MS-900 Describe cloud concepts Practice Test 8 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Which cloud computing characteristic allows users to be billed only for the resources they consume, such as processing power, storage, or bandwidth?

Accepted Answer

Measured service. Measured service is the cloud computing characteristic that enables usage-based billing by monitoring, controlling, and reporting resource consumption (e.g., CPU hours, GB of storage, or data transfer) at a granular level. This metering capability allows providers to charge customers only for what they actually use, rather than a flat fee, and is typically implemented via telemetry and billing APIs.

Answer

On-demand self-service

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Broad network access

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Resource pooling

Question 2

A development team wants to deploy a custom web application to the cloud. They want to upload their code and let the cloud provider handle server infrastructure, operating system updates, and automatic scaling. Which cloud service model best fits this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS). Platform as a Service (PaaS) is the correct choice because it provides a managed hosting environment where the development team can upload their custom web application code without managing the underlying server infrastructure, operating system updates, or scaling. Azure App Service, a PaaS offering, automatically handles OS patching, load balancing, and auto-scaling based on demand, aligning perfectly with the requirement to let the cloud provider handle these tasks.

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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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On-premises deployment

Question 3

An e-commerce company hosts its website on a public cloud IaaS platform. The site experiences varying traffic throughout the year. The cloud provider automatically adds more virtual servers during peak traffic and removes them when demand drops. The company only pays for the resources used during each period. Which two cloud characteristics are demonstrated? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. Rapid elasticity is demonstrated because the cloud provider automatically scales virtual servers up or down in response to varying traffic, which is a key characteristic of cloud computing where resources can be provisioned and released elastically to match demand. Measured service is demonstrated because the company only pays for the resources used during each period, meaning the provider meters resource usage (e.g., CPU hours, memory, bandwidth) and bills accordingly, which is a core attribute of cloud services.

Answer

On-demand self-service

Answer

Resource pooling

Question 4

A company wants to use a cloud service where they can deploy their own custom applications without managing the underlying operating system or hardware. The cloud provider handles the runtime, middleware, and infrastructure. Which cloud service model best fits this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS). Platform as a Service (PaaS) is the correct model because it provides a managed environment where the company can deploy custom applications without managing the underlying OS, hardware, runtime, or middleware. The cloud provider handles all infrastructure and platform layers, allowing developers to focus solely on code and application logic.

Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 5

Which cloud characteristic allows an organization to increase or decrease computing resources quickly based on demand, without requiring manual intervention?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. Rapid elasticity is the cloud characteristic that enables automatic, on-demand scaling of computing resources (such as virtual machines, storage, or network bandwidth) in response to fluctuating workload demands, without requiring manual provisioning or de-provisioning. This is a core feature of cloud computing defined by NIST SP 800-145, allowing resources to scale out (increase) or scale in (decrease) dynamically, often using orchestration tools like Azure Autoscale or AWS Auto Scaling. The key distinction is that the scaling happens quickly and automatically, based on predefined rules or metrics like CPU utilization or request count.

Answer

Measured service

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

Broad network access

Question 6

Which cloud computing characteristic allows users to provision resources such as virtual machines and storage without requiring human interaction with the service provider?

Accepted Answer

On-demand self-service. On-demand self-service is the cloud characteristic that lets consumers provision computing capabilities such as VMs and storage automatically, without requiring human interaction with the service provider. This is one of the five essential characteristics defined by NIST SP 800-145. It directly matches the scenario of unilaterally provisioning resources via a portal or API.

Answer

Measured service

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Question 7

A company uses a cloud service where they can rent virtual machines and storage. They have full control over the operating system and applications, while the provider manages the physical hardware. Which cloud service model is being used?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). This scenario describes Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) because the company rents virtual machines and storage, retains full control over the operating system and applications, while the cloud provider manages the underlying physical hardware. In IaaS, the provider abstracts the physical infrastructure (servers, networking, storage) and delivers it as on-demand virtualized resources, which aligns with the customer's responsibility for OS and app configuration.

Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Answer

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Answer

On-premises deployment

Question 8

A company uses cloud resources and notices that their monthly bill is based on the exact amount of storage and compute hours they consumed. They did not pay for any fixed, unused capacity. Which cloud characteristic does this describe?

