AZ-900 Practice Test 4 — 25 Questions

Question 1

A company is migrating its on-premises infrastructure to Azure. Previously, the company purchased physical servers, networking equipment, and data center space every three years, paying a large sum upfront. After migration, the company expects to pay a monthly invoice based only on the virtual machines and storage it actually uses, with the ability to increase or decrease resources as needed without additional upfront costs. This change in cost structure is best described by which pair of cloud computing concepts?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Capital expenditure (CapEx) to operational expenditure (OpEx). This scenario describes a shift from paying large upfront sums for hardware and data center space (CapEx) to paying a monthly invoice based on actual consumption of virtual machines and storage (OpEx). Azure's pay-as-you-go model allows resources to be scaled up or down without upfront costs, directly aligning with the CapEx-to-OpEx transition. This is a fundamental cloud concept that changes how organizations budget and manage IT expenses.

Answer

Measured service and resource pooling

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Economies of scale and geographic distribution

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Agility and high availability

Question 2

A company has a production Azure subscription used by multiple teams. The governance team wants to enforce a rule that only virtual machines (VMs) of specific SKU sizes (e.g., Standard_D2s_v3 and Standard_D4s_v3) can be deployed. If a team attempts to deploy a VM of a different SKU size, the deployment must be blocked immediately and the user must see an error message explaining the restriction. Which Azure feature should the governance team use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Policy with the 'Deny' effect. Azure Policy with the 'Deny' effect is the correct choice because it allows the governance team to define and enforce rules that prevent the deployment of non-compliant resources, such as VMs with disallowed SKU sizes. When a policy with the 'Deny' effect is assigned, any attempt to create or update a resource that violates the policy is blocked immediately, and the user receives a clear error message explaining the restriction. This is the only Azure feature that provides proactive, resource-level enforcement with a built-in denial mechanism.

Answer

Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) with a custom role that denies the 'Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/write' action

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Azure Blueprints with a resource lock

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Azure resource locks at the resource group level

Question 3

A company migrates its web application to Azure App Service (PaaS) and its data to Azure SQL Database (PaaS). The company wants to understand which security responsibilities it retains after the migration. According to the shared responsibility model, which of the following responsibilities remains the responsibility of the company (customer) when using these PaaS services?

Accepted Answer

Managing user access to the application and database. In the shared responsibility model for PaaS, the cloud provider manages the underlying infrastructure, including the OS and network security groups, while the customer retains responsibility for managing access to their application and data. For Azure App Service and Azure SQL Database, this means the customer must configure authentication, authorization, and user permissions (e.g., using Microsoft Entra ID or SQL logins) to control who can access the application and database.

Answer

Patching the operating system of the web server

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Managing network security groups for the virtual network

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Physical security of the Azure data center

Question 4

A company has deployed a production Azure SQL Database that is used by a critical line-of-business application. The database administrators need to be able to change the database schema and scaling settings. However, the operations team must ensure that no one can accidentally delete the database or its server. The company does not want to implement a complex backup strategy for this prevention; they want a simple control that can be applied at the resource level without affecting other management operations. What should the operations team configure to meet these requirements?

Accepted Answer

A 'CanNotDelete' resource lock on the database and the server. A 'CanNotDelete' resource lock on the database and the server prevents accidental deletion while still allowing all other management operations, including schema changes and scaling. This meets the requirement for a simple, resource-level control that does not affect read or update permissions.

Answer

An Azure Policy definition with the 'Deny' effect assigned to the resource group containing the database

Answer

A custom Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) role that excludes the delete action

Answer

An Azure Blueprint that includes a policy enforcing a read-only state

Question 5

A company plans to deploy a web application on Azure Virtual Machines. The solution must remain available even if a physical datacenter in the region experiences a complete outage. The company wants to use the simplest and most cost-effective architecture that meets this requirement within a single Azure region. What should the company configure?

Accepted Answer

Deploy VMs in an Availability Zone across multiple zones.. Availability Zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Deploying VMs across multiple zones protects against a single datacenter outage while remaining in one region, making it the simplest and most cost-effective solution for this requirement.

Answer

Deploy VMs in an Availability Set across multiple fault domains.

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Deploy VMs in a single scale set with autoscale.

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Deploy VMs in a virtual network with a VPN gateway to a secondary region.

Question 6

A startup company plans to move its e-commerce application to Azure. The startup has limited upfront capital and expects demand to be unpredictable initially. The key requirement is that the company should only be charged for the compute and storage resources it actually uses, with the ability to pay per hour or per minute. This requirement directly maps to which fundamental benefit of cloud computing?

Accepted Answer

Consumption-based pricing – customers pay only for the resources they consume, with no upfront costs.. The startup's requirement to pay only for the compute and storage resources it actually uses, with per-hour or per-minute billing and no upfront capital, directly maps to consumption-based pricing. This cloud benefit eliminates the need for large initial investments and aligns costs with actual usage, which is ideal for unpredictable demand scenarios.

