Dataflows & Data Pipelines

Question 1

Visual workflow tool that moves data from A to B (copy, schedule, orchestrate).

Answer 1

Data Factory Pipelines

Question 2

Shortcut (OneLake Shortcut) - What is it?

Answer 2

A zero-copy reference to external data stored outside Fabric (e.g.

Question 3

Shortcut (OneLake Shortcut) - Why use it?

Answer 3

Use when data already exists in a clean data lake and you want immediate access with no storage duplication.

Question 4

Shortcut (OneLake Shortcut) - Example external data

Answer 4

ADLS Gen2 curated lake zones, Amazon S3 marketing data, Google Cloud Storage research datasets.

Question 5

Database Mirroring - What is it?

Answer 5

A high availability feature for SQL Server that maintains a mirrored database for failover.

Question 6

Database Mirroring - Why use it?

Answer 6

Use when you need redundancy and disaster recovery for an operational SQL Server—not for data ingestion.

Question 7

Database Mirroring - Example use case

Answer 7

Primary ticketing database + secondary failover replica.

Question 8

Dataflow (ETL Dataflow) - What is it?

Answer 8

Power Query-based GUI tool for ingesting and transforming data into a Lakehouse.

Question 9

Dataflow (ETL Dataflow) - Why use it?

Answer 9

Use for business-analyst-friendly cleaning

Question 10

Dataflow (ETL Dataflow) - Example external data

Answer 10

Salesforce Contacts, SurveyMonkey CSV exports, Excel finance report uploads, On-prem SQL via Gateway.

Question 11

Data Pipeline (ETL Data Pipeline) - What is it?

Answer 11

An orchestrated and scheduled ETL workflow using Data Factory inside Fabric.

Question 12

Data Pipeline (ETL Data Pipeline) - Why use it?

Answer 12

Use for recurring

Question 13

Data Pipeline (ETL Data Pipeline) - Example external data

Answer 13

Azure SQL DB, Snowflake, AWS S3, Google BigQuery, Dynamics 365, Zendesk.

Question 14

Notebook (ETL Notebook) - What is it?

Answer 14

A Spark-based code workspace for ingestion and transformation using Python

Question 15

Notebook (ETL Notebook) - Why use it?

Answer 15

Use for complex logic

Question 16

Notebook (ETL Notebook) - Example external data

Answer 16

IoT telemetry, website clickstream logs, multi-GB CSV archives, sensor data feeds.

Question 17

Eventstream - What is it?

Answer 17

A real-time streaming ingestion pipeline that processes events continuously.

Question 18

Eventstream - Why use it?

Answer 18

Use when dashboards or alerts must update instantly based on live event data.

Question 19

Eventstream - Example external data

Answer 19

People counter sensors, POS transaction event messages, Kafka or Event Hubs streams, real-time user activity logs.

Question 20

Front

Answer 20

Back

Question 21

On-premise Data Gateway - What is it?

Answer 21

A secure connector that allows Fabric to access on-premises data sources inside your internal network.

Question 22

On-premise Data Gateway - Why use it?

Answer 22

Use when the data source is on-prem and cannot have a public endpoint. Requires secure outbound-only access.

Question 23

On-premise Data Gateway - Example external data

Answer 23

On-prem SQL Server, Oracle DB in data center, Shared drive with Excel/CSV files.

Question 24

VNet Data Gateway - What is it?

Answer 24

A Microsoft-managed private network connection to Azure data sources that are secured with private endpoints/VNet integration.

Question 25

VNet Data Gateway - Why use it?

Answer 25

Use when source is in Azure but locked behind private networking and cannot be accessed publicly.

Question 26

VNet Data Gateway - Example external data

Answer 26

Azure SQL DB with private endpoint, ADLS Gen2 in private VNet, Managed SQL Instance in isolated subnet.

Question 27

Fast Copy - What is it?

Answer 27

A high-throughput bulk data copy mode optimized for large data movement without applying transformations.

Question 28

Fast Copy - Why use it?

Answer 28

Use when you need to move large datasets quickly and don't need transformations during ingestion.

Question 29

Fast Copy - Example external data

Answer 29

Full history table copies, Parquet files in S3, Archive extract from data warehouse.

Question 30

Staging - What is it?

Answer 30

A temporary landing area for raw data before transformation into curated tables.

Question 31

Staging - Why use it?

Answer 31

Use when applying multi-step ETL

Question 32

Staging - Example external data

Answer 32

Bronze raw zone files, intermediate processed tables, source dumps prior to cleansing.