Introduction
The 70-762 exam tests your knowledge about developing databases in Microsoft SQL Server 2016. To successfully pass this exam, you should know how to create various types of database objects, such as disk-based and memory-optimized tables, indexes, views, and stored procedures, to name a few. Not only must you know how and why to develop specific types of database objects, but you must understand how to manage database concurrency by correctly using transactions, assigning isolation levels, and troubleshooting locking behavior. Furthermore, you must demonstrate familiarity with techniques to optimize database performance by reviewing statistics and index usage, using tools to troubleshoot and optimize query plans, optimizing the configuration of SQL Server and server resources, and monitoring SQL Server performance metrics. You must also understand the similarities and differences between working with databases with SQL Server on-premises and Windows Azure SQL Database in the cloud.
The 70-762 exam is focused on measuring skills of database professionals, such as developers or administrators, who are responsible for designing, implementing, or optimizing relational databases by using SQL Server 2016 or SQL Database. In addition to reinforcing your existing skills, it measures what you know about new features and capabilities in SQL Server and SQL Database.
To help you prepare for this exam and reinforce the concepts that it tests, we provide many different examples that you can try for yourself. Some of these examples require only that you have installed SQL Server 2016 or have created a Windows Azure subscription. Other examples require that you download and restore a backup of the Wide World Importers sample database for SQL Server 2016 from https://github.com/Microsoft/sql-server-samples/releases/tag/wide-world-importers-v1.0. The file to download from this page is WideWorldImporters-Full.bak. You can find documentation about this sample database at Wide World Importers documentation, https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/mt734199(v=sql.1).aspx.
This book covers every major topic area found on the exam, but it does not cover every exam question. Only the Microsoft exam team has access to the exam questions, and Microsoft regularly adds new questions to the exam, making it impossible to cover specific questions. You should consider this book a supplement to your relevant real-world experience and other study materials. If you encounter a topic in this book that you do not feel completely comfortable with, use the “Need more review?” links you’ll find in the text to find more information and take the time to research and study the topic. Great information is available on MSDN, TechNet, and in blogs and forums.
Organization of this book
This book is organized by the “Skills measured” list published for the exam. The “Skills measured” list is available for each exam on the Microsoft Learning website: https://aka.ms/examlist. Each chapter in this book corresponds to a major topic area in the list, and the technical tasks in each topic area determine a chapter’s organization. If an exam covers six major topic areas, for example, the book will contain six chapters.
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Acknowledgments
Louis Davidson I would like to dedicate my half of this book to my wife Valerie, who put up with me writing my half of this book (a few times) while simultaneously finishing my Database Design book.
Technically speaking, I would like to thank my colleagues in the MVP community and program at Microsoft. I have learned so much from them for the many years I have been an awardee and would never have accomplished so much without them. Far more than one is referenced for additional material.
Thank you, Stacia, for your work on the book. I appreciate your involvement more than you can imagine.
Stacia Varga I am grateful to have a community of SQL Server professionals that are always ready to share their experience and insights related with me, whether through informal conversations or more extensive reviews of any content that I write. The number of people with whom I have had informal conversations are too numerous to mention, but they know who they are. I would like to thank a few people in particular for the more in-depth help they provided: Joseph D’Antoni, Grant Fritchey, and Brandon Leach. And thanks to Louis as well. We have been on stage together, we have worked together, and now we have written together!
Behind the scenes of the publishing process, there are many other people involved that help us bring this book to fruition. I’d like to thank Trina McDonald for her role as the acquisitions editor and Troy Mott as the managing editor for his incredible patience with us and his efforts to make the process as easy as possible. I also appreciate the copyediting by Christina Rudloff and technical editing by Christopher Ford to ensure that the information we provide in this book is communicated as clearly as possible and technically accurate.
Last, I want to thank my husband, Dean Varga, not only for tolerating my crazy work hours during the writing of this book, but also for doing his best to create an environment conducive to writing on many different levels.
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Quick access to online references
Throughout this book are addresses to webpages that the author has recommended you visit for more information. Some of these addresses (also known as URLs) can be painstaking to type into a web browser, so we’ve compiled all of them into a single list that readers of the print edition can refer to while they read.
Download the list at https://aka.ms/examref762/downloads.
The URLs are organized by chapter and heading. Every time you come across a URL in the book, find the hyperlink in the list to go directly to the webpage.
Errata, updates, & book support
We’ve made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this book and its companion content. You can access updates to this book—in the form of a list of submitted errata and their related corrections—at:
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If you discover an error that is not already listed, please submit it to us at the same page.
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Important: How to use this book to study for the exam
Certification exams validate your on-the-job experience and product knowledge. To gauge your readiness to take an exam, use this Exam Ref to help you check your understanding of the skills tested by the exam. Determine the topics you know well and the areas in which you need more experience. To help you refresh your skills in specific areas, we have also provided “Need more review?” pointers, which direct you to more in-depth information outside the book.
The Exam Ref is not a substitute for hands-on experience. This book is not designed to teach you new skills.
We recommend that you round out your exam preparation by using a combination of available study materials and courses. Learn more about available classroom training at https://www.microsoft.com/learning. Microsoft Official Practice Tests are available for many exams at https://aka.ms/practicetests. You can also find free online courses and live events from Microsoft Virtual Academy at https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com.
This book is organized by the “Skills measured” list published for the exam. The “Skills measured” list for each exam is available on the Microsoft Learning website: https://aka.ms/examlist.
Note that this Exam Ref is based on this publicly available information and the author’s experience. To safeguard the integrity of the exam, authors do not have access to the exam questions.