Exam 70-464 Developing Microsoft SQL Server Databases

Published: June 11, 2012
Languages: English, Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil)
Audiences: IT professionals
Technology: Microsoft SQL Server
Credit toward certification: MCP, MCSE

Skills measured
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below. The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area on the exam. The higher the percentage, the more questions you are likely to see on that content area on the exam. View video tutorials about the variety of question types on Microsoft exams.

Please note that the questions may test on, but will not be limited to, the topics described in the bulleted text.

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As of February 18, 2016, this exam includes content covering both SQL Server 2012 and 2014. Please note that this exam does not include questions on features or capabilities that are present only in the SQL Server 2012 product. For more information, please download and review this document.

Implement database objects (30–35%)
Create and alter tables
Develop an optimal strategy for using temporary objects, including table variables and temporary tables; define alternatives to triggers; define data version control and management; implement @Table and #table appropriately; create calculated columns; implement partitioned tables, schemas, and functions; implement column collation; implement online transaction processing (OLTP); implement columnstore and sparse columns
Design, implement, and troubleshoot security
Implement data control language statements appropriately, troubleshoot connection issues, implement execute as statements, implement certificate-based security, create loginless users, define appropriate database roles and permissions, implement contained users, implement cross db ownership chaining, implement schema security, implement server roles
Design the locking granularity level
Choose the right lock mechanism for a given task; handle deadlocks; design index locking properties; fix locking and blocking issues; analyze a deadlock scenario; design appropriate isolation level, including Microsoft ActiveX data objects defaults; design for locks and lock escalation; design transactions that minimize locking; reduce locking contention; identify bottlenecks in data design; design appropriate concurrency control, such as pessimistic or optimistic
Implement indexes
Inspect physical characteristics of indexes and perform index maintenance; identify unused indexes; implement indexes; optimize indexes, including full, filter, statistics, and force
Implement data types
Select appropriate data types, including BLOBs, GUIDs, XML, and spatial data; develop a Common Language Runtime (CLR) data type; implement appropriate use of @Table and #table; determine values based on implicit and explicit conversions
Create and modify constraints
Create constraints on tables, define constraints, modify constraints according to performance implications, implement cascading deletes, configure constraints for bulk inserts

Preparation resources
CREATE TABLE (Transact-SQL)
CREATE USER (Transact-SQL)
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL (Transact-SQL)

Implement programming objects (15-20%)
Design and implement stored procedures
Create stored procedures and other programmatic objects; implement different types of stored procedure results; create a stored procedure for the data access layer; analyze and rewrite procedures and processes; program stored procedures by using T-SQL and CLR; implement parameters, including table valued, input, and output; implement error handling, including TRY…CATCH; configure appropriate connection settings
Design T-SQL table-valued and scalar functions
Modify scripts that use cursors and loops into a SET-based operation, design deterministic and non-deterministic functions
Create, use, and alter user-defined functions (UDFs)
Implement deterministic or non-deterministic functions; implement CROSS APPLY by using UDFs; implement CLR functions
Create and alter views
Set up and configure partitioned tables and partitioned views; create indexed views

Preparation resources
sys.dm_os_volume_stats (Transact-SQL
SQL Server agent stored procedures (Transact-SQL)
Processing stored procedure results

Design database objects (25–30%)
Design tables
Apply data design patterns; develop appropriately normalized and de-normalized SQL tables; design transactions; design views; implement GUID as a clustered index appropriately; design temp tables appropriately, including # vs. @; design an encryption strategy; design table partitioning; design a BLOB storage strategy, including filestream and filetable; design tables for In-Memory OLTP
Design for concurrency
Develop a strategy to maximize concurrency; define a locking and concurrency strategy; design a transaction isolation strategy, including server database and session; design triggers for concurrency
Design indexes
Design indexes and data structures; design filtered indexes; design an indexing strategy, including column store, semantic indexes, and INCLUDE; design statistics; assess which indexes on a table are likely to be used, given different search arguments (SARG); design spatial and XML indexes
Design data integrity
Design a table data integrity policy, including checks, primary key, foreign key, uniqueness, XML schema, and nullability; select a primary key
Design for implicit and explicit transactions
Manage transactions; ensure data integrity by using transactions; manage distributed transaction escalations; design savepoints; design error handling for transactions, including TRY, CATCH, and THROW

Preparation resources
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL (Transact-SQL)
CREATE INDEX (Transact-SQL)
Transaction Statements (Transact-SQL)

