For a report that requires current-year data and table-level security, which authentication method and mode should you choose?

• A. Basic authentication with Direct Lake
• B. Service principal authentication with Direct Query
• C. Single sign-on (SSO) authentication with Direct Lake
• D. SSO authentication with Import

Answer: (C)

The key idea is to have live data access combined with user-based security. Direct Lake lets you query the data in the data lake directly, so the report reflects current data without importing large datasets. When you pair that with single sign-on, the system can pass the actual user’s identity to the data source, allowing table-level (and other) security policies to be enforced for each person viewing the report. That combination gives you up-to-date information while respecting per-user access controls.

Other options fall short for these needs: basic authentication with Direct Lake would use static credentials, not the individual user, so per-user table-level security isn’t reliably enforceable. Service principal authentication with Direct Query uses an app identity rather than the end user, so security policies aren’t applied per user. SSO with Import could show current data only after a refresh and doesn’t provide live access to the latest data, making per-user security and current-year accuracy harder to maintain.