AZ-104 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of deploy and manage azure compute. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A stateless web application needs a group of identical Azure VMs that can automatically add more instances during the workday and remove them at night based on CPU usage. What should the administrator deploy?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
A virtual machine scale set with autoscale rules
A virtual machine scale set (VMSS) with autoscale rules is the correct solution because it provides a group of identical, load-balanced VMs that can automatically scale out (add instances) during high CPU usage in the workday and scale in (remove instances) at night based on CPU thresholds. This matches the stateless, elastic requirement perfectly, as VMSS is designed for horizontal scaling of identical instances with autoscale policies tied to metrics like CPU percentage.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
An availability set with two VMs
Why it's wrong here
An availability set improves resilience, but it does not automatically change the number of running VMs.
✓
A virtual machine scale set with autoscale rules
Why this is correct
A scale set is designed for identical VMs that can expand or shrink automatically based on demand.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
A single VM with a larger disk
Why it's wrong here
A larger disk does not provide automatic horizontal scaling for changing web traffic.
✗
An Azure Policy assignment to increase CPU capacity
Why it's wrong here
Azure Policy cannot scale compute instances; it only enforces governance settings.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse availability sets (which provide fault tolerance but no scaling) with virtual machine scale sets (which provide both scaling and high availability), or they mistakenly think Azure Policy can dynamically adjust compute resources, when it only enforces configuration rules.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, VMSS uses an autoscale engine that evaluates CPU metrics (e.g., Percentage CPU > 75% for 5 minutes) against scale-out and scale-in rules, leveraging Azure Monitor to trigger instance additions or removals. A key subtlety is that scale-in policies can be configured with 'Default' (newest instances removed first) or 'NewestVM' to control which instances are deallocated, which is critical for stateless workloads to avoid disrupting active sessions. In a real-world scenario, you would also pair VMSS with a load balancer or Application Gateway to distribute traffic evenly across the scaled instances.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-104 question in full detail.
Deploy and Manage Azure Compute — This question tests Deploy and Manage Azure Compute — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: A virtual machine scale set with autoscale rules — A virtual machine scale set (VMSS) with autoscale rules is the correct solution because it provides a group of identical, load-balanced VMs that can automatically scale out (add instances) during high CPU usage in the workday and scale in (remove instances) at night based on CPU thresholds. This matches the stateless, elastic requirement perfectly, as VMSS is designed for horizontal scaling of identical instances with autoscale policies tied to metrics like CPU percentage.
What should I do if I get this AZ-104 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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