 certification, candidates get the credibility and
validation for Azure Data Engineer skills such as Designing, implementing,
processing, monitoring, optimizing data storage and security of Data.

With Azure Data Engineers, you can ensure that data pipelines and data
stores are optimized for performance and reliability, based on your business
needs and constraints. You will be able to design, implement, and monitor
data platforms to meet the needs of data pipelines. Hence, once you
understand and master this certification you can easily become a successful
Azure Data Engineer.
Are you new to the Azure cloud? Do check out our blog post on
the Microsoft Azure Certification Path 2022 and choose the best certification
for you.

Who is Azure Data Engineer?

Azure Data Engineers are responsible for clearly separating and

differentiating raw data into structured data. They integrate, transform and
consolidate data from unstructured data into structured data. And this
structured data is used for building analytics solutions.

Moreover, they help the stakeholders to clearly understand the information

through exploration. They construct efficiently and design particular
instructions for processing pipelines with the help of specific tools and
strategies. To produce better data for evaluation, they use Azure data
offerings and languages.

Following are the responsibilities of an Azure Data Engineer:

Developing and designing data processing and storage solutions for

enterprises.
Install, configure, and manage cloud-based data services, such as
databases, blob services, and analytics.
Securing the stored data and the platform, so that only necessary users
have the access to the data.
Monitoring the systems to make sure it is running properly and are
cost-effective.

Why You Should Learn Data Engineer?

Data engineers are the people who understand and connect the raw data into
structured data within a company. They accomplish this by doing,
 Accessing, collecting, auditing, and cleaning data from systems and
converting it into useable data for enterprises.
Maintaining the database
Building pipelines
Monitor and manage data systems
Creating data scientists’ output in a scalable manner.

So, they are the front lines of data strategy, the first people to tackle the
unstructured data and convert it into structured one. They are people on
whose shoulders data analysts and data scientists stand.

For this reason, there is a huge demand for Data engineers in the IT sector, as
they daily produce raw data.

As for some resources, the average salary for a Data Engineer is $116,591. It
is also known that they make 261% more than the national average salary.

Who This Certification is For?

DP-203 certification is the ideal for the candidate,

Who is interested in Data Engineering.

For the professionals of Data architects, Data Administration and
Business Intelligence.
Candidates who know SQL, Python, Scala, or other data processing
languages.
Candidates who are good at parallel processing and data architecture
patterns.
Data Engineers who can transform and consolidate unstructured data
into structured data.

Benefits of DP-203 Certification

 There is a huge demand for Data Engineers. In addition, Microsoft
certification is globally recognized.
After being DP-203 certified, 26% reported job promotions and 35%
of technical professionals reported that certification led to salary or
wage increments.
DP-203 certification leads to rampant gain in jobs and earnings.
The CV with Microsoft certification advances your job profile and
increases the chances of getting chosen.

Check Out: ADF Interview Questions

DP-203 Exam Details

Exam Name
Exam Duration
DP-203: Data Engineering on Microsoft
180 Minutes
Azure

Exam Type Number of Questions

Multiple Choice Examination 40 - 60 Questions

Exam Fee Eligibility/Pre-Requisite

$165 None

Exam validity Exam Languages

1 years English, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese

DP-203 Exam Skills Measured

Design and implement data storage 40–45%

Design and develop data processing 25–30%

Optimize data storage and data processing 10-15%

Design and implement data security 10-15%

 How to Register for Azure DP 203 Exam

You can register for the Microsoft Azure Data Engineer Exam (DP-203) by
going to the Official Microsoft Page.

