Exam DP-800 · SQL AI Developer Associate
DP-800 rarely asks what a feature is. It offers three security controls, two vector functions or four index types that all nearly fit, and one clause in the scenario rules out all but one. This drills the clause, not the definition.
I built it with Claude, from the gaps my practice assessment showed me. Here’s how to build your own →
This drill was built around my gaps. Yours will be different, so copying my material only gets you so far. What transfers is the method: study Microsoft Learn yourself, find exactly where your gaps are, and ask Claude to build study material around them. These are the six steps, in the order I did them, with the prompts I used. Fill in the brackets.
Take the official practice assessment cold, before you open the learning path. The score matters less than where the missing marks come from. Then ask for a plan built around your results, not around guesses.
I want to pass [EXAM NAME + CODE] by [TARGET DATE]. Official exam page: [LINK] My starting point Current role: [ROLE] Strong in: [AREAS] Weak/new in: [AREAS] Support available: [SELF-TAUGHT / MENTOR / TEAM] My constraints Realistic study time: [HOURS/WEEK] Other commitments: [FAMILY / WORK / ETC.] No computer access: [DATES] Budget: [AMOUNT / FREE ONLY] What I want you to do Find the best current official and community preparation resources for this exam, and tell me where the official material is likely to fall short. Before making a study plan, tell me how to establish my baseline. If an official practice assessment exists, start there. Do not create the final plan until I give you my results. I'll provide my overall score, section breakdown and wrong answers where available. Then create a realistic study plan around my target date and constraints, week by week with specific dates. Follow the syllabus, but allocate more time to my weaker areas, and budget separate time for setting up any hands-on lab or practice environment. If I fall behind, tell me what I can deprioritise without leaving major exam objectives uncovered.
Claude doesn’t replace the learning path. Read it, and keep a running document of what you’d want to revisit: short notes, screenshots, anything you keep confusing. Let your weak areas produce more notes than your strong ones.
Give Claude your own notes, not the whole syllabus. Ask for the format you’ll actually use. Mine were offline pages I could read on my phone in queues, on trains and on holiday.
Using only the notes and screenshots I give you, turn this into a mobile-friendly, self-contained HTML study page that works offline. Keep the important distinctions, examples and things I marked as confusing. Make it easy to review in 10–15 minute sessions.
Documentation tells you what a feature is. The exam asks which of four to use. When you understand every option and still can’t choose, ask for the rule that picks one. This drill is what that turned into for me.
I understand what [OPTION A], [OPTION B] and [OPTION C] do. I don't understand when to choose between them. Build me a decision table: for each option, what would a requirement have to say for it to be the right answer — and what phrase or constraint would rule it out?
Examples: The master decision guide
Once the knowledge is there, practise the format: full case studies, using Microsoft Learn under time pressure, and the traps you keep falling into.
Don't quiz me on the material. Build a full exam-style case study — company background, business requirements, technical requirements, existing environment — then questions that can only be answered by cross-referencing different sections of the scenario.
Examples: Case study method & practice: Lakeside Outdoors · Second case study: Caldera Energy · Using Microsoft Learn during the exam · Every trap, one page
Plausible isn’t the same as correct. My first generated case study applied masking to an Always Encrypted column, which can’t work. Noticing that told me more about my readiness than any score. Check anything important against Microsoft Learn.
Each one started as a specific request about something I was struggling with.
What I asked for“Create me a single HTML with all the decision guides. I’m still stuck on exactly what to choose for each scenario.”
Fifty-one “which should I use?” decisions as trigger tables: what the question says, and what you choose. This drill grew out of it.
What I asked for“Create a separate HTML with just the trap tables for the whole exam.”
Every trap from every topic, with a filter, click-to-dim for the ones you’ve mastered, and a final twenty for the morning of the exam.
What I asked for“Write me an extensive practice and guide for using Microsoft Learn during the exam.”
What you can open during an associate exam, why no extra time is added, and 32 timed drills on what is and isn’t worth looking up.
What I asked for“How do I prepare for the case study part of the exam? Do you know what it is?”
How exam case studies work and a five-step method for them, then a full practice case with tabs, a timer and nine questions.
What I asked for“How can we mask a column that is Always Encrypted?” — the question that exposed a flaw in the first case study, and led to this one.
A second full case study with different traps: regex validation, temporal tables, randomized encryption, window functions and grouping sets.
These were built around my own gaps in July and August 2026, and they talk to me as “you”. Some SQL Server 2025 features changed after I sat the exam; corrections are marked “Updated Oct 2026”. No exam questions are reproduced. Every scenario is invented. The full story is in a five-part series.