AZ-900 Describe Azure architecture and services Practice Test 4 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company wants to deploy a web app that scales automatically based on demand. They do not want to manage any virtual machines or the underlying infrastructure. They only want to upload their code and let the platform handle everything. Which Azure compute service should they choose?

Accepted Answer

Azure App Service. Azure App Service is a fully managed platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering that enables developers to deploy web applications without managing virtual machines or underlying infrastructure. It provides built-in autoscaling, load balancing, and patching, allowing the company to simply upload their code and let the platform handle scaling based on demand.

Answer

Azure Virtual Machines

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Azure Functions

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Azure Container Instances

Question 2

A company deploys a multi-tier web application on Azure. The web tier and database tier must be in the same region for low latency, but the database tier must be in a different subnet and have restricted network access from the web tier only. Which Azure network solution should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Virtual Network with subnets and Network Security Groups. Azure Virtual Network (VNet) with subnets and Network Security Groups (NSGs) is the correct solution because it allows you to create isolated subnets for the web and database tiers within the same region, ensuring low latency. NSGs can then be applied to the database subnet to restrict inbound traffic exclusively from the web tier's subnet using source IP or service tag rules, providing the required network segmentation and access control.

Answer

Azure Application Gateway

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Azure Load Balancer

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Azure Traffic Manager

Question 3

A company needs to run a simple background job that runs every hour for 10 minutes. They want to containerize the job but do not want to manage a container orchestration platform. Which Azure service is simplest and most cost-effective?

Accepted Answer

Azure Container Instances. Azure Container Instances (ACI) is the simplest and most cost-effective choice because it allows you to run a containerized job directly without managing any underlying infrastructure or orchestration platform. For a short-lived, hourly job that runs for only 10 minutes, ACI provides fast startup, per-second billing, and native scheduling via the `--restart-policy Never` flag, making it ideal for background tasks that do not require persistent orchestration.

Answer

Azure Kubernetes Service

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Azure Batch

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Azure Functions

Question 4

A company runs a critical application on Azure VMs. They need to ensure that if one VM fails, the application continues to serve users with another VM. The VMs should be placed in a configuration that protects against failures within a single datacenter. Which feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

Availability Set. An Availability Set ensures that VMs are distributed across multiple fault domains (separate racks with independent power, cooling, and network) and update domains within a single Azure datacenter. This protects against hardware failures or maintenance events within that datacenter, so if one VM fails, another in a different fault domain continues serving users.

Answer

Availability Zone

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Resource Group

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Scale Set

Question 5

A company needs to share a set of files between multiple Azure VMs using the SMB protocol. They require a managed file share that can be mounted simultaneously by multiple VMs with permissions managed via Active Directory. Which Azure storage service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Files. Azure Files provides fully managed SMB file shares in the cloud that can be mounted concurrently by multiple Azure VMs. It supports Active Directory (AD) authentication and access control lists (ACLs), making it the correct choice for sharing files via SMB with AD-managed permissions.

Answer

Azure Blob Storage

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Azure Disk Storage

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Azure NetApp Files

Question 6

A company wants to encrypt data at rest in Azure SQL Database using customer-managed keys stored in Azure Key Vault. They also need to be able to rotate the keys without downtime. Which feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

Transparent Data Encryption with customer-managed keys. Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) with customer-managed keys in Azure Key Vault allows you to encrypt the database at rest using your own keys, which you can rotate without downtime because Azure SQL Database handles the re-encryption of the database encryption key (DEK) transparently in the background, without requiring database offline or performance impact.

Answer

Always Encrypted

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Dynamic Data Masking

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Row-level security

Question 7

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

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Application Gateway

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Azure Front Door

Question 8

A company is deploying a critical application on Azure Virtual Machines. They need to ensure that the application remains available during Azure platform updates. They also want to distribute the VMs across fault domains within an availability set. What is the primary purpose of fault domains?

Accepted Answer

To distribute VMs across different power and cooling racks. Fault domains represent groupings of hardware that share a common power source and network switch. By distributing VMs across multiple fault domains within an availability set, Azure ensures that if a power or cooling failure occurs in one rack, only the VMs in that fault domain are affected, keeping the application available on VMs in other fault domains.