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High availability – redundant infrastructure ensures the application stays online.

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Elasticity – resources can automatically scale out and in based on demand.

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Disaster recovery – data and applications are backed up to another region.

Question 7

A large enterprise has multiple Azure subscriptions for different departments. The central IT team wants to enforce a policy that restricts the Azure regions where resources can be deployed. The policy must automatically apply to all existing subscriptions and to any new subscriptions created in the future, without requiring manual assignment to each subscription individually. Which Azure feature should the central IT team use to achieve this hierarchical governance?

Accepted Answer

Azure Management Groups. Azure Management Groups provide a hierarchical structure above subscriptions, allowing policies (like region restrictions) to be assigned at the management group level. This inheritance ensures the policy automatically applies to all existing subscriptions within the group and to any new subscriptions added later, without manual per-subscription assignment.

Answer

Azure Blueprints

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Azure Resource Groups

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Azure Policy alone assigned to each subscription

Question 8

A global consulting firm has offices in New York, London, and Tokyo. They deployed a document management system on Azure App Service. Consultants need to access the system from any location worldwide using laptops or smartphones over public Wi-Fi or cellular networks, without needing a VPN connection. After deployment, all consultants can successfully log in and use the application from any internet-connected device. Which characteristic of cloud computing does this scenario best illustrate?

Accepted Answer

Broad network access. This scenario best illustrates broad network access because the document management system is accessible over the internet from any location using laptops or smartphones without requiring a VPN. Broad network access means resources can be accessed via standard network protocols (e.g., HTTPS) from a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and laptops, over public networks like Wi-Fi or cellular. The consultants' ability to log in and use the application from any internet-connected device directly demonstrates this characteristic.

Answer

High availability

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Resource pooling

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Rapid elasticity

Question 9

A company has a regulatory requirement that all Azure resources must be deployed only in the West Europe region. The governance team needs to automatically prevent any user or application from creating resources in any other region. The team must also ensure that this restriction is applied to all existing and future subscriptions within the tenant. Which Azure service should the governance team use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Policy. Azure Policy is correct because it enforces organizational standards by evaluating resources for compliance with defined rules, such as restricting allowed regions. By creating a policy definition that denies resource creation outside West Europe and assigning it at the management group scope, the restriction applies to all existing and future subscriptions within the tenant automatically.

Answer

Azure Blueprints

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Management Groups

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Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Question 10

A company's CFO is evaluating the financial impact of moving the company's on-premises data center to Azure. The on-premises data center requires significant upfront investment for servers, storage, and networking equipment, which is depreciated over several years. In contrast, Azure offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model where the company pays only for the resources it consumes, with no upfront costs. The CFO wants to understand how this shift changes the company's financial reporting. Which statement accurately describes the financial difference between on-premises and cloud spending?

Accepted Answer

On-premises is a capital expenditure (CapEx), while Azure is an operational expenditure (OpEx).. On-premises data centers require significant upfront capital investment for hardware, which is capitalized as a capital expenditure (CapEx) and depreciated over time. Azure's pay-as-you-go model shifts costs to operational expenditure (OpEx), where you pay only for consumed resources with no upfront costs, directly impacting financial reporting by converting fixed costs to variable costs.

Answer

On-premises is an operational expenditure (OpEx), while Azure is a capital expenditure (CapEx).

Answer

Both on-premises and Azure are classified as capital expenditures (CapEx).

Answer

Both on-premises and Azure are classified as operational expenditures (OpEx).

Question 11

A company is designing a highly available application deployment in Azure. The solution must ensure that virtual machines are placed in physically separate data centers within the same Azure region to protect against a single data center failure. Which Azure feature should the company use?

Accepted Answer

Availability Zone. Availability Zones are physically separate data centers within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. By deploying VMs across multiple zones, the application remains available even if a single data center fails, meeting the requirement for physical separation within the same region.

Answer

Availability Set

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Virtual Machine Scale Set

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Azure Resource Manager

Question 12

A company has an Azure subscription with hundreds of existing virtual machines. The governance team wants to enforce a policy that every virtual machine must have a tag named 'CostCenter' with a valid value. The team wants to automatically add the 'CostCenter' tag with a default value of 'Undefined' to any existing or new virtual machine that is missing the tag. They do not want to block the creation of virtual machines that are missing the tag, but they do want the tag to be added automatically within a few minutes of detection. Which Azure Policy effect should the team use?

Accepted Answer

Modify. The Modify effect is correct because it can automatically add or change tags on existing and new resources without blocking creation. Unlike Append, which only works during resource creation and cannot modify existing resources, Modify uses a 'remediation' task to fix non-compliant resources after they are created, aligning with the requirement to add the tag within minutes of detection.

Answer

Audit

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Deny

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Append

Question 13

A company deploys a mission-critical application across three Azure availability zones. The application is designed to continue operating without any interruption if an entire availability zone becomes unavailable. Which cloud computing characteristic does this scenario best illustrate?

