A managed Databricks MCP server provides tools for accessing Databricks services without requiring the team to host an external server. For structured table queries, a suitable managed SQL or Genie tool uses Databricks-governed data access. Unity Catalog remains responsible for authorization instead of delegating security decisions to the language model. When permissions must reflect the individual requester, the application must use the appropriate user authorization configuration so row filters and column masks are evaluated for that identity. Passing credentials in prompts exposes secrets unnecessarily. A self-managed virtual machine violates the infrastructure requirement. Direct JDBC access also fails the requested MCP architecture and introduces custom integration work. Managed hosting simplifies deployment while preserving the platform's access-control model. Databricks tools documentation , authentication documentation

D identifies the index type designed to synchronize with a source Delta table. Delta Sync supports incremental maintenance, avoiding a custom process that repeatedly rebuilds the complete index or manually pushes every changed vector. A Direct Vector Access index transfers update responsibility to the application.
However, this question has a configuration ambiguity: Delta Sync also has a synchronization mode.
Continuous mode processes arriving changes automatically, while triggered mode requires an explicit synchronization request, which can be scheduled after ETL. If the existing index is already a triggered Delta Sync index, B is the relevant configuration change. D is therefore the intended architectural answer, with continuous synchronization or an automated trigger needed to deliver the requested operational behavior.
Databricks API documentation

To build an LLM-powered system that accesses up-to-date news articles and stock prices, the best approach is tocreate an agentthat has access to specific tools (option D).
* Agent with SQL and Web Search Capabilities:By using an agent-based architecture, the LLM can interact with external tools. The agent can query Delta tables (for up-to-date stock prices) via SQL and perform web searches to retrieve the latest news articles. This modular approach ensures the system can access both structured (stock prices) and unstructured (news) data sources dynamically.
* Why This Approach Works:
* SQL Queries for Stock Prices: Delta tables store stock prices, which the agent can query directly for the latest data.
* Web Search for News: For news articles, the agent can generate search queries and retrieve the most relevant and recent articles, then pass them to the LLM for processing.
* Why Other Options Are Less Suitable:
* A (Summarizing News for Stock Prices): This convoluted approach would not ensure accuracy when retrieving stock prices, which are already structured and stored in Delta tables.
* B (Stock Price Volatility Queries): While this could retrieve relevant information, it doesn't address how to obtain the most up-to-date news articles.
* C (Vector Store): Storing news articles and stock prices in a vector store might not capture the real-time nature of stock data and news updates, as it relies on pre-existing data rather than dynamic querying.
Thus, using an agent with access to both SQL for querying stock prices and web search for retrieving news articles is the best approach for ensuring up-to-date and accurate responses.

A scheduled SQL query using ai_query() is a straightforward way to process text already stored in a Delta table. The query can send each post to a supported model with instructions to return a summary and sentiment, then persist the results for internal reporting. A pay-per-token service avoids dedicating serving capacity to a workload containing only a few hundred daily records. Calling an external batch API introduces additional integration and result-handling work, while downloading and hosting a model adds infrastructure responsibilities. Provisioned throughput is generally more appropriate when sustained demand justifies dedicated capacity. B is the best fit among these choices; actual costs still depend on model selection, token volume, SQL compute, and the applicable inference pricing. Databricks documentation