AZ-900 Practice Test 20 — 15 Questions

Question 1

An organization wants to review the compliance status of all resources across multiple subscriptions against a set of regulatory standards. Which Azure tool provides this consolidated view?

Accepted Answer

Microsoft Defender for Cloud. Microsoft Defender for Cloud (formerly Azure Security Center) provides a unified view of compliance posture across all Azure subscriptions by continuously assessing resources against built-in regulatory standards (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS) and custom policies. It aggregates compliance scores, recommendations, and security findings into a single dashboard, enabling centralized compliance management.

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Azure Monitor

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Azure Advisor

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Azure Policy

Question 2

What is the purpose of Azure's 'Cost Management + Billing' service?

Accepted Answer

To monitor, analyze, and optimize Azure spending across subscriptions. Azure Cost Management + Billing is the dedicated service for monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing Azure spending. It provides tools to track costs across subscriptions, set budgets, create alerts, and generate reports, enabling organizations to control cloud expenditure and improve cost efficiency.

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To provision and manage Azure resources automatically

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To enforce security policies across Azure resources

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To manage Azure support tickets and technical issues

Question 3

A company uses Azure Blueprints to define a standard environment for all new development subscriptions. The blueprint includes a set of Azure policies, role assignments, and resource templates. However, after applying the blueprint, some resources are created that do not comply with the policies. The company wants to be notified of these non-compliant resources without blocking their creation. Which Azure Policy effect should be used in the blueprint?

Accepted Answer

Audit. The Audit effect is correct because it enables Azure Policy to evaluate resources against the defined policies and log compliance warnings in the activity log without blocking resource creation. This meets the requirement to be notified of non-compliant resources while allowing them to be created.

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Deny

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Append

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DeployIfNotExists

Question 4

Which Azure service provides a platform for running Apache Kafka for real-time event streaming without managing infrastructure?

Accepted Answer

Azure Event Hubs with Kafka endpoint. Azure Event Hubs with Kafka endpoint is correct because it provides a fully managed, Kafka-protocol-compatible event streaming service that allows you to run Apache Kafka workloads without provisioning or managing any Kafka clusters. This enables real-time event streaming using existing Kafka producers and consumers while Azure handles the underlying infrastructure, scaling, and high availability.

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Azure Service Bus

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Azure Stream Analytics

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Azure HDInsight Kafka cluster

Question 5

Which Azure service enables automated configuration management and desired state enforcement for Windows and Linux VMs?

Accepted Answer

Azure Automation State Configuration. Azure Automation State Configuration (DSC) is the correct service because it provides PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) for Windows and Linux VMs, enabling automated configuration management and enforcement of a desired state. It uses a pull or push model to ensure VMs remain compliant with defined configurations, such as installed software or registry settings, without manual intervention.

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Azure Policy

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Azure Monitor

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Azure Blueprints

Question 6

Which Azure service provides a managed Apache Hadoop cluster for processing large amounts of data using batch analytics?

Accepted Answer

Azure HDInsight. Azure HDInsight is the correct answer because it is a fully managed, open-source analytics service that provides Apache Hadoop clusters specifically designed for batch processing of large data sets using MapReduce and other Hadoop ecosystem components. Unlike other services, HDInsight directly supports Hadoop's distributed file system (HDFS) and YARN resource management, making it the native choice for traditional big data batch analytics.

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Azure Databricks

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Azure Synapse Analytics

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Azure Stream Analytics

Question 7

Which Azure service provides NoSQL wide-column database storage compatible with Apache Cassandra?

Accepted Answer

Azure Cosmos DB for Apache Cassandra. Azure Cosmos DB for Apache Cassandra is the correct choice because it provides a NoSQL wide-column database storage that is fully compatible with the Apache Cassandra Query Language (CQL) and wire protocol. This allows you to run existing Cassandra workloads and tools (like cqlsh and Cassandra drivers) directly on Azure without any code changes, while benefiting from Cosmos DB's global distribution and SLA-backed performance.

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Azure Table Storage

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Azure Cache for Redis

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Azure SQL Database Hyperscale

Question 8

A company has a policy that all Azure resources must have a 'CostCenter' tag. They want to automatically audit and deny the creation of any resource that does not include this tag. Which Azure Policy effect should they use?