Accepted Answer

Measured service. Measured service is the cloud characteristic that enables usage-based billing, where customers pay only for the resources they actually consume (e.g., storage GB-hours, compute vCPU-hours) without any upfront or fixed costs for idle capacity. This is implemented through metering capabilities at the hypervisor or resource provider level, which track consumption in granular units and feed into billing systems. The scenario explicitly describes paying for exact consumption, which aligns directly with the pay-per-use model of measured service.

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

On-demand self-service

Question 9

A company uses a cloud provider that offers compute power as a service. The provider manages the physical servers, storage, and networking, but the company has full control over the operating system, applications, and configurations. Which cloud service model is being used?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The scenario describes Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), where the cloud provider manages the underlying physical infrastructure (servers, storage, networking), but the customer retains full control over the operating system, applications, and configurations. This aligns with the IaaS model as defined by NIST SP 800-145, which provides virtualized computing resources over the internet.

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Software as a Service (SaaS)

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Platform as a Service (PaaS)

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Function as a Service (FaaS)

Question 10

A company wants to use a cloud service where they can develop and run applications without managing the underlying infrastructure, including servers, operating systems, or storage. They only need to upload their code and the provider handles scaling and availability. Which cloud service model best describes this approach?

Accepted Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS). Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a managed hosting environment where developers can deploy applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. The provider automatically handles server provisioning, OS patching, storage management, and scaling based on demand. In this scenario, the company only needs to upload code, which is the defining characteristic of PaaS.

Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Answer

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Answer

On-premises deployment

Question 11

A marketing team needs to temporarily increase their cloud storage capacity from 5 TB to 10 TB for a product launch. They can perform this change themselves through a web portal without contacting the cloud provider. Which cloud characteristic does this scenario demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

On-demand self-service. This scenario demonstrates on-demand self-service because the marketing team can provision and manage their own cloud storage capacity increase from 5 TB to 10 TB through a web portal without any human interaction with the cloud provider. This is a core NIST-defined characteristic where users can unilaterally provision computing resources as needed automatically, requiring no service provider intervention.

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Answer

Measured service

Answer

Resource pooling

Question 12

A company's e-commerce website experiences a sudden surge in traffic during a promotional event. The cloud infrastructure automatically adds additional virtual servers to handle the load and removes them when traffic subsides, without any manual intervention from the IT team. Which cloud computing characteristic does this demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. The scenario describes the cloud infrastructure automatically scaling virtual servers up and down in response to traffic changes, which is the defining characteristic of rapid elasticity. This capability allows resources to be provisioned and released elastically, often automatically, to match demand at any given time, as defined by NIST SP 800-145.

Answer

On-demand self-service

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

Measured service

Question 13

A cloud provider serves thousands of customers using the same physical hardware. Each customer's data and applications are isolated from one another through virtualization. The provider can dynamically allocate resources to customers based on demand. Which cloud characteristic does this describe?

Accepted Answer

Resource pooling. This scenario describes resource pooling, where the cloud provider's computing resources (e.g., storage, processing, memory, network bandwidth) are pooled to serve multiple customers using a multi-tenant model. Virtualization isolates each customer's data and applications, while physical and virtual resources are dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. This is a core characteristic of cloud computing as defined by NIST SP 800-145.

Answer

On-demand self-service

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Answer

Measured service

Question 14

A company uses a cloud provider that bills them based on the exact amount of storage and compute hours they consume each month. They can increase or decrease their usage at any time without signing a long-term contract. Which cloud computing characteristic is most directly demonstrated by the billing model?

Accepted Answer

Measured service. The billing model described—paying for exactly the amount of storage and compute hours consumed, with no long-term contract—directly demonstrates the measured service characteristic. Measured service means that cloud resource usage is metered, monitored, and reported, allowing providers to charge customers based on actual consumption (pay-as-you-go). This is a core attribute of cloud computing as defined by NIST SP 800-145, where usage is tracked and billed transparently.

Answer

Scalability

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Elasticity

Answer

On-demand self-service

Question 15

A company uses a cloud service where administrators can add or remove virtual machine instances through a web portal without contacting the provider. The provider bills only for the exact resources consumed. Which cloud computing characteristic does this scenario best demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

On-demand self-service. On-demand self-service is the cloud characteristic where consumers can provision capabilities, such as VM instances, automatically through a web portal or API without requiring human interaction with the service provider. The scenario explicitly states administrators add or remove VMs via a web portal without contacting the provider, which is the textbook definition of on-demand self-service per NIST SP 800-145.

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Answer

Measured service

Answer

Resource pooling