AI-102 Plan and manage an Azure AI solution Practice Question
Your organization uses Microsoft Entra ID for identity management. You are building an AI solution that uses Azure AI Vision to analyze images. The solution must use managed identities to authenticate to the Vision resource. Which RBAC role should you assign to the managed identity?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse the Reader role (which grants read access to the resource's Azure Resource Manager properties) with the ability to read data from the service, but Reader does not include data-plane permissions for Cognitive Services APIs.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Cognitive Services User
The Cognitive Services User role (B) is the correct RBAC role because it grants the minimum required permissions for a managed identity to call Azure AI Vision APIs (e.g., analyze image, OCR) without allowing any write or management operations. This role is specifically designed for accessing Azure Cognitive Services endpoints, and it aligns with the principle of least privilege for authentication via managed identities.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Owner
Why it's wrong here
Owner grants full management of the resource plus role assignment, but no data-plane access to the Vision analyse operations. It is tempting because Owner is the broadest built-in role and appears to cover everything, and would be correct for an identity that must manage the resource and delegate access.
- ✓
Cognitive Services User
Why this is correct
Cognitive Services User grants data-plane access to call Azure AI Vision's analyse operations without granting key management or resource administration. Assigning it to the managed identity lets the solution authenticate to the Vision resource via Microsoft Entra ID, meeting the managed-identity constraint.
- ✗
Reader
Why it's wrong here
Reader grants only control-plane visibility of the resource, not the data-plane permission needed to call the Vision analyse APIs. It is tempting because Reader is the standard least-privilege role for viewing a resource, and would be correct for an identity that only needs to inspect configuration or metadata.
- ✗
Contributor
Why it's wrong here
Contributor permits managing the resource but excludes data-plane calls to the Vision analyse endpoints. It is tempting because Contributor is the usual role for deploying and configuring resources, and would be correct for an identity that provisions or updates the Vision account rather than invoking it.
Quick reference
Access Control Model Comparison
| Model | Acronym | Who Controls Access? | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discretionary Access Control | DAC | Resource owner | Small teams, file shares |
| Mandatory Access Control | MAC | System / security labels | Classified govt / military |
| Role-Based Access Control | RBAC | Administrator (via roles) | Enterprise environments |
| Attribute-Based Access Control | ABAC | Policy engine (user + resource attributes) | Fine-grained, dynamic policies |
| Rule-Based Access Control | RuBAC | System rules / ACLs | Firewall rules, network ACLs |
Go deeper
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AI-102 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the AI-102 exam.