Optimize and troubleshoot queries (25–30%)
Optimize and tune queries
Tune a poorly performing query, including avoiding unnecessary data type conversions; identify long-running queries; review and optimize code; analyze execution plans to optimize queries; tune queries using execution plans and Microsoft Database Tuning Advisor (DTA); optimize queries using pivots and common table expressions (CTE); design database layout to optimize queries; implement query hints; tune query workloads; implement recursive CTE; implement full text and semantic search; analyze execution plans; implement plan guides
Troubleshoot and resolve performance problems
Interpret performance monitor data; integrate performance monitor data with SQL Traces
Optimize indexes
Develop an optimal strategy for clustered indexes; analyze index usage; optimize indexes for workload, including data warehousing and OLTP; generate appropriate indexes and statistics by using INCLUDE columns; create filtered indexes; implement full-text indexing; implement columnstore indexes; optimize online index maintenance
Capture and analyze execution plans
Collect and read execution plans, create an index based on an execution plan, batch or split implicit transactions, split large queries, consolidate smaller queries, review and optimize parallel plans
Collect performance and system information
Monitor performance using Dynamic Management Views, collect output from the Database Engine Tuning Advisor, design Extended Events Sessions, review and interpret Extended Event logs; optimize Extended Event session settings, use Activity Monitor to minimize server impact and determine IO bottlenecks, monitor In-Memory OLTP resources

Preparation resources
Database Engine Tuning Advisor
DBCC SHRINKFILE (Transact-SQL)
Create indexes with included columns

QUESTION 1
You attempt to process an invoice by using usp_InsertInvoice.sql and you receive the following error message: “Msg 515, Level 16, State 2, Procedure usp_InsertInvoice, Line 10
Cannot insert the value NULL into column ‘InvoiceDate’, table ‘DB1.Accounting.Invoices’; column does not allow nulls. INSERT fails.”
You need to modify usp_InsertInvoice.sql to resolve the error.
How should you modify the INSERT statement?

A. InvoiceDate varchar(l00) ‘InvoiceDate’,
B. InvoiceDate varchar(100) ‘Customer/InvoiceDate’, ‘
C. InvoiceDate date ‘@InvoiceDate’,
D. InvoiceDate date ‘Customer/@InvoiceDate’,

Answer: C

QUESTION 2
You need to modify the function in CountryFromID.sql to ensure that the country name is returned instead of the country ID.
Which line of code should you modify in CountryFromID.sql?

A. 04
B. 05
C. 06
D. 19

Answer: D

Explanation:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186755.aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191320.aspx

QUESTION 3
You execute IndexManagement.sql and you receive the following error message:
“Msg 512, Level 16, State 1, Line 12
Subquery returned more than 1 value. This is not permitted when the subquery follows =,! =, <, <= ,>, > = or when the subquery is used as an expression.”
You need to ensure that IndexManagement.sql executes properly.
Which WHILE statement should you use at line 18?

A. WHILE SUM(@RowNumber) < (SELECT @counter FROM @indextable)
B. WHILE @counter < (SELECT COUNT(RowNumber) FROM @indextable)
C. WHILE COUNT(@RowNumber) < (SELECT @counter FROM @indextable)
D. WHILE @counter < (SELECT SUM(RowNumber) FROM @indextabie)

Answer: B

QUESTION 4
You need to recommend a solution to ensure that SQL1 supports the auditing requirements of usp_UpdateSpeakerName.
What should you include in the recommendation?

A. The Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC)
B. Transactional replication
C. Change data capture
D. Change tracking

Answer: A

QUESTION 5
You are evaluating the table design.
You need to recommend a change to Tables.sql that reduces the amount of time it takes for usp_AttendeesReport to execute.
What should you add at line 14 of Tables.sql?

A. FullName nvarchar(100) NOT NULL CONSTRAINT DF_FuIlName DEFAULT
(dbo.CreateFullName (FirstName, LastName)),
B. FullName AS (FirstName +‘ ’+ LastName),
C. FullName nvarchar(100) NOT NULL DEFAULT (dbo.CreateFullName (FirstName, LastName)).
D. FullName AS (FirstName +‘ ’+ LastName) PERSISTED,

Answer: D

Explanation:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188300.aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191250.aspx

QUESTION 6
You need to modify usp_SelectSpeakersByName to support server-side paging. The solution must minimize the amount of development effort required.
What should you add to usp_SelectSpeakersByName?

A. A table variable
B. An OFFSET-FETCH clause
C. The ROWNUMBER keyword
D. A recursive common table expression

Answer: B

Explanation:
https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/2696/comparing-performance-for-different-sql-serverpaging-methods/
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188385.aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms180152.aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186243.aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186734.aspx https://www.sqlserver-training.com/how-to-use-offset-fetch-option-in-sql-server-order-byclause/-https://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/juggling_with_sql/2011/11/30/using-offset-and-fetch/

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