SC-900 Practice Test 2 — 25 Questions

Question 1

A company uses digital signatures on all official emails sent to customers. The signature is created using the sender’s private key, allowing recipients to verify that the email truly came from the claimed sender and that it was not altered in transit. Which security goal is primarily achieved by the digital signature?

Accepted Answer

Non-repudiation. Digital signatures use asymmetric cryptography where the sender signs the email with their private key. The recipient can verify the signature using the sender's public key, which proves the identity of the sender and ensures the message has not been tampered with. This directly achieves non-repudiation because the sender cannot deny having sent the email, as only their private key could have created the signature.

Answer

Confidentiality

Answer

Integrity

Answer

Availability

Question 2

A company uses Microsoft Entra ID. They need to implement a Conditional Access policy for the finance application that requires multifactor authentication (MFA) when a user accesses the app from an unmanaged device. Additionally, they want to block access if the sign-in risk level is high. Which two grant controls should they configure in the policy? (Select two.)

Accepted Answer

Require multi-factor authentication. Option A is correct because the scenario explicitly requires multifactor authentication (MFA) when a user accesses the finance application from an unmanaged device. In Microsoft Entra ID Conditional Access, the 'Require multi-factor authentication' grant control enforces MFA as part of the policy, directly meeting this requirement. Option B is correct because the scenario also requires blocking access if the sign-in risk level is high. The 'Block access' grant control is the appropriate control to deny authentication when a high-risk sign-in is detected, as it overrides any other grant controls.

Answer

Require device to be marked as compliant

Answer

Require approved client app

Question 3

A company uses Microsoft Entra ID. They want to allow employees to access the expense reporting application only from managed devices that are compliant with security policies and from trusted IP ranges. Additionally, if the user's sign-in risk is high, access must be blocked. Which of the following conditions should the administrator configure in a Conditional Access policy to enforce these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Device state, Locations, and Sign-in risk. Option C is correct because the scenario requires three distinct conditions: device compliance (Device state), trusted network locations (Locations), and high sign-in risk (Sign-in risk). Conditional Access policies in Microsoft Entra ID allow combining these assignments to enforce granular access controls. Only by including all three can the administrator block access when the user's sign-in risk is high, while also requiring a managed device and trusted IP range.

Answer

Only Device state and Locations

Answer

Only Sign-in risk and Device state

Answer

Only Locations and Sign-in risk

Question 4

A company uses Microsoft Entra ID and wants to provide external business partners with access to a specific internal application. The partners already use Microsoft Entra ID in their own organization. The company wants the partners to use their existing corporate credentials to sign in, without creating new user accounts in the company's tenant. The company also wants to manage the access lifecycle, including automatically removing access after a project ends. Which Microsoft Entra ID feature should they use?

Accepted Answer

Microsoft Entra B2B collaboration. Microsoft Entra B2B collaboration is the correct feature because it allows external users from partner organizations who already have their own Microsoft Entra ID accounts to sign in using their existing corporate credentials, without requiring new user accounts in the company's tenant. It also supports access lifecycle management through features like entitlement management and access reviews, enabling automatic removal of access when a project ends.

Answer

Microsoft Entra B2C

Answer

Identity Protection

Answer

Privileged Identity Management (PIM)

Question 5

A company uses Microsoft Entra ID. Employees often forget their passwords and contact the IT helpdesk to reset them. The company wants to reduce helpdesk costs by allowing users to reset their own passwords using a verified mobile phone number or email address. Which Microsoft Entra ID feature should the administrator enable?

Accepted Answer

Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR). Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) is the correct feature because it allows users to reset their own passwords without helpdesk intervention, using a verified mobile phone number or email address as authentication methods. This directly reduces helpdesk costs by shifting password reset responsibility to the user, while maintaining security through verification of registered contact methods.

Answer

Microsoft Entra ID Identity Protection

Answer

Privileged Identity Management (PIM)

Answer

Conditional Access

Question 6

A company uses Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD). They have a cloud-based HR system (e.g., Workday) that contains employee records. They want to automate the process of creating user accounts in Microsoft Entra ID for new hires and deactivating accounts for terminated employees based on information from the HR system. Which Microsoft Entra ID feature should they configure?

Accepted Answer

Microsoft Entra Application Provisioning. Microsoft Entra Application Provisioning (specifically HR-driven provisioning) is the correct feature because it automates the creation, update, and deactivation of user accounts in Microsoft Entra ID based on changes in an external HR system like Workday. It uses SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management) protocol to synchronize employee lifecycle events from the HR source to Entra ID, enabling fully automated user provisioning without manual intervention.

