DP-420 Cheatsheets
These sheets collect the rules and numbers that DP-420 expects you to apply quickly: which consistency level gives which guarantee, when to embed or reference, which composite index serves which query, and how throughput turns into physical partitions.
Every fact on these sheets is taken from current Microsoft Learn documentation. Each sheet links the pages it draws on, so you can read the full explanation behind any rule.
Microsoft Learn: Azure Cosmos DB documentation · built and verified September 29, 2026.
The sheets#
The consistency spectrum
All five levels from strong to eventual, with the guarantee, read cost, quorum, and data loss window of each, and the rules for overriding the account default.
Objective 1.3Data modeling and partition keys
A decision flow for embedding or referencing, choosing a partition key, and when to reach for synthetic keys, hierarchical keys, or a global secondary index.
Objective 2.3The indexing rule matrix
Included and excluded paths, precedence, composite index rules for ORDER BY, filters, and aggregates, and the vector and full text index types.
Objectives 1.1 and 1.3Throughput and partition math
Partition and item limits, manual and autoscale minimums, how autoscale bills, and worked examples of every formula the exam can ask you to apply.
Print-ready
Each sheet prints cleanly with Ctrl+P. The navigation, hero image, and backgrounds are removed so the tables fit on as few pages as possible.
How to use them#
Read a sheet after you finish the matching training on the domain pages, then test yourself in the exam simulator in Practice mode. When an explanation surprises you, come back to the sheet and find the rule it applies. The SDK patterns page covers the code side of the same skills: point reads, optimistic concurrency, patch, and transactional batch and bulk.