AZ-900 Practice Exam 62 — 20 Questions

Question 1

What is the Azure free account, and what does it provide?

Accepted Answer

12 months of popular free services, $200 credit, and 55+ always-free services. The Azure free account provides new users with 12 months of popular free services (e.g., 750 hours of B1s Linux VM, 5 GB of Blob storage), a $200 credit valid for the first 30 days, and access to more than 55 services that are always free (e.g., Azure Functions with 1 million requests per month). This is designed to help users explore and learn Azure without incurring costs, but it does not grant unlimited or permanent free access.

Answer

An account with unlimited free access to all Azure services permanently

Answer

Free access for students only

Answer

A subscription that never incurs any charges

Question 2

A web application needs to store large amounts of unstructured data (images, documents) that will be accessed via HTTP from anywhere in the world. The data must be highly durable and scalable. Which Azure storage solution is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Azure Blob Storage. Azure Blob Storage is designed for storing massive amounts of unstructured data, such as images and documents, and provides HTTP/HTTPS access from anywhere. It offers high durability (99.9999999999% with RA-GRS) and massive scalability, making it the ideal choice for globally accessible, unstructured data workloads.

Answer

Azure SQL Database

Answer

Azure File Storage

Answer

Azure Cosmos DB

Question 3

What is 'fault tolerance' in cloud computing?

Accepted Answer

The ability to continue operating correctly despite component failures. Fault tolerance in cloud computing refers to a system's ability to continue operating correctly, without interruption, even when one or more of its components fail. This is achieved through redundancy—such as duplicate hardware, software, or data paths—so that if a component fails, another automatically takes over without any impact on the user. It is a core design principle for high-availability systems, ensuring zero downtime despite failures.

Answer

The ability to automatically scale resources during peak usage

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The ability to restore data after a major disaster

Answer

The ability to deploy applications in multiple geographic regions

Question 4

Which Azure service provides a secure way for applications running in Azure to access secrets and keys without storing credentials in code?

Accepted Answer

Azure Managed Identities. Azure Managed Identities (Option C) provide an automatically managed identity in Azure AD that applications can use to authenticate to any service supporting Azure AD authentication, including Key Vault, without storing any credentials in code. This eliminates the need for developers to manage secrets or keys, as the Azure infrastructure automatically rotates the identity's credentials.

Answer

Azure Key Vault

Answer

Azure AD Service Principals with client secrets

Answer

Azure Certificate Manager

Question 5

A company has a management group hierarchy: Root > Europe > Production. They assign a policy at the Root level that denies creation of resources without a tag. Later, they assign a different policy at the Europe level. What is the effective effect on the Production subscription?

Accepted Answer

Both policies apply. Azure Policy is inherited by default from higher-level management groups down to subscriptions. When a policy is assigned at the Root management group, it applies to all child management groups and subscriptions, including the Production subscription. Assigning an additional policy at the Europe management group does not remove or override the Root-level policy; instead, both policies are evaluated and enforced, with the most restrictive effect taking precedence. Therefore, the Production subscription is subject to both policies.

Answer

Only the policy at the Europe level applies

Answer

Only the policy at the Root level applies

Answer

The policy at the lower level overrides the Root policy

Question 6

A company runs a seasonal e-commerce application. During the holiday season, demand spikes significantly, but the company does not want to pay for idle resources the rest of the year. They want the cloud to automatically add or remove compute resources based on real-time demand. Which cloud computing characteristic does this scenario best describe?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. Elasticity is the cloud characteristic that enables automatic scaling of resources up or down in real-time to match demand. In this scenario, the e-commerce application needs to add compute resources during holiday spikes and remove them when demand drops, avoiding paying for idle resources. This aligns directly with elasticity, which is often implemented via auto-scaling groups and load balancers that adjust capacity based on metrics like CPU utilization or request count.

Answer

Scalability

Answer

High availability

Answer

Disaster recovery

Question 7

A company has an Azure subscription that hosts multiple virtual machines, databases, and storage accounts. The finance team wants to receive an automated email notification when the forecasted monthly spending for the subscription exceeds $10,000. The team needs to use a native Azure feature that can track actual and forecasted costs and trigger alerts based on a monetary threshold. The solution must not require custom scripts or third-party tools. Which Azure feature should the team configure?

Accepted Answer

Azure Budgets. Azure Budgets is the correct native feature because it allows you to set a monetary threshold (e.g., $10,000) for forecasted or actual costs, and it can automatically trigger an email alert when that threshold is reached. It integrates directly with Azure Cost Management and requires no custom scripts or third-party tools, meeting the finance team's requirements exactly.