Answer

Microsoft Entra Connect

Answer

Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR)

Answer

Microsoft Entra Access Reviews

Question 7

A company uses Salesforce and Box as cloud apps. The security team discovers that a third-party OAuth app with excessive permissions was granted access to Salesforce data by a user. They want a solution that can detect such risky OAuth apps and automatically revoke their permissions based on policy. Which Microsoft security solution provides this capability?

Accepted Answer

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps. Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps (MDCA) is a Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) that provides visibility into third-party OAuth apps connected to cloud services like Salesforce and Box. It can detect OAuth apps with excessive permissions and automatically revoke them based on conditional access or app governance policies, making it the correct solution for this scenario.

Answer

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Answer

Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Answer

Microsoft Sentinel

Question 8

A hotel uses a key card system. Guests insert their card into the door lock, which reads the card's ID number. The system checks the ID number against a list of authorized rooms. If the ID matches an authorized room, the door unlocks. In this scenario, which concept is demonstrated when the system checks the ID number against the list of authorized rooms?

Accepted Answer

Authorization. The system checks the ID number against a list of authorized rooms to determine what action (unlocking the door) the guest is allowed to perform. This is the definition of authorization: granting or denying access rights based on verified identity. Authentication (proving who you are) has already occurred when the card was issued or when the system reads the ID; the check against the list is purely about permissions.

Answer

Identification

Answer

Authentication

Answer

Non-repudiation

Question 9

A company uses Microsoft Entra ID and wants to automatically detect potential security risks such as leaked credentials and suspicious sign-in patterns. They also need the ability to investigate these risks and configure automated responses based on risk levels. Which Microsoft Entra capability should they use?

Accepted Answer

Microsoft Entra Identity Protection. Microsoft Entra Identity Protection is the correct service because it automatically detects potential security risks such as leaked credentials and suspicious sign-in patterns, provides investigation tools (e.g., risk reports and detailed risk event logs), and enables automated responses like conditional access policies that block or require MFA based on risk levels. This directly matches the scenario's requirements for detection, investigation, and automated remediation.

Answer

Microsoft Entra ID Governance

Answer

Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM)

Answer

Microsoft Entra Domain Services

Question 10

A financial institution uses digital signatures to sign all transaction records. This ensures that the records have not been altered after signing. Which security goal does this primarily protect?

Accepted Answer

Integrity. Digital signatures use asymmetric cryptography (e.g., RSA or ECDSA) to create a hash of the transaction record, which is then encrypted with the signer's private key. Any alteration to the record after signing would cause the hash verification to fail, directly protecting the integrity of the data. While digital signatures also support non-repudiation, the question specifically asks which goal is primarily protected by ensuring records have not been altered, which is integrity.

Answer

Confidentiality

Answer

Non-repudiation

Answer

Availability

Question 11

A company wants to automatically detect emails in Exchange Online that contain credit card numbers and apply encryption to those emails before they are sent. Which Microsoft Purview solution should the administrator configure?

Accepted Answer

Data Loss Prevention (DLP). Data Loss Prevention (DLP) in Microsoft Purview is specifically designed to detect sensitive information such as credit card numbers in emails and automatically apply protective actions like encryption. DLP policies can scan Exchange Online messages in transit and enforce rules to encrypt the email before it is sent, which directly meets the requirement.

Answer

Information Protection (sensitivity labels)

Answer

Data Lifecycle Management

Answer

eDiscovery

Question 12

A healthcare organization stores patient records in an encrypted database. Access to the database is restricted to authorized medical staff only. Which security principle is primarily being addressed by these measures?

Accepted Answer

Confidentiality. Confidentiality ensures that sensitive data, such as patient records, is accessible only to authorized individuals. Encryption renders the data unreadable to unauthorized parties, and access restrictions enforce that only authorized medical staff can decrypt and view the records. This directly aligns with the principle of confidentiality, which is a core pillar of the CIA triad.

Answer

Integrity

Answer

Availability

Answer

Non-repudiation

Question 13

A security operations team uses Microsoft 365 Defender and wants to detect, investigate, and automatically respond to advanced identity-based attacks targeting on-premises Active Directory, such as Pass-the-Hash (PtH) and Golden Ticket attacks. They also need to integrate these alerts into Microsoft Sentinel for central incident management. Which Microsoft security solution provides these capabilities?

Accepted Answer

Microsoft Defender for Identity. Microsoft Defender for Identity (MDI) is the correct answer because it is specifically designed to detect, investigate, and automatically respond to advanced identity-based attacks targeting on-premises Active Directory, including Pass-the-Hash (PtH) and Golden Ticket attacks. It uses behavioral analytics and machine learning to identify suspicious activities such as anomalous Kerberos ticket requests and NTLM authentication anomalies. MDI also natively integrates with Microsoft Sentinel, allowing alerts to be ingested for central incident management.

