DP-900 Review

Is DP-900 Hard? Honest Difficulty Review From Candidates

Short answer: DP-900 is not hard relative to most Microsoft certifications. It's a Fundamentals-level exam. But "not hard" doesn't mean "no preparation needed."

By MSCertQuiz Team•Updated March 2026•12 min read

3.5/10

Difficulty Rating

vs 10 = Expert level

~82%

Pass Rate

With adequate prep

20–30h

Study Time

For most candidates

The Honest Difficulty Assessment

DP-900 sits solidly at the easier end of the Microsoft certification difficulty spectrum. It's an entry-level exam designed for people new to Azure data services — not for experienced data engineers who already know the platform well.

That said, candidates fail DP-900. Here's why:

Underestimating preparation. "It's a fundamentals exam" leads some candidates to walk in with zero preparation. The exam does require you to know specific services, APIs, and their differences. General cloud knowledge is not enough.
Cosmos DB API complexity. Five APIs (NoSQL, MongoDB, Cassandra, Gremlin, Table) with different use cases is the hardest single topic. Candidates who memorize services but don't understand the "when to use which API" logic struggle here.
Service selection scenarios. DP-900 tests judgment, not just recall. "Which Azure service should you use for X?" requires understanding multiple services and their tradeoffs — not just knowing each service exists.
Analytics service confusion. Azure Synapse, Data Factory, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric — four services with partially overlapping capabilities. The exam tests which to use in specific situations.

DP-900 vs Other Microsoft Exams: Difficulty Context

Exam	Difficulty	Study Hours	Pass Rate
AZ-900	3/10 — Fundamentals	15–25h	~85%
DP-900	3.5/10 — Fundamentals	20–30h	~82%
SC-900	3/10 — Fundamentals	15–20h	~88%
PL-900	3/10 — Fundamentals	15–25h	~85%
AZ-104	6/10 — Associate	40–60h	~68%
DP-300	6.5/10 — Associate	50–70h	~65%
DP-203	7/10 — Associate	60–80h	~62%
SC-300	7/10 — Associate	40–60h	~72%

Note: Pass rates are estimates based on community data. Microsoft does not publish official pass rates.

The 4 Hardest DP-900 Topics

#1 Hardest

Cosmos DB API Selection

Five APIs. Each for a different data model. The exam will describe a scenario and ask which API. The confusion: NoSQL and MongoDB APIs both store documents. Gremlin is for graphs. Cassandra for column-family. Table for key-value (Azure Table Storage migration).

Study Tip: Memorize the trigger words: "graph" = Gremlin, "existing MongoDB app" = MongoDB API, "Cassandra" = Cassandra API, "simple key lookup" = Table API, "new document store" = NoSQL API.

#2 Hardest

Analytics Service Selection

Azure Synapse, Azure Data Factory, Azure Databricks, Microsoft Fabric — four services that overlap. The exam tests which to use for orchestration vs processing vs analytics vs unified platforms.

Study Tip: ADF = pipeline orchestration and scheduling. Databricks = Spark processing (big data). Synapse = integrated analytics workspace (SQL + Spark in one). Fabric = newest unified SaaS platform. When "scheduling pipelines between services" → ADF. When "Spark big data processing" → Databricks or Synapse Spark. When "SQL analytics on petabyte data" → Synapse.

#3 Hardest

Blob Storage Access Tiers

Hot, Cool, Cold, Archive — four tiers with different cost/access tradeoffs. The exam gives you access frequency and retention requirements and asks which tier.

Study Tip: Hot: frequent access (daily). Cool: minimum 30 days storage, accessed every few weeks/months. Cold: minimum 90 days, accessed a few times per year. Archive: minimum 180 days, accessed less than once per year, retrieval takes hours.

#4 Hardest

OLTP vs OLAP and Data Architecture

Data warehouse vs data lake vs data lakehouse. OLTP vs OLAP. Batch vs stream. These conceptual distinctions appear throughout the exam and must be automatic.

Study Tip: OLTP = transactional, operational (Azure SQL). OLAP = analytical, historical queries (Synapse). Data lake = raw storage (ADLS). Data warehouse = structured, processed analytical store (Synapse dedicated SQL). Lakehouse = combining both (Microsoft Fabric).

Who Will Find DP-900 Easy vs Hard?

You'll Find It Easy If:

• You're a DBA or data engineer familiar with SQL, NoSQL concepts
• You currently work with Power BI or Azure data services
• You've already passed AZ-900 (cloud fundamentals will be familiar)
• You have experience with NoSQL databases (MongoDB, Cassandra)
• You understand data warehousing concepts from any platform

You'll Find It Harder If:

• You have no database or data background at all
• You're completely new to cloud computing concepts
• You study only theory without any hands-on Azure exposure
• You underestimate Cosmos DB API selection complexity
• You confuse Synapse, ADF, Databricks, and Fabric

How to Make Sure You Pass

Use Microsoft Learn

The free learning paths on Microsoft Learn align directly to DP-900 objectives. The content is official and regularly updated. Start here before any third-party material.

Get hands-on with a free Azure account

Microsoft offers a free Azure account with $200 credit. Spend an hour creating a Cosmos DB container, querying it with different APIs, and browsing Azure SQL Database. Seeing the services firsthand makes the concepts stick.

Do practice questions before booking

Take a full 40-question practice test under timed conditions. If you score 80%+, book the exam. If you score below 70%, identify your weak domains and review them specifically.

Focus on service selection, not feature lists

The exam tests when to use services, not what every feature does. For each Azure data service, know its primary use case and what makes it different from the alternatives.

Test Your DP-900 Readiness

500 scenario-based questions across all 4 domains. Find out where you stand before booking the exam.

Start Free DP-900 Practice →