Exam DP-700 topic 1 question 5 discussion

Enable V-Order: This should be your first step as it directly targets performance improvements with minimal cost. Consider the following before deciding to disable V-Order: Microsoft Fabric Direct Lake mode depends on V-Order. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/data-warehouse/v-order#performance-considerations

500 million rows is over the F32 table limit.

Why Other Options Are Unsuitable: Option: A (Change MD5→SHA256) Reason for Exclusion: Increases key size (128→256 bits), worsening storage/join performance. Option:B (Increase capacity) Reason for Exclusion:Raises costs (contradicts "minimize operational costs"). Option:D (Modify surrogate keys) Reason for Exclusion: Requires rebuilding the entire data model (high effort/cost). Option:E (Create views) Reason for Exclusion: Adds abstraction without optimizing underlying data scans.

The best option to address performance degradation while minimizing operational costs is C. Enable V-Order. Here’s why: V-Order is a storage format optimization for Delta Lake tables (used by Direct Lake mode in Power BI). It improves data skipping, which enables faster query performance by reducing the amount of data scanned. Especially with large fact tables like yours (500 million rows), enabling V-Order can have a significant impact on performance without increasing costs. It’s a low-cost, high-impact optimization since it doesn’t require more compute resources (unlike increasing capacity). Why not Improve Capacity? Effective, but it increases costs. Only do this if V-Order and other optimizations don’t solve the problem.

V-Order is a write-time optimization for Parquet files in Microsoft Fabric that significantly enhances read performance within Fabric compute engines like Power BI, SQL, and Spark. It achieves this by applying special sorting, row group distribution, dictionary encoding, and compression to the Parquet files. This optimization is crucial for Fabric's Direct Lake mode, which relies on V-Order for efficient data access

Increase the capacity is correct for me.

V-Order is a performance optimization feature for Delta tables in Fabric. It reorders data for faster analytical queries by optimizing columnar layout and file structure. Improves read performance in Direct Lake mode dramatically without extra cost. No need to reload or refactor the data, so minimal operational impact.

300 million rows is not a hard limit, but rather a performance recommendation for optimal operation under Direct Lake with F32 capacity. Your table has 500 million rows, which exceeds this recommended limit by 66% — a likely contributor to performance issues.

The correct is C

. Modify the surrogate keys to use a different data type.

Rather than buying more capacity or overhauling your surrogate-key design, simply enable V‑Order clustering on your most selective columns.

Enabling V-Order in Microsoft Fabric (specifically for Direct Lake datasets) changes how data is physically stored and accessed, optimizing both read and write operations.

F32 tenant capacity has 300 million rows maximum consumption. The scenario has exhausted the capacity. You must increase the capacity to rectify the problem. Enable V-Order is actived by default except disabled. SHA5 has high byte encryption size which will even the performance. The last option trigger the connection mode to DirectQuery which is even worst. Option B is the answer

Direct lake row limit per table is 300 million in an F32 capacity => Fallback to Direct Query

Improves query performance by optimizing how data is stored and accessed.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/fundamentals/direct-lake-overview#fallback

After reviewing the public documentation again, I understand that V-Order is enabled by default in Data Warehouses, as the documentation only refers to how it can be disabled—and notes that this action is irreversible. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/data-warehouse/v-order#scenarios-where-v-order-might-not-be-beneficial At the same time, I agree with my peers who mentioned that the row limit per table is 300 million in an F32 capacity. Therefore, I’m updating my answer to option B: Increase the capacity. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/fundamentals/direct-lake-overview#fabric-capacity-requirements