Answer

Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps

Answer

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint

Answer

Microsoft Defender for Office 365

Question 14

A multinational company stores customer data across multiple Azure regions. A new regulation requires that customer data must remain within the country's borders and cannot be transferred abroad. Which concept does this regulation primarily relate to?

Accepted Answer

Data Sovereignty. Data Sovereignty is the correct answer because the regulation mandates that customer data must remain within the country's borders and cannot be transferred abroad. This legal and compliance concept asserts that data is subject to the laws and governance structures of the nation where it is physically stored, directly addressing cross-border transfer restrictions.

Answer

Data Residency

Answer

Data Retention

Answer

Data Classification

Question 15

A security administrator is explaining authentication and authorization to new IT staff. Which statement correctly describes the difference between these two processes?

Accepted Answer

Authentication verifies who the user is; authorization verifies what the user can do.. Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user, device, or other entity, typically through credentials like a password, biometric, or certificate. Authorization determines what an authenticated entity is permitted to do, such as accessing specific resources or performing certain actions, often enforced via access control lists (ACLs) or role-based access control (RBAC). In Microsoft Entra ID, authentication occurs first (e.g., via OAuth 2.0 or SAML), and then authorization is evaluated using claims or directory roles.

Answer

Authentication verifies what a user can do; authorization verifies who the user is.

Answer

Both authentication and authorization verify the user's identity.

Answer

Authorization is always performed before authentication.

Question 16

A security architect is designing a new security posture based on the Zero Trust model. The architect wants to ensure that every access request is fully authenticated, authorized, and encrypted before granting access, and that access is granted only to the minimum necessary resources. Which three principles of Zero Trust align with these requirements? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Verify explicitly. Option A is correct because the 'Verify explicitly' principle of Zero Trust requires that every access request must be fully authenticated, authorized, and encrypted before granting access. This means using strong authentication mechanisms (e.g., multifactor authentication) and continuous validation of identity and device health, not just relying on network location or implicit trust.

Answer

Network segmentation

Question 17

A multinational organization uses Microsoft Entra ID. The IT help desk team is responsible for password resets and group management, but only for users located in the European region. The organization has created a group containing all European user accounts. Which Microsoft Entra feature should an administrator use to delegate these administrative tasks specifically to the help desk team, limited to the European user scope?

Accepted Answer

Administrative units. Administrative units (AUs) in Microsoft Entra ID allow administrators to delegate administrative permissions scoped to a specific subset of users, groups, or devices. By creating an AU containing only the European user group, the administrator can assign the help desk team roles (e.g., Helpdesk Administrator or User Administrator) limited to that AU, ensuring they can perform password resets and group management only for European users.

Answer

Access reviews

Answer

Conditional Access

Answer

Self-service password reset (SSPR)

Question 18

A security administrator configures user accounts so that employees have only the permissions necessary to perform their job functions and no more. Which security concept is being applied?

Accepted Answer

Least privilege. The principle of least privilege dictates that users should be granted only the permissions necessary to perform their specific job functions and no more. By configuring accounts with minimal access rights, the administrator directly applies this concept to reduce the attack surface and limit potential damage from compromised credentials.

Answer

Defense in depth

Answer

Separation of duties

Answer

Zero Trust

Question 19

An organization adopts a security model that requires explicit verification of every access request, uses least privilege principles, and assumes that a breach has already occurred. Which security model does this describe?

Accepted Answer

Zero Trust. Zero Trust is the correct answer because the model explicitly requires verification of every access request, enforces least privilege, and assumes breach. This aligns with the core Zero Trust principles of 'never trust, always verify,' continuous validation, and micro-segmentation, as opposed to traditional perimeter-based models that implicitly trust internal traffic.

Answer

Perimeter-based security

Answer

Defense in depth

Answer

Shared responsibility

Question 20

A user authenticates to a company's network by entering their password and then approving a push notification on their mobile phone. After authentication, the user attempts to access a shared folder containing financial reports. The access is denied because the user's account is not a member of the 'Finance' group. Which security concept is demonstrated when the user is denied access to the folder?

Accepted Answer

Authorization. Authorization is the security concept that determines what resources a user is allowed to access after their identity has been verified. In this scenario, the user successfully authenticated but was denied access to the financial reports folder because their account lacked the necessary permissions—specifically, membership in the 'Finance' group. This access control decision is the essence of authorization, which enforces policies based on identity attributes like group membership.

Answer

Authentication

Answer

Non-repudiation

Answer

Accounting