AZ-900 Practice Test 39 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Which Azure service provides a fully managed time-series database optimized for IoT and operational data?

Accepted Answer

Azure Data Explorer. Azure Data Explorer (ADX) is a fully managed, high-performance big data analytics service optimized for time-series and log data, making it ideal for IoT and operational scenarios. It uses a columnar storage engine and Kusto Query Language (KQL) to ingest and query massive volumes of time-stamped data with sub-second latency. This directly matches the requirement for a fully managed time-series database for IoT and operational data.

Answer

Azure Cosmos DB

Answer

Azure SQL Database

Answer

Azure Table Storage

Question 2

Which Azure compute option allows you to run code in response to events without provisioning or managing servers, and supports triggers from HTTP, timers, and Azure service events?

Accepted Answer

Azure Functions. Azure Functions is the correct answer because it is a serverless compute service that executes code in response to events, such as HTTP requests, timer-based schedules, or Azure service events (e.g., Blob Storage or Queue triggers). It abstracts server management entirely, allowing you to focus solely on the code logic, and automatically scales based on demand.

Answer

Azure Logic Apps

Answer

Azure Container Instances

Answer

Azure App Service WebJobs

Question 3

Which Azure service provides a DNS hosting service that resolves domain names using the Azure infrastructure?

Accepted Answer

Azure DNS. Azure DNS is the correct answer because it is a hosting service for DNS domains that provides name resolution using Microsoft Azure infrastructure. It allows you to manage your DNS records using the same credentials, APIs, and billing as your other Azure services, and it supports common DNS record types like A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, PTR, SOA, SRV, and TXT.

Answer

Azure Traffic Manager

Answer

Azure Front Door

Answer

Azure Private Link

Question 4

A bank needs to keep some sensitive customer data on-premises due to regulatory requirements, but wants to use cloud services for less sensitive workloads. Which cloud deployment model should they adopt?

Accepted Answer

Hybrid cloud. A hybrid cloud model combines on-premises infrastructure (private cloud) with public cloud services, allowing the bank to keep sensitive customer data on-premises to meet regulatory requirements while using the public cloud for less sensitive workloads. This approach provides a unified management plane and secure connectivity (e.g., VPN or Azure ExpressRoute) between the two environments, ensuring compliance and flexibility.

Answer

Public cloud

Answer

Private cloud

Answer

Community cloud

Question 5

What is Azure Active Directory (Azure AD)?

Accepted Answer

A cloud-based identity and access management service. Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is Microsoft's cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) service. It provides authentication and authorization for users, applications, and resources in the cloud, supporting protocols like OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and SAML. Unlike on-premises Active Directory, Azure AD is a multi-tenant, directory-as-a-service platform designed for cloud and hybrid scenarios.

Answer

A domain controller service for on-premises Active Directory

Answer

A firewall service for protecting Azure resources

Answer

A virtual private network for connecting to Azure

Question 6

Which statement correctly describes the operational cost model of cloud computing?

Accepted Answer

You pay for cloud resources only when you consume them, on a recurring basis. Cloud computing follows an operational expenditure (OpEx) model where you pay only for the resources you actually consume, such as compute hours, storage GB-months, or data transfer, on a recurring basis. This eliminates the need for large upfront capital investments and allows you to scale costs with usage, aligning with the pay-as-you-go pricing model central to Azure and other cloud providers.

Answer

You make large upfront investments in hardware that you own and depreciate

Answer

You purchase cloud capacity in bulk at the beginning of each year

Answer

You lease physical servers from the cloud provider for a fixed monthly fee

Question 7

A company needs to track and optimize costs across multiple Azure subscriptions. They want to allocate budgets and receive notifications when spending exceeds forecasted amounts. Which Azure tool should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Cost Management. Azure Cost Management is the correct tool because it provides native capabilities to track, analyze, and optimize cloud costs across multiple subscriptions. It allows you to set budgets, configure cost alerts, and receive notifications when actual or forecasted spending exceeds defined thresholds, directly addressing the requirement for budget allocation and proactive spending notifications.

Answer

Azure Advisor

Answer

Azure Policy

Answer

Azure Budgets

Question 8

What does the term 'scalability' mean in the context of cloud computing?

Accepted Answer

The ability to increase or decrease resources to match workload demand. Scalability in cloud computing refers to the ability to dynamically adjust computing resources—such as virtual machines, storage, or database throughput—up or down to match fluctuating workload demands. This is a core cloud characteristic that enables cost efficiency by paying only for what you use, and it is typically implemented through horizontal scaling (adding/removing instances) or vertical scaling (resizing an instance). In Azure, this is achieved via features like Virtual Machine Scale Sets or Azure App Service auto-scale rules.