Answer

To distribute VMs across different Azure regions

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To distribute VMs across different availability zones

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To distribute VMs across different virtual networks

Question 9

A company runs a web application on Azure App Service. They want to improve performance by caching static content and frequently accessed data closer to users in different geographic locations. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Content Delivery Network. Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) caches static content and frequently accessed data at edge nodes located closer to users, reducing latency and improving performance for geographically distributed audiences. This directly addresses the requirement to serve cached content from locations near the end users, offloading origin traffic from the App Service.

Answer

Azure Traffic Manager

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Azure Application Gateway

Answer

Azure Front Door

Question 10

A company wants to migrate a set of on-premises databases to Azure. They require high compatibility with SQL Server features, including cross-database queries and SQL Agent jobs. They want a PaaS solution. Which Azure service is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Azure SQL Managed Instance. Azure SQL Managed Instance is the correct choice because it provides near 100% compatibility with SQL Server on-premises, including support for cross-database queries and SQL Agent jobs, while being a fully managed Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering. This allows the company to lift-and-shift their databases without redesigning applications, meeting both the feature and PaaS requirements.

Answer

Azure SQL Database

Answer

SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines

Answer

Azure Database for PostgreSQL

Question 11

A company wants to run a containerized application that responds to HTTP requests. They want to deploy it without managing any virtual machines or orchestration. Which Azure service is the simplest option?

Accepted Answer

Azure Container Instances. Azure Container Instances (ACI) is the simplest option because it allows you to run a containerized application directly in Azure without managing any underlying virtual machines or orchestration. ACI automatically starts the container, assigns a public IP address, and handles HTTP requests on port 80/443, making it ideal for event-driven or stateless workloads that need rapid deployment.

Answer

Azure Kubernetes Service

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Azure Virtual Machines

Answer

Azure App Service

Question 12

A company needs to store backup data that must be retained for 7 years. They want to store the data as cheaply as possible, and access may be rare. Which Azure Storage access tier is most cost-effective?

Accepted Answer

Archive tier. The Archive tier is the most cost-effective option for data that must be retained for 7 years with rare access. It offers the lowest storage cost among Azure Blob Storage access tiers, specifically designed for long-term retention where retrieval latency of up to 15 hours is acceptable. This aligns perfectly with the requirement to minimize cost while meeting the 7-year retention period.

Answer

Hot tier

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Cool tier

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Premium tier

Question 13

A company deploys a critical application across two Azure regions for disaster recovery. They want to automatically failover traffic to the secondary region if the primary becomes unavailable. They also want to improve performance by routing users to the closest region. Which Azure service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Traffic Manager. Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer that enables you to distribute traffic optimally to services across global Azure regions. It supports the 'Priority' routing method for automatic failover to a secondary region when the primary is unavailable, and the 'Performance' routing method to direct users to the closest region for improved latency. This combination directly meets the stated requirements for disaster recovery failover and performance-based routing.

Answer

Azure Load Balancer

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Azure Application Gateway

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Azure VPN Gateway

Question 14

A company needs to run a legacy application that requires full control over the operating system, including custom kernel modules. They also need to ensure high availability with multiple instances. Which Azure compute service should they use?

Accepted Answer

Azure Virtual Machines. Azure Virtual Machines (VMs) are the correct choice because they provide full control over the operating system, including the ability to install custom kernel modules, and support high availability through availability sets or zones. This is essential for legacy applications that require OS-level customization and fault-tolerant deployment.

Answer

Azure App Service

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Azure Functions

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Azure Container Instances

Question 15

A company uses Azure SQL Database for a web application. They need to ensure that the database can automatically scale to handle sudden spikes in traffic without downtime. Which feature should they enable?

Accepted Answer

Serverless compute. Serverless compute for Azure SQL Database automatically scales compute resources based on workload demand and pauses the database during idle periods, charging only for consumed resources. This enables handling sudden traffic spikes without downtime because the service dynamically adjusts the vCore count and memory within a configurable range, ensuring continuous availability during bursts.

Answer

Geo-replication

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Active geo-replication

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Elastic pool