AZ-900 Practice Exam 60 — 20 Questions

Question 1

A company's security team needs to audit all virtual machines (VMs) that have a public IP address directly attached, across more than 50 Azure subscriptions organized under several management groups. The team wants to run a single query to get a list of these VMs along with the subscription and resource group details. The solution must provide fast results without the need to write custom scripts or iterate through each subscription individually. Which Azure service should the team use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Resource Graph. Azure Resource Graph (ARG) is the correct choice because it provides a powerful, queryable interface (using Kusto Query Language, KQL) that can search across all Azure subscriptions, management groups, and resource groups in a single query. It can quickly return a list of VMs with public IPs attached, along with their subscription and resource group metadata, without requiring custom scripts or iterative loops. This directly meets the requirement for fast, cross-subscription auditing with minimal overhead.

Answer

Azure Policy

Answer

Azure Monitor

Answer

Azure Resource Manager

Question 2

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.

Answer

Deploy VMs in a single scale set with autoscale.

Answer

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

Question 3

A company runs a web application on an Azure virtual machine. The application experiences periodic traffic surges during promotional campaigns. To handle the increased load, the IT team manually changes the VM size from Standard_D2s_v3 to Standard_D8s_v3 before each campaign and then changes it back after the campaign ends. Which cloud computing concept does this scenario exemplify?

Accepted Answer

Scalability. This scenario exemplifies scalability, specifically vertical scaling (scaling up), because the IT team manually increases the VM size to handle higher demand and then reduces it afterward. Scalability is the ability to adjust resources to meet changing workload demands, which is exactly what occurs when changing from Standard_D2s_v3 to Standard_D8s_v3.

Answer

Elasticity

Answer

High availability

Answer

Disaster recovery

Question 4

A company plans to migrate its on-premises SQL Server database to Azure. The database uses many features including SQL Server Agent jobs, cross-database queries, and CLR integration. The company wants a fully managed PaaS service that minimizes application code changes and supports native virtual network (VNet) integration without requiring a private endpoint. Which Azure service should the company use?

Accepted Answer

Azure SQL Managed Instance. Azure SQL Managed Instance is the correct choice because it provides near 100% compatibility with on-premises SQL Server, including SQL Server Agent jobs, cross-database queries, and CLR integration, while being a fully managed PaaS service. It supports native VNet integration without requiring a private endpoint, allowing the database to be placed directly into a customer's virtual network for secure, isolated connectivity.

Answer

Azure SQL Database

Answer

SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machine

Answer

Azure Cosmos DB

Question 5

A company runs its line-of-business application on a virtual machine in an on-premises data center. The business continuity team wants to replicate the entire server (including operating system, applications, and data) to Azure so that if the on-premises site fails, the workload can be quickly started in an Azure region. The team also needs the ability to perform non-disruptive disaster recovery drills to validate the failover process. Which Azure service should the team use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Site Recovery. Azure Site Recovery (ASR) is the correct service because it provides orchestrated replication of entire on-premises virtual machines—including OS, applications, and data—to Azure. It supports planned and unplanned failover, and crucially allows non-disruptive disaster recovery drills via test failover, which isolates the replicated environment without impacting the production workload.

Answer

Azure Backup

Answer

Azure Migrate

Answer

Azure Traffic Manager

Question 6

A company runs a critical order-processing application on two Azure virtual machines in the West US region. The application must remain available even if an entire datacenter in that region experiences a complete outage. The company wants to place the two VMs in separate physical locations within the same region to provide fault tolerance against a datacenter-level failure. Which Azure feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

Availability Zones. Availability Zones (B) are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. By placing each VM in a different zone, the application remains available even if an entire datacenter fails, providing fault tolerance at the datacenter level within the same region.

Answer

Availability Set

Answer

Azure Region Pair

Answer

Virtual Machine Scale Set

Question 7

A company runs several Azure virtual machines (VMs) in a virtual network. Administrators need to connect to these VMs using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to perform maintenance tasks. The security team mandates that the VMs must not have any public IP addresses assigned. All RDP traffic must be routed through a fully managed Azure service that provides secure TLS-based access directly from the Azure portal, without requiring any client software installation on the administrator's workstation. Which Azure service should the company use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Bastion. Azure Bastion is a fully managed Platform as a Service (PaaS) that provides secure and seamless RDP/SSH connectivity to virtual machines directly from the Azure portal over TLS. It eliminates the need for public IP addresses on the VMs by deploying a Bastion host in the same virtual network, acting as a jump server that brokers the connection. Because it requires no client software on the administrator's workstation and enforces TLS-based access, it perfectly meets the security mandate and connectivity requirements described.