Answer

The ability to automatically recover from failures without data loss

Answer

The ability to replicate data across multiple geographic regions

Answer

The ability to deploy applications with no downtime

Question 9

Which Azure tool helps you compare the 5-year cost of running an on-premises datacenter versus migrating those workloads to Azure?

Accepted Answer

Azure TCO Calculator. The Azure TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) Calculator is specifically designed to compare the costs of running an on-premises datacenter with the costs of migrating those workloads to Azure. It takes inputs such as server, storage, and network specifications, then generates a detailed report showing potential savings over a customizable period, including 5 years. This tool accounts for hardware, software, labor, electricity, and other on-premises costs, then maps them to equivalent Azure services.

Answer

Azure Pricing Calculator

Answer

Azure Cost Management + Billing

Answer

Azure Advisor cost recommendations

Question 10

A company wants to run a containerized application in Azure without managing any virtual machines. They need automatic scaling, load balancing, and service discovery. Which Azure compute service should they choose?

Accepted Answer

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is the correct choice because it provides a fully managed Kubernetes orchestration platform that abstracts away the underlying virtual machines. AKS handles automatic scaling via the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) and cluster autoscaler, built-in load balancing through Azure Load Balancer integration, and service discovery using Kubernetes DNS (CoreDNS). This meets the requirement of running containerized applications without managing VMs.

Answer

Azure Container Instances

Answer

Azure App Service

Answer

Azure Virtual Machines

Question 11

Which Azure service provides a fully managed message broker that supports queues and publish-subscribe topics for enterprise application integration?

Accepted Answer

Azure Service Bus. Azure Service Bus is a fully managed enterprise message broker that supports both queues (point-to-point) and topics (publish-subscribe) with features like dead-lettering, sessions, and transactions. It is designed for reliable, ordered message delivery in enterprise application integration scenarios, using AMQP, SBMP, or HTTPS protocols.

Answer

Azure Event Hubs

Answer

Azure Queue Storage

Answer

Azure Notification Hubs

Question 12

Which Azure cloud benefit means organizations don't need to predict future resource needs exactly when planning infrastructure?

Accepted Answer

Stop guessing capacity requirements. The 'Stop guessing capacity requirements' benefit, often referred to as 'Capacity Planning' in the Azure Well-Architected Framework, directly addresses the challenge of over-provisioning or under-provisioning infrastructure. Azure's elastic scaling model allows organizations to provision resources on demand and pay only for what they use, eliminating the need to predict future workloads precisely. This is a core advantage of the consumption-based model in cloud computing, where resources can be scaled up or down automatically based on real-time metrics.

Answer

Economies of scale

Answer

Increased speed and agility

Answer

Go global in minutes

Question 13

Which Azure service provides intelligent search capabilities with AI-powered features like OCR, entity recognition, and key phrase extraction?

Accepted Answer

Azure Cognitive Search. Azure Cognitive Search (now Azure AI Search) is the correct answer because it is a cloud search-as-a-service solution that integrates AI-powered capabilities such as OCR (optical character recognition), entity recognition, and key phrase extraction via built-in cognitive skills. These skills enrich the indexing pipeline, allowing unstructured data to be transformed into searchable, structured content without custom ML code.

Answer

Azure Form Recognizer

Answer

Azure Language Understanding

Answer

Azure Text Analytics

Question 14

A company has an Azure policy requirement that all new resources in a specific resource group must have a 'Department' tag. If a resource is created without this tag, the tag should be automatically added with a default value of 'Finance'. Which Azure Policy effect should be used?

Accepted Answer

Append. The Append effect is correct because it allows Azure Policy to automatically add a 'Department' tag with a default value of 'Finance' to any resource created without it in the specified resource group. This effect modifies the resource during creation or update to enforce compliance without blocking the operation.

Answer

Deny

Answer

Audit

Answer

Modify

Question 15

What is the difference between vertical scaling and horizontal scaling?

Accepted Answer

Vertical scaling increases a single resource's capacity; horizontal scaling adds more instances. Vertical scaling (scaling up) increases the capacity of a single resource, such as adding more RAM, CPU, or disk space to a virtual machine. Horizontal scaling (scaling out) adds more instances of a resource, distributing the load across multiple machines. This distinction is fundamental in cloud computing, where Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets exemplify horizontal scaling by automatically adding VM instances, while resizing a VM to a larger SKU represents vertical scaling.

Answer

Vertical scaling adds more instances; horizontal scaling increases instance size

Answer

Both vertical and horizontal scaling achieve the same result through different means

Answer

Vertical scaling is for storage; horizontal scaling is for compute