Pre-requisites for DP-203 Certification

For this exam, candidates must have a decent knowledge of Data Processing
Languages such as:

SQL
Python
Scala

DP 203 Study Guide

Design and Implement Data Storage (40-45%)

Design a data storage structure

Design an Azure Data Lake solution

Introduction to Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
 Building your Data Lake on Azure Data Lake Storage gen2
Recommend file types for storage
Introduction to Azure Storage
Recommend file types for analytical queries
Query data in Azure Data Lake using Azure Data Explorer
Query Azure Storage analytics logs in Azure Log Analytics
Design for efficient querying
Design for querying
Guidelines for table design
Design for data pruning
Dynamic file pruning
Design a folder structure that represents the levels of data
transformation
Copy and transform data in Data Lake Storage using Data Factory
Design a distribution strategy
How to choose Right data distribution strategy for Azure Synapse?
Guidance for designing distributed tables in Azure Synapse
Design a data archiving solution
Designing a Data Archiving Strategy on Microsoft Azure
Archive on-premises data to the cloud

Design a partition strategy

Design a partition strategy for files

File Partition using Azure Data Factory
Incrementally copy new files by using the Copy Data tool
Design a partition strategy for analytical workloads
Best practices: Delta Lake
Partitions in tabular models
Automated Partition Management with Azure Analysis Services
Design a partition strategy for efficiency/performance
Designing partitions for query performance
Design a partition strategy for Azure Synapse Analytics
 Partitioning tables in dedicated SQL pool
Identify when partitioning is needed in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
ADLS Gen2

Design the serving layer

Design star schemas

Star schema overview
Designing Star Schema
Design slowly changing dimensions
Design a Slowly Changing Dimension (SCD) in Azure Data Factory
Design a dimensional hierarchy
Hierarchies in tabular models
Design a solution for temporal data
What is temporal data?
Getting started with temporal tables in Azure SQL Database
Design for incremental loading
Incrementally load data from a source data store to a destination
datastore
Incrementally load data from Azure SQL Database to Azure Blob
storage
Design analytical stores
Choose an analytical data store in Azure
What is Azure Cosmos DB analytical store?
Design meta stores in Azure Synapse Analytics and Azure Databricks
Azure Synapse Analytics shared metadata tables
Apache Hive Metastore for Databricks

Implement physical data storage structures

Implement compression
Data compression
Data compression on SQL Azure DB
 Implement partitioning
Data partitioning strategies
How to partition your data in Azure Cosmos DB
Implement sharding
Sharding pattern
Adding a shard using Elastic Database tools
Implement different table geometries with Azure Synapse Analytics
pools
Spatial Types – geometry (Transact-SQL)
Table data types for dedicated SQL pool
Implement data redundancy
Azure Storage redundancy
Change how a storage account is replicated
Implement distributions
Distributions in Azure Synapse Analytics
Examples for table distribution
Implement data archiving
Archive on-premises data to the cloud
Blob rehydration from the Archive tier

Implement logical data structures

Build a temporal data solution

Creating a system-versioned temporal table
Build a slowly changing dimension
Azure Data Factory Data Flow: Building Slowly Changing
Dimensions
How to implement Slow changing Dimension Type 1 in ADF?
Slowly Changing Dim Type 2 with ADF Mapping Data Flows
Build a logical folder structure
Creating an Azure Blob Hierarchy
Modeling a Directory Structure on Azure Blob Storage
Build external tables
 Use external tables with Synapse SQL
Create and alter Azure Storage external tables
Implement file and folder structures for efficient querying and data
pruning
Query multiple files or folders
Query folders and multiple files

Implement the serving layer

Deliver data in a relational star schema

Data models within Azure Analysis Services
Deliver data in Parquet files
Parquet file
Parquet format in Azure Data Factory
Parquet format in Azure Data Lake Analytics
Maintain metadata
Preserve metadata using copy activity in Azure ADF
Implement a dimensional hierarchy
Create and manage hierarchies

Design and Develop Data Processing (25-30%)