Answer

Azure VPN Gateway

Answer

Azure ExpressRoute

Answer

Azure Application Gateway

Question 8

A company needs to grant a specific user the ability to restart virtual machines in a specific resource group, but not to create, delete, or modify them in any other way. The built-in 'Virtual Machine Contributor' role grants too many permissions. What is the most appropriate solution?

Accepted Answer

Assign the 'Reader' role and create a custom RBAC role with only the 'Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/restart/action' permission. Option A is correct because it combines the 'Reader' role (which allows read-only access to all resources) with a custom RBAC role that grants only the specific 'Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/restart/action' permission. This ensures the user can restart VMs in the target resource group without being able to create, delete, or modify them, meeting the exact requirement.

Answer

Assign the 'Virtual Machine Operator' built-in role

Answer

Create a custom role with 'Contributor' and then add a deny assignment for delete and create

Answer

Assign the 'Owner' role and then remove permissions

Question 9

A company runs a web application on Azure virtual machines. The application experiences unpredictable traffic patterns with occasional sharp spikes. The operations team wants to configure the infrastructure so that the number of running virtual machines automatically increases during spikes and decreases during low traffic periods, without manual intervention. Which cloud computing characteristic does this requirement describe?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. Elasticity is the cloud computing characteristic that enables resources to automatically scale out (increase) during demand spikes and scale in (decrease) during low traffic periods, matching capacity to workload in real time. In Azure, this is implemented via Virtual Machine Scale Sets with autoscale rules based on metrics like CPU or memory thresholds, allowing the number of VMs to adjust without manual intervention.

Answer

High availability

Answer

Fault tolerance

Answer

Geographic distribution

Question 10

A company plans to migrate a legacy application to Azure virtual machines. The application requires a shared file store that can be mounted simultaneously from multiple VMs using the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. The company needs a fully managed cloud file share that supports SMB 3.0 and integrates with Active Directory Domain Services for authentication. Which Azure service should the company use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Files. Azure Files provides fully managed SMB file shares in the cloud, supporting SMB 3.0 and integration with Azure Active Directory Domain Services (Azure AD DS) for identity-based authentication. This allows multiple Azure VMs to mount the same file share simultaneously using the SMB protocol, meeting all the stated requirements.

Answer

Azure Blob Storage

Answer

Azure NetApp Files

Answer

Azure Disk Storage

Question 11

A company runs a large data analytics job for a few hours each week. They want to use Azure virtual machines with the lowest possible cost, accepting that the VMs may be reclaimed by Azure at any time. Which pricing option should they choose?

Accepted Answer

Spot VMs. Spot VMs allow you to use unused Azure compute capacity at a significant discount (up to 90% compared to pay-as-you-go) but can be evicted by Azure when capacity is needed elsewhere. This makes them ideal for interruptible, batch-style workloads like a weekly data analytics job that can tolerate interruptions and resume later.

Answer

Reserved Instances

Answer

Pay-as-you-go

Answer

Dedicated Hosts

Question 12

A company's finance team uses Azure Cost Management + Billing to monitor cloud spending. They want to configure a rule that sends an email notification to the finance team's distribution list when the monthly cost for resources tagged with Department=Marketing exceeds $10,000. Which Azure Cost Management feature should they configure?

Accepted Answer

Budget. Azure Budgets allow you to set cost or usage thresholds and configure alerts that trigger when spending reaches a specified percentage of the budget. In this scenario, the finance team can create a budget with a $10,000 threshold for the Department=Marketing tag, and configure an alert rule to send an email notification to the distribution list when costs exceed that amount.

Answer

Invoice

Answer

Cost analysis

Answer

Recommendations

Question 13

A company needs to run a containerized application without managing any virtual machines or cluster orchestration. Which Azure service is best suited for this?

Accepted Answer

Azure Container Instances. Azure Container Instances (ACI) is the correct choice because it allows you to run a containerized application directly on Azure without provisioning or managing any underlying virtual machines, cluster orchestration, or scheduling. ACI provides a serverless, per-second billing model, making it ideal for simple, isolated containers that do not require the complexity of a full orchestration platform.

Answer

Azure Kubernetes Service

Answer

Azure App Service

Answer

Azure Batch

Question 14

A company needs to run a large-scale batch processing job that runs daily for several hours. The job can tolerate interruptions if compute capacity is reclaimed. They want to minimize compute costs. Which Azure compute service is most cost-effective for this scenario?

