AZ-900 Describe cloud concepts Practice Test 17 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Which of the following correctly describes Azure's approach to pricing for data transfer?

Accepted Answer

Inbound data to Azure is free; outbound data transfer incurs charges. Azure charges for outbound data transfer (egress) from Azure data centers to the internet or other regions, while inbound data transfer (ingress) into Azure is free. This pricing model encourages customers to move data into Azure without upfront cost, but charges apply when data leaves Azure's network, reflecting the bandwidth costs incurred by Microsoft.

Answer

All data transfer (inbound and outbound) is charged at the same rate

Answer

Data transfer is entirely free within Azure regardless of direction or region

Answer

Data transfer is charged based on the speed of the transfer, not the amount

Question 2

What benefit does Azure provide that specifically helps companies maintain business continuity when their primary location is unavailable?

Accepted Answer

Geo-redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities. Azure's geo-redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities, such as Azure Site Recovery and geo-redundant storage (GRS), replicate workloads and data across paired Azure regions. This ensures that if a primary location fails due to an outage or disaster, services can failover to a secondary region, maintaining business continuity with minimal downtime and data loss.

Answer

Economies of scale reducing operational costs

Answer

Automatic performance optimization for all applications

Answer

Unified billing for all cloud services

Question 3

What is the difference between 'high availability' and 'fault tolerance' in cloud computing?

Accepted Answer

High availability minimizes downtime during failures; fault tolerance aims for zero interruption despite failures. High availability (HA) focuses on minimizing downtime by using redundant components and failover mechanisms, typically achieving uptime of 99.99% or higher, but it may allow brief interruptions during failover. Fault tolerance, in contrast, is designed to operate without any interruption at all, often through active-active configurations or redundant hardware that masks failures completely. Option B correctly captures this distinction: HA reduces downtime, while fault tolerance aims for zero interruption.

Answer

High availability and fault tolerance are identical concepts

Answer

High availability requires multiple regions; fault tolerance requires only one region

Answer

Fault tolerance is only for databases; high availability is for compute

Question 4

What is 'defense in depth' in cloud security?

Accepted Answer

A layered security approach where multiple defenses protect assets. Defense in depth is a layered security strategy that uses multiple, independent security controls across different layers of the IT stack (network, compute, storage, application, data) to protect assets. If one layer is breached, additional layers are in place to prevent or limit further compromise. This approach is fundamental to Azure's security architecture, where tools like Azure Firewall, Network Security Groups (NSGs), Azure Policy, and Azure Defender work together to provide overlapping protections.

Answer

Using a very strong single password for all Azure accounts

Answer

Storing data in multiple geographic locations for backup

Answer

Using the most advanced encryption for all Azure data

Question 5

What is 'zero trust' security model, and how does Azure support it?

Accepted Answer

A model that verifies every access request regardless of network location. The zero trust security model operates on the principle of 'never trust, always verify,' meaning every access request is authenticated, authorized, and encrypted regardless of the user's location or network. Azure supports zero trust through services like Microsoft Entra ID (now Microsoft Entra ID) for conditional access policies, Azure Policy for enforcing compliance, and Azure Security Center for continuous monitoring and threat detection.

Answer

A model that trusts all traffic within the corporate network boundary

Answer

A model that uses no security controls to maximize productivity

Answer

A model that allows only Microsoft-approved applications on Azure

Question 6

Which of the following is an example of a 'hybrid cloud' deployment?

Accepted Answer

Running customer-facing applications on Azure while keeping sensitive HR data on on-premises servers. A hybrid cloud deployment combines public cloud resources (Azure) with on-premises infrastructure, connected via technologies like VPNs or Azure ExpressRoute. Running customer-facing apps on Azure while keeping sensitive HR data on-premises exemplifies this blend, allowing organizations to maintain compliance or low latency for critical data while leveraging cloud scalability.

Answer

Using only Azure for all company workloads

Answer

Using both Azure and AWS for different workloads

Answer

Storing data only in the cloud with no on-premises infrastructure

Question 7

A company runs business-critical ERP software on Azure. If the ERP application has a 99.9% SLA and the Azure SQL Database backing it has a 99.99% SLA, what is the overall composite SLA?

Accepted Answer

Approximately 99.89%. The composite SLA for dependent services is calculated by multiplying their individual SLAs. Here, 99.9% (0.999) multiplied by 99.99% (0.9999) equals approximately 0.9989, or 99.89%. This reflects the overall availability when both the ERP application and the Azure SQL Database must be operational for the system to function.

Answer

99.99% (take the highest SLA)

Answer

99.9% (take the lowest SLA)

Answer

200% because two services are running

Question 8

Which of the following is a key advantage of the public cloud model for a startup company with limited capital?