Answer

Azure Advisor

Answer

Azure Policy

Answer

Azure Resource Graph

Question 8

What does 'high availability' mean in the context of cloud computing?

Accepted Answer

A system's ability to remain operational with minimal downtime. High availability in cloud computing refers to a system's ability to remain operational and accessible with minimal downtime, typically measured in terms of uptime percentage (e.g., 99.99% availability). This is achieved through redundant infrastructure, failover mechanisms, and service-level agreements (SLAs) that guarantee a certain level of continuity. Option B directly captures this core definition, distinguishing it from other cloud concepts like scalability or geo-replication.

Answer

The ability to deploy resources globally across multiple regions

Answer

The ability to automatically scale resources based on demand

Answer

Storing data in multiple geographic locations

Question 9

A company manages 50 Azure SQL Databases, each used by a different department. Each database experiences low average usage (less than 5 DTU on average) but unpredictable hourly peaks that can reach up to 50 DTU for short bursts. The company wants to minimize total cost while ensuring every database can handle its peak load without performance degradation. Which Azure SQL Database deployment option should the company choose?

Accepted Answer

Azure SQL Database elastic pool. Azure SQL Database elastic pool is the correct choice because it allows multiple databases to share a fixed pool of DTU resources, enabling the aggregated peak loads to be handled efficiently without over-provisioning each database individually. With low average usage (less than 5 DTU) but unpredictable bursts up to 50 DTU, an elastic pool provides the necessary headroom for spikes while minimizing total cost by only paying for the pooled eDTUs, not per-database maximums.

Answer

Azure SQL Database single database with 50 DTU

Answer

Azure SQL Managed Instance

Answer

SQL Server on an Azure virtual machine

Question 10

A company has deployed applications in two separate Azure virtual networks (VNets) in the East US and West Europe regions. Each VNet contains multiple subnets with application servers and databases. The network team needs to enable direct, private IP connectivity between the VNets, ensuring that all traffic stays within the Azure backbone network and never traverses the public internet. The solution must also provide low latency for cross-region communication. They currently do not need a dedicated private connection to an on-premises datacenter. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

VNet Peering. VNet Peering is the correct choice because it enables direct, private IP connectivity between two Azure virtual networks using the Microsoft backbone infrastructure, ensuring traffic never traverses the public internet. It provides low-latency, high-bandwidth cross-region communication without requiring a VPN gateway or dedicated circuits. Since the scenario involves only cloud-to-cloud connectivity (no on-premises requirement), VNet Peering is the simplest and most cost-effective solution.

Answer

Azure VPN Gateway

Answer

Azure ExpressRoute

Answer

Azure Virtual WAN

Question 11

A healthcare company is planning to migrate its on-premises data center to Azure. The CFO wants to shift from making large upfront hardware purchases to paying for IT resources as an ongoing operational cost. Which cloud computing benefit does this scenario describe?

Accepted Answer

Operational expenditure (OpEx). The scenario describes shifting from capital expenditure (CapEx) for upfront hardware purchases to operational expenditure (OpEx) for ongoing, pay-as-you-go IT resource consumption. This is a core financial benefit of cloud computing, where costs are treated as variable operating expenses rather than fixed capital investments.

Answer

High availability

Answer

Elasticity

Answer

Fault tolerance

Question 12

What is the primary difference between CapEx (Capital Expenditure) and OpEx (Operational Expenditure) in the context of IT spending?

Accepted Answer

CapEx requires large upfront investment in physical assets; OpEx is pay-as-you-go spending. CapEx involves a significant upfront investment in physical IT assets like servers, storage, and networking equipment, which are then depreciated over their useful life. OpEx, in contrast, aligns with cloud services where you pay only for what you consume (e.g., per-hour VM usage, per-GB storage), with no large initial outlay. This fundamental shift from owning to renting infrastructure is a core concept in Azure and cloud computing.

Answer

CapEx is recurring monthly spending; OpEx is a one-time purchase

Answer

CapEx is tax-deductible immediately; OpEx is depreciated over years

Answer

CapEx and OpEx are identical for cloud services

Question 13

What is Azure Active Directory Conditional Access?

Accepted Answer

A policy engine that enforces access rules based on conditions like location, device, and risk. Azure Active Directory Conditional Access is a policy engine that evaluates signals such as user location, device compliance, and sign-in risk to enforce access rules before granting access to resources. It allows organizations to implement granular controls like requiring multi-factor authentication (MFA) from untrusted networks or blocking access from non-compliant devices, making it a core identity-driven security feature.

