How to Prepare for DP-200 Exam?

You need to pass DP-200 (Implementation of Azure Data Solution) and DP-201(Design an Azure Data Solution) exams to obtain Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate Certification. In this article, We will help readers to prepare for DP-200 Exam.

I have passed the DP-200 exam on 28 Oct 2020. I have gone through the various study material and courses in order to prepare for the exam. Overall, the time taken by me for the DP-200 exam is approx 3 months. Ideally, you should not take 3 months of time but due to lack of guidance, I happen to take a number of online courses which was not required to be taken for passing the DP-200 Exam.

How to prepare for DP-200 Exam? You should follow the below steps for DP-200 Exam Preparation.

1. Understand Skill Measured for DP-200 Exam

2. Complete PluralSight Microsoft Azure Data Engineer Path (Paid Course)

3. Complete Eshant Garg`s DP-200: Implementing Azure Data Solution + Practice Tests (Paid Course)

4. Complete ExamTopics Practice Questions (Free)

5. Download CertBolt Software (Free) 

1. Understand Skill Measured for DP-200 Exam

It is essential to know the syllabus before appearing for any exam. Check the skills measured section to know about the changes in the syllabus.

The content of this exam was updated on November 24, 2020.

The main section in the DP-200 Exam are mentioned below – 

• Implement data storage solutions (40-45%)
• Manage and develop data processing (25-30%)
• Monitor and optimize data solutions (30-35%)

Below you can see the various sub-topics under the main section (Updated 24 Nov 2020)-

Implement Data Storage Solutions (40-45%)

Implement non-relational data stores

• Implement a solution that uses Cosmos DB, Data Lake Storage Gen2, or Blob storage
• Implement data distribution and partitions
• Implement a consistency model in Cosmos DB
• Provision a non-relational datastore
• Provide access to data to meet security requirements
• Implement for high availability, disaster recovery, and global distribution

Implement relational data stores

• Provide access to data to meet security requirements implement for high availability and disaster recovery
• Implement data distribution and partitions for Azure Synapse Analytics
• Implement PolyBase

Manage data security

• Implement data masking
• Encrypt data at rest and in motion

Manage and Develop Data Processing (25-30%)

Develop batch processing solutions

• Develop batch processing solutions by using Data Factory and Azure Databricks
• Ingest data by using PolyBase
• Implement the integration runtime for Data Factory
• Create linked services and datasets
• Create pipelines and activities
• Create and schedule triggers
• Implement Azure Databricks clusters, notebooks, jobs, and autoscaling
• Ingest data into Azure Databricks

Develop streaming solutions

• Configure input and output
• Select the appropriate built-in functions
• Implement event processing by using Stream Analytics

Monitor and Optimize Data Solutions (30-35%)

Monitor data storage

• Monitor relational and non-relational data stores sources
• Implement Blob storage monitoring
• Implement Data Lake Storage Gen2 monitoring
• Implement Azure Synapse Analytics monitoring
• Implement Cosmos DB monitoring
• Configure Azure Monitor alert 
• Implement auditing by using Azure Log Analytics

Monitor data processing

• Monitor Data Factory pipelines
• Monitor Azure Databricks
• Monitor Stream Analytics
• Configure Azure Monitor alerts
• Implement auditing by using Azure Log Analytics

Optimize Azure data solutions

• Troubleshoot data partitioning bottlenecks
• Optimize Data Lake Storage Gen2
• Optimize Stream Analytics
• Optimize Azure Synapse Analytics
• Manage the data lifecycle

There is some changes in the Audience Profile section as well. You can see the all the changes in the skills measured section by reading the document.

2. Complete PluralSight Microsoft Azure Data Engineer Path (Paid Course)

You are reading this article because you want to know about implementing azure data solution in great detail so that you can use the knowledge while implementing solution in your project.

I have included this course in the list because of the great quality and detailed practical lab session. Each and Every topics is explained in great detail so even an novice person can learn about azure data solution in great detail. 

If you have sufficient time and you want to learn about azure data solution from expert azure consultant then I will recommend you to take Microsoft Azure Data Engineer Path which consist of 16 courses (32 hours).

3. Complete Eshant Garg`s DP-200: Implementing Azure Data Solution + Practice Tests (Paid Course)

If you already have some background related to azure data solution and you want to quickly prepare for DP-200 Exam and know just about topics that come in this exam then it is highly recommended that you should complete Udemy Course DP-200: Implementing Azure Data Solution + Practice Tests by Eshant Garg. This course covers all the content exactly what you need to cover for the DP-200 exam. It also covers practice questions in order to test your understanding of the topics. 

I found that some of the questions in my exam came directly from the practice questions mentioned in this course. Eshant has covered all topics important from the exam perspective in great detail so that even if the exact question does not come from dumps sites which I will mention later on, you can easily find the answer to the tough question using your learning from the course.

I noticed that question in the exam comes from specific topics thus some of the topics are important than others. I highly recommend this course as it has all you need to crack the exam.

4. Complete ExamTopics Practice Questions (Free)

ExamTopics is a website that provides practice questions for various IT exams. When I was preparing for DP-200 Exam, I have gone through all the practice questions mentioned on this site. After giving the Dp-200 Exam, I found some of the questions were exactly similar to the question mentioned on this site. Even in Reviews mentioned on the Exam Topics, many people have clearly mentioned that they have also got the exact similar question as mentioned in the Exam Topics Site.

So, I suggest you go through all the practice questions mentioned in the Exam Topics Website.

5. Download CertBolt Software (Free)

Certbolt is a website that provides practice questions for various IT exams just like Exam Topic which I have mentioned previously. Very few people preparing for IT exams know about it. 

I came to know about it from the Cloud Training Coordinator from whom I have taken a course for preparing for this exam. Certbolt allows you to download software that has a large number of practice question which you can solve and if you are lucky you can get the same question in your DP-200 exam. 

That`s is why I have provided a lot of resources that provide you practice questions for free.

Wrapping Up

If you follow all the steps I have mentioned in the article, you will definitely pass this exam. From the Practice Question Resources, I got approx 70-80% exactly the similar question. 

PluralSight Course and Udemy Eshant Garg`s Course helped me to understand Azure Data Solution in great detail due to which I was able to answer the rest of the questions which were not similar to practice questions mentioned in various resources mentioned in this article.

I hope that this article will help you to clear the DP-200 Exam. If you find this article useful, please do share this article with your colleagues and friends so that they can also get benefit from the article.