Accepted Answer

Deny. The 'Deny' effect is correct because the company's policy requires that any resource creation attempt missing the 'CostCenter' tag must be blocked entirely, not just reported or modified. Azure Policy's Deny effect actively prevents the resource from being provisioned by rejecting the API call at the Azure Resource Manager level, ensuring non-compliant resources are never created.

Answer

Audit

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Append

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DeployIfNotExists

Question 9

Which of the following is a characteristic of the public cloud deployment model?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure is owned by the provider and shared among multiple customers. In the public cloud deployment model, the cloud provider owns and manages the physical infrastructure (servers, storage, networking), and that infrastructure is shared among multiple customer organizations (tenants). This multi-tenant architecture is a defining characteristic, enabling economies of scale and on-demand resource allocation. Option C correctly identifies this shared, provider-owned model.

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All hardware is owned and managed by the customer

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Resources are dedicated to a single customer organization

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Computing resources are hosted in the customer's own data center

Question 10

Which statement BEST describes the benefit of cloud computing's 'predictable costs'?

Accepted Answer

Costs can be forecasted and controlled using consumption-based pricing and planning tools. Predictable costs in cloud computing refer to the ability to forecast and control spending through consumption-based pricing models (pay-as-you-go) and tools like Azure Cost Management + Billing. This allows organizations to estimate costs based on usage patterns, set budgets, and receive alerts, making financial planning more accurate compared to unpredictable capital expenses.

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You always pay the same amount regardless of usage

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Cloud services are always cheaper than on-premises solutions

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Hardware costs are fixed for the contract term

Question 11

What is 'scalability' in the context of cloud computing?

Accepted Answer

The ability to increase or decrease resources to match demand. Scalability in cloud computing refers to the ability to dynamically adjust resources (such as compute power, memory, or storage) to match fluctuating demand. This is a core benefit of cloud platforms like Azure, enabling automatic scaling via services such as Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets or Azure App Service autoscale, ensuring performance without over-provisioning.

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The ability to keep services running during failures

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The ability to recover data after a disaster

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The ability to deploy resources in multiple geographic regions

Question 12

Which Azure service enables serverless compute for running containers with scale-to-zero capabilities?

Accepted Answer

Azure Container Apps. Azure Container Apps is the correct answer because it is a fully managed serverless container service that automatically scales down to zero when there is no traffic, meaning you only pay for resources when your containers are actively running. This scale-to-zero capability is a key differentiator from other container services, as it allows cost-efficient execution of event-driven or idle workloads without maintaining a running cluster.

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Azure Functions

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Azure Kubernetes Service

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Azure Container Instances

Question 13

Which Azure service manages application secrets, API keys, and certificates in a centralized, secure vault?

Accepted Answer

Azure Key Vault. Azure Key Vault is the correct service because it is specifically designed to centrally store and control access to application secrets, API keys, and certificates. It provides hardware security module (HSM)-backed encryption, granular access policies via Azure RBAC, and integrates seamlessly with Azure services like VMs and App Services to inject secrets at runtime without exposing them in code.

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Azure Active Directory

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Azure Information Protection

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Azure Security Center

Question 14

Which cloud characteristic ensures data remains accessible and readable even when stored for long periods?

Accepted Answer

Durability. Durability is the cloud characteristic that guarantees data remains intact and readable over extended periods, even in the face of hardware failures or bit rot. Cloud providers achieve this through data replication (e.g., Azure Storage's Locally Redundant Storage (LRS) or Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS)) and erasure coding, ensuring that stored objects survive individual disk or node failures. This is distinct from availability, which focuses on uptime and access, not long-term data integrity.

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Scalability

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Availability

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Performance

Question 15

A company wants to be able to increase and decrease resources automatically based on demand without manual intervention. Which cloud characteristic does this describe?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. Rapid elasticity is the cloud characteristic that enables resources to be automatically and dynamically scaled out (increased) or scaled in (decreased) in response to real-time demand, without requiring manual intervention. This is typically implemented through autoscaling policies that monitor metrics like CPU utilization or request count and trigger provisioning or de-provisioning of virtual machines or containers via APIs. The key differentiator is that scaling happens automatically and often in near real-time, matching the elasticity definition in NIST SP 800-145.

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Measured service

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Resource pooling

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On-demand self-service