Answer

A feature that blocks all access to Azure resources from outside the organization

Answer

A tool for encrypting user data in Azure AD

Answer

A way to provision users automatically in Azure AD

Question 14

A company runs a production web application on Azure App Service. The development team is working on a new version of the application and wants to deploy it to a staging environment to perform validation tests. After testing, they need to gradually shift a percentage of live user traffic to the new version while monitoring for issues. If any problems occur, they must be able to instantly send all traffic back to the original version with zero downtime. Which Azure App Service feature should the team use to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Deployment slots. Deployment slots are the correct choice because Azure App Service supports deploying different versions of an application to separate slots (e.g., staging) and then swapping them into production. The swap operation allows you to gradually shift traffic using slot auto-swap or manual swap with traffic routing, and if issues arise, you can instantly swap back to the original slot with zero downtime, as the swap preserves the warm-up state of the target slot.

Answer

Azure Traffic Manager

Answer

Azure Application Gateway

Answer

Azure Front Door

Question 15

A multinational company is expanding its online retail business to new countries. The company needs to deploy its web application in Azure regions that are geographically close to customers in Europe, Asia, and North America to minimize latency. The IT team can deploy identical application instances in multiple regions within minutes using Azure Resource Manager templates. Which benefit of cloud computing does this scenario best illustrate?

Accepted Answer

Global reach. The scenario emphasizes deploying identical application instances in multiple Azure regions across Europe, Asia, and North America to serve customers geographically close to each region, which directly illustrates the global reach benefit of cloud computing. Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates enable rapid, consistent deployment to any region, allowing the company to expand its global footprint and reduce latency by leveraging Azure's distributed infrastructure.

Answer

High availability

Answer

Elasticity

Answer

Disaster recovery

Question 16

Which Azure service provides intelligent, AI-powered search over internal business data, including documents, databases, and Teams conversations?

Accepted Answer

Azure Cognitive Search. Azure Cognitive Search (now also known as Azure AI Search) is the correct service because it provides AI-powered indexing and search capabilities over heterogeneous internal business data, including documents, databases, and Microsoft Teams conversations. It uses built-in AI enrichment (e.g., OCR, entity recognition, key phrase extraction) to extract insights from unstructured content and supports semantic search for more relevant results.

Answer

Azure Monitor Log Analytics search

Answer

Azure Resource Graph

Answer

Azure Synapse Analytics

Question 17

Which Azure service allows you to run code on-demand without managing servers, paying only for execution time?

Accepted Answer

Azure Functions. Azure Functions is a serverless compute service that executes code in response to events (e.g., HTTP requests, timers, queue messages) without requiring you to provision or manage virtual machines or infrastructure. You are billed only for the resources consumed during code execution, measured in gigabyte-seconds, making it ideal for on-demand, event-driven workloads.

Answer

Azure Virtual Machines

Answer

Azure App Service

Answer

Azure Kubernetes Service

Question 18

Which of the following is the cloud provider's responsibility under the shared responsibility model for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

Accepted Answer

Physical datacenter and host hardware. In the shared responsibility model for IaaS, the cloud provider is responsible for the physical infrastructure, including the datacenter, host hardware, network, and storage. This is because the customer has no physical access to these components and cannot manage them. The provider ensures the underlying hardware is maintained, secured, and operational.

Answer

Operating system updates and patches

Answer

Application data backup

Answer

Network security group configuration

Question 19

A developer wants to send notifications to mobile devices from a backend service. Which Azure service is designed for this purpose?

Accepted Answer

Azure Notification Hubs. Azure Notification Hubs is a scalable push notification engine that enables sending notifications to any platform (iOS, Android, Windows, etc.) from any backend. It abstracts the complexities of platform-specific notification services (e.g., APNs, FCM, WNS) and provides features like template-based broadcasts, device tagging, and telemetry, making it the correct choice for sending mobile push notifications from a backend service.

Answer

Azure Service Bus

Answer

Azure Event Grid

Answer

Azure Queue Storage

Question 20

A company is deploying two Azure virtual machines that host a critical line-of-business application. The application is stateful and requires that the VMs are located in the same datacenter but on separate physical hardware to protect against a rack-level failure. Additionally, the VMs must be updated during Azure platform maintenance in a staggered manner to ensure the application remains available. Which Azure feature should the company configure for these VMs?

Accepted Answer

Azure Availability Set. Azure Availability Set ensures that VMs are placed in the same datacenter (same fault domain) but on separate physical hardware (different fault domains) to protect against rack-level failures. It also distributes VMs across update domains so that during Azure platform maintenance, only one update domain is rebooted at a time, ensuring the application remains available in a staggered manner.

Answer

Azure Availability Zones

Answer

Azure Virtual Machine Scale Set with autoscale

Answer

Azure Application Gateway