Accepted Answer

No upfront capital investment — pay only for resources used. For a startup with limited capital, the public cloud model eliminates the need for large upfront hardware purchases. Instead, it uses a consumption-based pricing model where you pay only for the compute, storage, and network resources you actually use, typically billed per second or per hour. This operational expenditure (OpEx) model directly addresses the capital expenditure (CapEx) constraints of a new company.

Answer

Complete control over all hardware configurations

Answer

Guaranteed highest possible performance at all times

Answer

Exclusive use of physical hardware not shared with others

Question 9

Which cloud computing benefit specifically refers to customers being able to access the latest technology without managing upgrades?

Accepted Answer

Always-current technology without customer-managed upgrades. One of the key benefits of cloud computing is that the cloud provider handles all hardware and software updates, patches, and version upgrades. Customers always have access to the latest features, security fixes, and performance improvements without needing to plan, test, or execute upgrade cycles themselves. This is a core value proposition of the consumption-based model, shifting operational overhead to the provider.

Answer

Economies of scale

Answer

Geographic distribution of data centers

Answer

Predictable billing with reserved capacity

Question 10

Which type of expenditure does cloud computing convert infrastructure costs into?

Accepted Answer

Operational expenditure (OpEx). Cloud computing converts infrastructure costs from capital expenditure (CapEx) to operational expenditure (OpEx) because you pay for compute, storage, and networking resources on a consumption-based model (pay-as-you-go) rather than purchasing physical hardware upfront. This shift allows organizations to avoid large upfront investments and instead pay for only what they use, aligning costs with actual usage and reducing financial risk.

Answer

Capital expenditure (CapEx)

Answer

Research and development expenditure (R&D)

Answer

Capital and operational expenditure equally

Question 11

What is the key difference between an Azure 'region' and an Azure 'geography'?

Accepted Answer

A geography is a discrete market containing multiple Azure regions for data residency purposes. An Azure geography is a discrete market (e.g., United States, Europe) that contains at least one Azure region, and it is designed to preserve data residency and compliance boundaries. A region is a set of datacenters deployed within a latency-defined perimeter, connected through a dedicated regional low-latency network. Geographies ensure that customer data stays within the specified boundary for legal and regulatory requirements, even if a region fails.

Answer

A region contains multiple geographies; a geography contains a single region

Answer

A geography and a region are identical concepts in Azure

Answer

A geography refers to the physical datacenter building; a region is the city it's in

Question 12

Which statement correctly describes the relationship between cloud scalability and business continuity?

Accepted Answer

Scalability supports business continuity by handling unexpected demand without service disruption. Scalability enables a cloud system to automatically add or remove resources (e.g., compute instances, bandwidth) in response to demand fluctuations. This directly supports business continuity by ensuring that sudden traffic spikes or resource surges do not cause service degradation or outages, maintaining availability and performance without manual intervention.

Answer

Scalability and business continuity are unrelated cloud concepts

Answer

Business continuity only requires geo-redundancy, not scalability

Answer

Scalability reduces the need for security controls in cloud environments

Question 13

Which aspect of cloud computing allows organizations to focus on their core business rather than managing IT infrastructure?

Accepted Answer

Stop spending money running and maintaining data centers. Cloud computing shifts the burden of hardware procurement, maintenance, power, cooling, and physical security from the organization to the cloud provider. This operational overhead elimination allows IT teams to redirect their efforts toward application development, data analytics, and business innovation rather than racking servers or patching firmware. The core value proposition is the transfer of undifferentiated heavy lifting to the provider.

Answer

Always having the maximum number of resources available

Answer

Paying a lower price for premium hardware

Answer

Getting free storage for all business data

Question 14

What does 'infrastructure as code' (IaC) mean in the context of Azure?

Accepted Answer

Defining Azure resources in configuration files that can be version-controlled and reused. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) in Azure involves defining and managing Azure resources (e.g., virtual networks, VMs, storage accounts) using declarative configuration files such as ARM templates, Bicep, or Terraform. These files can be stored in version control (e.g., Git), enabling repeatable, consistent deployments and rollbacks through automation, rather than manual or imperative steps.

Answer

Writing code that runs directly on Azure hardware

Answer

Using Azure CLI scripts to deploy one resource at a time imperatively

Answer

Converting physical server hardware into virtual machines

Question 15

What does 'pay-as-you-grow' mean in the context of cloud computing for a growing business?

Accepted Answer

Scaling resources incrementally as the business grows, paying proportionally with growth. B is correct because 'pay-as-you-grow' describes the ability to incrementally add cloud resources (compute, storage, networking) as demand increases, with costs scaling proportionally. This aligns with the cloud's consumption-based model, where you pay only for what you use, avoiding large upfront capital expenditures. For a growing business, this means you can start small and expand seamlessly without over-provisioning.

Answer

Paying for maximum capacity upfront to ensure future needs are met

Answer

Getting unlimited resources free until the business reaches a profitable stage

Answer

Getting discounts that increase as you purchase more cloud resources