What must be created as a target database for Azure Synapse Link for Azure SQL Database in Azure Synapse Analytics?

The correct choice involves creating a dedicated SQL pool as the target database for Azure Synapse Link for Azure SQL Database in Azure Synapse Analytics.

Azure Synapse Link is designed to enable seamless integration and analytics capabilities between Azure SQL Database and Azure Synapse Analytics. When working with Azure Synapse Link, the dedicated SQL pool serves as the optimal backend structure for handling large volumes of analytical queries and providing efficient data warehousing capabilities.

A dedicated SQL pool is specifically built to handle high-throughput data processing and complex analytical workloads, which are essential for applications needing real-time insights from operational workloads. By using a dedicated SQL pool, users can leverage the full power of Synapse Analytics, including features like distributed processing and secure data management, providing high performance and scalability.

The other options do serve specific functions within Azure Synapse but do not provide the appropriate structure needed for the specific instance of Azure Synapse Link usage with Azure SQL Database. Serverless SQL pools do not maintain the ongoing state necessary for continuous data integration and are better suited for ad-hoc queries. Apache Spark pools are primarily for big data processing and machine learning scenarios, but may not be optimal for traditional database workloads. A data warehouse typically refers to the overall architecture for storing data but is not as