Ingest and transform data

Transform data by using Apache Spark

Transform data in the cloud by using a Spark activity in ADF
Transform data using Spark activity in Azure Data Factory
Transform data by using Transact-SQL
Apply SQL Transformation
Transform data by using Data Factory
Transform data in Azure ADF
Transform data using mapping data flows
Transform data by using Azure Synapse Pipelines
 Use Azure Synapse Analytics to create a pipeline for data
transformation
Transform data by using Stream Analytics
Transform data by using Azure Stream Analytics
Cleanse data
Data Cleansing
Clean Missing Data component
Split data
Split Data
Split Data component
Shred JSON
JSON in your Azure SQL Database?
Encode and decode data
Azure Data Factory Copy Activity with Base64 encoded string
Handling data encoding issues while loading data to SQL Data
Warehouse
Configure error handling for the transformation
Handle SQL truncation error rows in Data Factory mapping data
flows
Troubleshoot mapping data flows in Azure ADF
Error row handling
Normalize and denormalize values
Normalize Data
Normalize Data component
How do I denormalize data in Azure Machine Learning Studio?
Transform data by using Scala
Extract, transform and load data by using Azure Databricks
Perform data exploratory analysis
Exploratory Data Analysis with Azure Synapse Analytics
Query data in Azure Data Explorer Web UI

Design and develop a batch processing solution

Develop batch processing solutions by using Data Factory, Data Lake,
Spark, Azure Synapse Pipelines, PolyBase, and Azure Databricks
Batch processing
Choose a batch processing technology in Azure
Building Batch Data Processing Solutions in Microsoft Azure
Process large-scale datasets by using Data Factory and Batch
Run Spark Jobs on Azure Batch using Azure Container Registry
and Blob storage
Batch Processing with Databricks and Data Factory in Azure
Create data pipelines
Create a pipeline
Build a data pipeline by using Azure Data Factory, DevOps, and
ML
Design and implement incremental data loads
load data from Azure SQL Database to Azure Blob storage
Implement incremental data loading with ADF
Design and develop slowly changing dimensions
Processing Slowly Changing Dimensions with ADF Data
Handle security and compliance requirements
Azure security baseline for Batch
Azure Policy Regulatory Compliance controls for Azure Batch
Scale resources
Automatically scale compute nodes in an Azure Batch pool
Configure the batch size
Choose a VM size and image for compute nodes
Design and create tests for data pipelines
Unit testing Azure Data Factory pipelines
Integrate Jupyter/Python notebooks into a data pipeline
Set up a Python development environment for AML
Explore Azure ML with Jupyter Notebooks
Handle duplicate data
Handle duplicate data in Azure Data Explorer
Dedupe rows and find nulls by using data flow snippets
 Remove Duplicate Rows component
Handle missing data
Clean Missing Data component
Methods for handling missing values
Handle late-arriving data
Late arriving events
Late Arrival Tolerance
Upsert data
Optimize Azure SQL Upsert scenarios
Implement UpSert using Dataflow Alter Row Transformation
Regress to a previous state
Monitor Batch solutions by counting tasks and nodes by state
Design and configure exception handling
Error handling and detection in Azure Batch
Configure batch retention
Manage task lifetime
Design a batch processing solution
Batch processing
Debug Spark jobs by using the Spark UI
Track an application in the Spark UI