Accepted Answer

Azure Batch with low-priority VMs. Azure Batch with low-priority VMs is the most cost-effective option because it allows you to run large-scale batch jobs using surplus Azure capacity at a significantly reduced cost (up to 80% less than dedicated VMs). The job can tolerate interruptions, and low-priority VMs can be preempted when Azure needs the capacity back, making this a perfect fit for the scenario.

Answer

Azure Virtual Machines

Answer

Azure Functions

Answer

Azure Container Instances

Question 15

A company runs an on-premises line-of-business application that uses a SQL Server database. The database currently has 500 GB of data and is accessed by 50 users simultaneously. The company is planning to migrate this database to Azure. The IT team wants to minimize administrative overhead for patching the operating system and database engine, and for performing automated backups with point-in-time restore. The team also wants the ability to scale compute and storage independently without managing virtual machines. Which Azure service should they choose?

Accepted Answer

Azure SQL Database (Platform-as-a-Service). Azure SQL Database is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering that fully manages the underlying operating system and SQL Server engine, including patching and updates. It provides automated backups with point-in-time restore (up to 35 days retention) and allows independent scaling of compute (DTUs/vCores) and storage without any virtual machine management. This directly meets the team's requirements to minimize administrative overhead while supporting 500 GB of data and 50 concurrent users.

Answer

SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machine (Infrastructure-as-a-Service)

Answer

Azure Cosmos DB

Answer

Azure Database for MySQL

Question 16

A company runs a web application on Azure App Service. The application experiences variable traffic patterns with occasional sudden spikes. The company wants to automatically increase the number of instances during high demand and decrease them during low demand to optimize cost and performance. The solution must require no manual intervention after initial configuration. Which Azure App Service feature should the company enable?

Accepted Answer

Autoscale. Autoscale is the correct feature because it automatically adjusts the number of App Service instances based on predefined rules (e.g., CPU > 70% or memory pressure) or schedules, matching the variable traffic patterns and sudden spikes described. This ensures cost optimization by scaling down during low demand and performance during high demand, all without manual intervention after initial configuration.

Answer

Azure Traffic Manager

Answer

Azure Load Balancer

Answer

Availability Zones

Question 17

A company plans to deploy a mission-critical application on three Azure virtual machines. The application must remain available even if an entire Azure datacenter becomes unavailable due to a catastrophic event like a fire or flood. The company wants to deploy the VMs across multiple physical locations within a single Azure region, with each location having independent power, cooling, and networking. Which Azure feature should the company use?

Accepted Answer

Availability zones. Availability zones are physically separate locations within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. By deploying the three VMs across different availability zones, the application remains available even if an entire datacenter (one zone) fails due to a catastrophic event. This meets the requirement for high availability across multiple physical locations within a single region.

Answer

Availability sets

Answer

Azure Site Recovery

Answer

Virtual machine scale sets

Question 18

A company plans to deploy a critical application across multiple physical locations within a single Azure region to ensure that if one datacenter fails, the application remains available. Which Azure feature should they use to distribute virtual machines across these locations?

Accepted Answer

Availability Zone. Availability Zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. By deploying VMs across multiple zones, the application remains available even if one entire datacenter fails, meeting the requirement for fault isolation within a single region.

Answer

Availability Set

Answer

Region Pair

Answer

Resource Group

Question 19

A company needs to run a custom-built Windows application that requires full administrative access to the operating system, including the ability to install custom software and configure firewall rules. They also need to ensure the application is highly available by running multiple instances. Which Azure compute service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Virtual Machines. Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) provide full administrative access to the operating system, allowing you to install custom software, configure firewall rules, and manage the OS as needed. By deploying multiple VMs in an availability set or across availability zones, you can achieve high availability for the application. This makes VMs the correct choice for a custom Windows application requiring full OS control and multi-instance high availability.

Answer

Azure App Service

Answer

Azure Functions

Answer

Azure Container Instances

Question 20

A company runs a nightly data processing job that requires high CPU usage for only 15 minutes. During the day, the compute resources are idle. The company wants to reduce costs by automatically starting compute resources only when the job runs and shutting them down after completion, without manual intervention. Which cloud computing characteristic directly meets this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. Elasticity is the cloud computing characteristic that enables resources to be automatically provisioned and de-provisioned in response to workload demands. In this scenario, the nightly job requires high CPU for only 15 minutes, and elasticity allows the compute resources to scale up exactly when the job starts and scale down to zero after completion, eliminating idle costs without manual intervention.

Answer

High availability

Answer

Fault tolerance

Answer

Scalability