Exam 70-465: Designing Database Solutions for Microsoft SQL Server Practice Test
Exam 70-465 concerns designing database solutions with Microsoft SQL Server. The available practice questions explore relational schema choices, constraints, indexes, data types, recovery, auditing, spatial data, and large binary objects. These subjects connect logical data requirements with SQL Server features that support accurate queries, enforce business rules, preserve changes, and make stored data recoverable.
Exam overview
About the Exam 70-465: Designing Database Solutions for Microsoft SQL Server Exam
Database design decisions begin with modeling entities and relationships, then enforcing integrity through primary and foreign keys, uniqueness rules, checks, and suitable referential actions. Query patterns inform index key and included-column choices, while filtered indexes can enforce uniqueness for a defined subset of rows. Choosing exact numeric types, spatial types, and storage options affects correctness and application access. SQL Server design also involves selecting mechanisms for tracking changes and planning backup and recovery behavior, including transaction log backups for point-in-time restoration. The practice bank’s scenarios ask you to match requirements—such as retaining before-and-after values or streaming binary files—to features worth evaluating. For each decision, consider both the rule the database must enforce and the workload or recovery process that will use the design.
Sample Practice Questions
Review a selection from this exam's published US Practice Tests practice bank.
An application frequently retrieves recent rows from a large table using `WHERE CreatedAt >= @Cutoff` and returns only a few columns. Which index design is most likely to help this query while avoiding unnecessary table lookups?
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Correct answer: AAn index beginning with the range-filter column can support the predicate, while included columns can cover the projection and avoid lookups to the base table. A uniqueness constraint may be incorrect, and full-text indexes serve text-search workloads.
A design requires a table to contain exactly one row representing the system's current configuration. Which approach best enforces that cardinality within the database?
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Correct answer: AA constrained key can limit the table to one permitted key value, while the primary key ensures that value occurs at most once. Application convention alone does not enforce the rule for all writers.
A SQL Server application needs to record changes to selected columns over time, including the values before and after updates, for later review. Which feature is a suitable built-in option to evaluate?
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Correct answer: ASystem-versioned temporal tables retain historical row versions and support querying data as it existed at earlier times. They are useful for history and analysis, though requirements such as tamper resistance or a complete security audit may require additional mechanisms.
A business requires an order number to match a defined format, such as two uppercase letters followed by six digits. The rule must be enforced whenever a row is inserted or updated. Which database mechanism is appropriate to consider?
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Correct answer: AA CHECK constraint validates a row value against a Boolean condition during data modification. A default supplies a value when one is omitted, while indexes and roles do not express this validation rule.
A database must enforce that every Order row refers to an existing Customer row, and that deleting a customer with orders is rejected. Which design best meets these requirements?
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Correct answer: AA foreign key enforces referential integrity, and the default no-action behavior prevents deleting a referenced customer. A check constraint cannot validate values against another table, and an index alone does not enforce the relationship.
A database must retain a recoverable copy of data changes so that the database can be restored to a point in time between full backups. Which recovery model supports this when transaction log backups are taken?
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Correct answer: BThe FULL recovery model supports point-in-time recovery when an unbroken sequence of transaction log backups is available, along with the required full or differential backups. SIMPLE does not support transaction log backups for this purpose.
A database stores geographic coordinates and needs to query which points fall within a region on Earth's surface. Which SQL Server spatial type is generally suited to coordinates defined on a round-earth model?
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Correct answer: BThe geography type models positions and shapes on a round-earth representation and is commonly used for latitude/longitude data. The geometry type is intended for planar, Euclidean coordinates.
How to use this practice test
Access is free. A session presents up to 20 random questions from the 50-question practice bank, and results appear after the session. Use each scenario to identify the stated requirement first, then compare the relevant SQL Server design choices—for example, a covering index versus additional lookups or a foreign key with restrictive delete behavior.
Preparation tips
- For query scenarios, identify filter and output columns before comparing index keys, included columns, and filtered-index predicates.
- Practice translating business rules into constraints: distinguish primary and foreign keys, CHECK constraints, unique indexes, and referential actions.
- Compare SQL Server data types against precision and data-model requirements, especially exact decimal values and geography versus geometry coordinates.
- Trace how full, differential, and transaction log backups contribute to point-in-time recovery under the selected recovery model.
- Review the intended use and tradeoffs of temporal or auditing features, spatial data, and FILESTREAM for the specific storage or change-tracking requirement.