Design and develop a stream processing solution

Develop a stream processing solution by using Stream Analytics, Azure

Databricks, and Azure Event Hubs
Implement a Data Streaming Solution with Azure Streaming
Analytics
Stream processing with Azure Databricks
Stream data into Azure Databricks using Event Hubs
Process data by using Spark structured streaming
Structured Streaming
Overview of Apache Spark Structured Streaming
Structured Streaming tutorial
Monitor for performance and functional regressions
Understand Stream Analytics job monitoring
Design and create windowed aggregates
Introduction to Stream Analytics windowing functions
Windowing functions (Azure Stream Analytics)
Handle schema drift
Schema drift in mapping data flow
Process time-series data
Time series data
Understand time handling in Azure Stream Analytics
Process across partitions
Stream processing with Azure Stream Analytics
Use repartitioning to optimize processing with Azure Stream
Analytics
Process within one partition
Maximize throughput with repartitioning
Configure checkpoints/watermarking during processing
Checkpoint in Azure Stream Analytics
Watermarks
Illustrated example of watermarks
how to calculate watermark for Azure Streaming Analytics
Scale resources
Understand and adjust Streaming Units
Scale an Azure Stream Analytics job to increase throughput
Design and create tests for data pipelines
Test live data locally using Azure Stream Analytics tools
Test an Azure Stream Analytics job in the portal
Optimize pipelines for analytical or transactional purposes
Use repartitioning to optimize processing
Leverage query parallelization
Handle interruptions
Avoid service interruptions in Azure Stream Analytics jobs
Design and configure exception handling
 Azure Stream Analytics output error policy
Exception handling
Upsert data
Upserts from Stream Analytics
Azure Stream Processing upsert to DocumentDB
Replay archived stream data
Estimate replay catch-up time
Design a stream processing solution
Stream processing with Azure Stream Analytics

Manage batches and pipelines

Trigger batches
Tutorial: Trigger a Batch job using Azure Functions
Handle failed batch loads
Check for pool and node errors
Validate batch loads
Job and task error checking
Manage data pipelines in Data Factory/Synapse Pipelines
Monitor and manage Azure Data Factory pipelines
Managing the mapping data flow graph
Schedule data pipelines in Data Factory/Synapse Pipelines
Create a trigger that runs a pipeline on a schedule
Implement version control for pipeline artifacts
Source control in Azure Data Factory
Manage Spark jobs in a pipeline
Monitor a pipeline

Design and Implement Data Security (10-15%)

Design security for data policies and standards

Design data encryption for data at rest and in transit

 Azure Data Encryption at rest
Azure Storage Encryption for data at rest
Protect data in transit
Design a data auditing strategy
Auditing for Azure SQL Database and Azure Synapse Analytics
Design a data masking strategy
Dynamic data masking
Static Data Masking for Azure SQL Database and SQL Server
Design for data privacy
Privacy in Azure
Design a data retention policy
Understand data retention in Azure Time Series Insights Gen1
Design to purge data based on business requirements
Data purge
Enable data purge on your Azure Data Explorer cluster
Design Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) and POSIX-like
Access Control List (ACL) for Data Lake Storage Gen2
Role-based access control (Azure RBAC)
Access control lists (ACLs) in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
Design row-level and column-level security
Column-level security

Implement data security

Implement data masking

Get started with SQL Database dynamic data masking
Encrypt data at rest and in motion
Transparent data encryption for SQL Database
Implement row-level and column-level security
Column-Level Security
Implement Azure RBAC
Assign an Azure role for access to blob data
Implement POSIX-like ACLs for Data Lake Storage Gen2
 Use PowerShell to manage ACLs in Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2
Implement a data retention policy
Configuring retention in Azure Time Series Insights Gen1
Implement a data auditing strategy
Set up auditing for your server
Manage identities, keys, and secrets across different data platform
technologies
Implement secure endpoints (private and public)
Use private endpoints for Azure Storage
Use Azure SQL MI securely with public endpoints
Configure public endpoint in Azure SQL Managed Instance
Implement resource tokens in Azure Databricks
Authentication using Azure Databricks personal access tokens
Load a DataFrame with sensitive information
DataFrames tutorial
Write encrypted data to tables or Parquet files
use Parquet with Azure Data Lake Analytics
Manage sensitive information
Security Control: Data Protection

Monitor and Optimize Data Storage and Data Processing (10-

15%)