Accepted Answer

Fault tolerance. B is correct because fault tolerance is the ability of a system to continue operating without any interruption when a component fails. Deploying a mission-critical application across three Azure availability zones ensures that if an entire zone goes down, the application remains operational with zero downtime, which is the defining characteristic of fault tolerance.

Answer

Elasticity

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High availability

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Scalability

Question 14

A company runs several Azure virtual machines and an Azure SQL Database in a single subscription. The operations team needs a single, personalized dashboard that displays the current health status of these specific resources, as well as any upcoming planned maintenance events from Microsoft that might affect them. The team wants to see all this information in one place without having to navigate multiple tools. Which Azure service should the operations team use to meet these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Azure Service Health. Azure Service Health provides a personalized dashboard that shows the health of your specific Azure services and resources, including Azure virtual machines and SQL Database, in a single subscription. It also surfaces upcoming planned maintenance events from Microsoft that could affect those resources, meeting the requirement for a unified view without navigating multiple tools.

Answer

Azure Resource Health

Answer

Azure Monitor

Answer

Azure Advisor

Question 15

A company deploys a multi-tier application using Azure virtual machines. The web tier VMs must be evenly distributed across two distinct data centers within an Azure region to avoid a single point of failure from an infrastructure outage. Which Azure construct should they use to meet this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Availability zone. Availability zones are physically separate data centers within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. By deploying the web tier VMs across two distinct zones, the application avoids a single point of failure from an infrastructure outage at the data center level, meeting the requirement for high availability across distinct data centers.

Answer

Availability set

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Proximity placement group

Answer

Azure Load Balancer

Question 16

A company uses multiple Azure subscriptions for development and production. The finance team wants to set a monthly budget of $1,000 for a specific dev subscription. When the actual cost reaches 80% of the budget, the team wants to receive an email alert. If the cost exceeds 100%, they want to automatically stop a specific virtual machine in that subscription to prevent overspending. Which Azure feature should the team use to automate the stopping of the VM when the budget is exceeded?

Accepted Answer

Azure Cost Management + Budgets with an action group configured to run a Runbook. Azure Cost Management + Budgets allows you to set a budget and configure alerts based on actual or forecasted cost thresholds. When the cost exceeds 100% of the budget, you can trigger an action group that runs an Azure Automation Runbook, which can be scripted to stop a specific virtual machine. This provides automated cost control without manual intervention.

Answer

Azure Policy with a Deny effect

Answer

Azure Advisor cost recommendations

Answer

Azure Resource Graph queries with Azure Monitor alerts

Question 17

A company wants to use cloud services to quickly spin up a test environment for a new application, use it for a week, and then delete it. They want to minimize costs by only paying for the compute resources during that week. This scenario best describes which cloud characteristic?

Accepted Answer

Self-service. Self-service in cloud computing allows users to provision and de-provision resources (like compute instances) on demand without manual intervention from the cloud provider. In this scenario, the company can spin up a test environment, use it for a week, and delete it, paying only for the compute resources consumed during that period, which aligns with the self-service characteristic where users manage their own resources via a web portal or API.

Answer

Rapid elasticity

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Measured service

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Resource pooling

Question 18

A company runs a web application on Azure App Service. They want to route users to the nearest regional deployment based on DNS queries to minimize latency. Which Azure service should they use for this global traffic routing?

Accepted Answer

Traffic Manager. Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer that routes incoming DNS queries to the nearest regional endpoint based on the user's geographic location, network latency, or other routing methods. This ensures users are directed to the closest Azure App Service deployment, minimizing latency for global traffic.

Answer

Azure Load Balancer

Answer

Application Gateway

Answer

Azure Front Door

Question 19

A company uses Azure for multiple workloads. The finance team wants to identify virtual machines that are consistently underutilized (average CPU usage below 5%) so they can reduce costs by resizing or shutting down those VMs. They want a built-in Azure tool that automatically analyzes resource usage and provides actionable recommendations. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Advisor. Azure Advisor is the correct service because it is a built-in Azure tool that automatically analyzes resource usage and provides actionable recommendations to optimize costs, including identifying underutilized virtual machines. It specifically evaluates CPU usage patterns and suggests resizing or shutting down VMs with consistently low utilization (e.g., average CPU below 5%) to reduce costs without manual intervention.

Answer

Azure Monitor

Answer

Azure Cost Management

Answer

Azure Policy

Question 20

A company uses Azure to host its virtual machines and storage. The company receives a monthly invoice that charges based on the exact number of virtual machine hours and gigabytes of storage consumed. No upfront payment is required. Which characteristic of cloud computing does this billing model represent?

Accepted Answer

Measured service. The billing model charges based on exact virtual machine hours and gigabytes of storage consumed, with no upfront payment. This directly reflects the measured service characteristic of cloud computing, where resource usage is metered, monitored, and billed according to consumption. Azure tracks usage metrics (e.g., VM runtime in hours, storage in GB-months) via its meters and generates invoices based on these precise measurements.

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

On-demand self-service