DP-420 Exam Prep
DP-420 Exam Glossary - 35 Terms
Search the terminology pack for Designing and Implementing Cloud-Native Applications Using Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB. Use these definitions with the study guide and practice questions.
A
- authentication
- The process of verifying the identity of a user, application, or service before access is granted.
- availability
- The measure of whether the database service remains accessible and operational for requests.
B
- backoff
- A retry strategy that waits progressively longer between attempts to reduce pressure on the service.
- backup mode
- The Azure Cosmos DB backup configuration option that determines how backups are taken and managed for recovery scenarios.
C
- change feed
- A persistent, ordered stream of item changes in a container that applications can process asynchronously.
- change feed processing
- The application pattern of reading the change feed to react to inserts and updates, such as syncing downstream systems.
- co-locating related data
- A modeling approach where frequently accessed related information is stored together to reduce query cost and latency.
- consistency level
- The read consistency guarantee in Cosmos DB that defines the tradeoff between data freshness, latency, and availability.
- container
- A schema-agnostic unit in Azure Cosmos DB that stores items and defines partitioning, indexing, and throughput settings.
- cross-partition query
- A query that must read from multiple partitions because the partition key is not sufficiently targeted in the filter.
D
- data modeling
- The practice of structuring documents and relationships based on application access patterns and performance goals.
H
- hot partition
- A partition that receives disproportionately high traffic or storage, causing uneven load and performance issues.
I
- identity-based access
- An authentication and authorization approach that uses Azure identities instead of account keys or embedded secrets.
- indexing policy
- The container-level rule set that specifies included paths, excluded paths, and index behavior for stored items.
- indexing settings
- The configuration that controls which item properties are indexed and how queries can efficiently access them.
L
- latency
- The time required for a request or query to be processed and return a response.
- least privilege
- A security principle of granting only the minimum permissions required for a user or service to perform its tasks.
M
- managed identity
- An Azure identity managed by the platform that applications use to authenticate without storing credentials in code.
- multi-region replication
- The distribution of Cosmos DB data across multiple Azure regions to improve availability and reduce read latency.
N
- NoSQL document database
- A non-relational database model that stores semi-structured data as documents rather than rows and tables.
P
- partition key
- The item property used to distribute data across logical partitions and support scalable reads and writes.
Q
- query behavior
- The performance and execution characteristics of queries, such as efficiency, scan patterns, and RU cost.
- query pattern
- The common filtering, sorting, and access paths used by an application when retrieving data.
R
- read region placement
- The selection of Azure regions from which read requests are served to keep users close to their data.
- replication design
- The arrangement of data copies across Azure regions to support availability, durability, and low-latency access.
- request units
- The normalized currency used by Azure Cosmos DB to measure the cost of database operations.
- restore process
- The procedure used to recover data from backups after deletion, corruption, or other data-loss events.
- retention
- The period for which backups or recoverable data are kept before they expire.
- retry
- The practice of resending a failed request, typically after a transient error or rate limiting response.
- RU consumption
- The amount of request units used by database operations, representing consumed throughput capacity.
S
- search index
- An external or integrated index optimized for search scenarios and updated from source data changes.
- storage
- The amount of persisted data and index space used by a Cosmos DB account, database, or container.
T
- throttling
- A condition where Azure Cosmos DB limits requests because provisioned throughput has been exceeded, often returning rate-limit responses.
- throughput
- The provisioned or autoscaled capacity available for database operations, measured in request units per second.
W
- write overhead
- The additional processing and RU cost incurred during writes due to indexing, replication, or other internal work.
About These Definitions
These definitions are loaded from the shared release pack. Use them with the study guide and practice questions to connect vocabulary to exam scenarios.