Monitor data storage and data processing

Implement logging used by Azure Monitor

Azure Monitor Logs overview
Collect custom logs with Log Analytics agent in Azure Monitor
Configure monitoring services
Tutorial: Monitor Azure resources with Azure Monitor
Enable VM insights overview
Measure performance of data movement
Copy activity performance and scalability guide
 Monitor and update statistics about data across a system
Update statistics
UPDATE STATISTICS (Transact-SQL)
Monitor data pipeline performance
Monitor and Alert Data Factory by using Azure Monitor
Measure query performance
Query Performance Insight for Azure SQL Database
How to measure the performance of the Azure SQL DB?
Monitor cluster performance
Monitor cluster performance in Azure HDInsight
Understand custom logging options
Collect text logs with Log Analytics agent in Azure Monitor
Schedule and monitor pipeline tests
Monitor and manage Azure Data Factory pipelines
Interpret Azure Monitor metrics and logs
Azure Monitor Metrics overview
Overview of Azure platform logs
Interpret a Spark directed acyclic graph (DAG)
Directed Acyclic Graph DAG in Apache Spark

Optimize and troubleshoot data storage and data processing

Compact small files

Auto Optimize
Rewrite user-defined functions (UDFs)
Modify User-defined Functions
Handle skew in data
Resolve data-skew problems
Handle data spill
Data security Q&A
Tune shuffle partitions
Use Unravel to tune Spark data partitioning
Find shuffling in a pipeline
 Lightning-fast query performance with Azure SQL Data Warehouse
Optimize resource management
How to optimize your Azure environment
Azure resource management tips to optimize a cloud deployment
Tune queries by using indexers
Automatic tuning for SQL Database
Tune queries by using cache
Performance tuning with result set caching
Optimize pipelines for analytical or transactional purposes
Hyperspace: An indexing subsystem for Apache Spark
Optimize pipeline for descriptive versus analytical workloads
Optimize Apache Spark jobs in Azure Synapse Analytics
Troubleshoot a failed spark job
Troubleshoot Apache Spark by using Azure HDInsight
Troubleshoot a slow or failing job on an HDInsight cluster
Troubleshoot a failed pipeline run
Troubleshoot pipeline orchestration in Azure Data Factory

DP-203 Exam Retake Policy

The DP-203 exam retake policy is as follows:

1. If a candidate fails on the first attempt, they must wait for 24 hours
before retaking the exam.
2. If a candidate again fails on the second attempt, then the candidate
will have to wait for 14 days.
3. A candidate will be given a maximum of five attempts to retake an
exam in a year.

DP-203 Exam Day Tips

With practice tests, you can become familiar with the test format while
broadening your knowledge at the same time.
 Those questions are very similar to those that you will find on test day,
and more importantly, each answer is explained with a reference to
documentation.
Let your common sense and previous knowledge take center stage in
the first learning phase, and try to answer every question.
At least a week before the exam, make sure you schedule it.
A quiet space should be provided for test-taking.
Do not read the question loudly otherwise, you may get disqualified
Please remove all paper, pencils, external keyboards, etc. from sight
before taking photos.
During the test, be mindful of your eyes. Pearson VUE will monitor you
throughout your test by using the front-facing camera on your device.
You may be accused of cheating if you fail to pay attention to your
computer screen during the test.
Avoid staring into the distance while you are thinking during your
exam.

Conclusion

The certification is for those candidates who want to demonstrate expertise in

designing and implementing data solutions with the use of Microsoft Azure
data services.

Through this certification, you will learn to integrate, transform and

consolidate unstructured data into structured data, that are suitable for
building analytical solutions for the company.

Make sure to understand the concept behind the answers and eventually you
will be able to use this knowledge to pass every practice and actual DP-203
certification test.

I hope this article is helpful to you and wish you good luck!
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in below comment section.

Related/References

DP-100 Exam Study Guide

PL-300 Exam Study Guide
AZ-500 Exam Study Guide
AZ-204 Exam Study Guide
AZ-900 Exam Study Guide
AI-900 Exam Study Guide

1 thought on “DP-203: Microsoft Azure Data Engineer

Associate Exam Study Guide”

Sneha
August 8, 2022 at 4:31 pm

thanks

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