A VM in a subnet must send traffic to 172.16.0.0/16 through a network virtual appliance, but all other destinations should continue using the default Azure system routes. What should the administrator add to the subnet route table?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
Distractor review
A route for 0.0.0.0/0 with next hop Virtual appliance.
This would send all traffic to the appliance, not only the 172.16.0.0/16 destination.
Best answer
A route for 172.16.0.0/16 with next hop Virtual appliance.
A specific user-defined route for the target prefix sends only that traffic to the appliance while other traffic still uses system routes.
Distractor review
An NSG deny rule for all other destinations.
NSGs filter traffic, but they do not steer packets to a next hop or implement routing behavior.
Distractor review
A service endpoint for the 172.16.0.0/16 network.
Service endpoints apply to supported Azure services, not arbitrary IPv4 prefixes or appliances.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: usable hosts are not the same as total addresses
Subnetting questions often tempt you into counting all addresses. In normal IPv4 subnets, the network and broadcast addresses are not usable host addresses.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
Subnetting questions test whether you can identify the network, broadcast address, usable range, mask and correct subnet. Slow down enough to calculate the block size correctly.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- CIDR notation defines the prefix length.
- Block size helps identify subnet boundaries.
- Network and broadcast addresses are not usable hosts in normal IPv4 subnets.
- The required host count determines the smallest suitable subnet.
TExam Day Tips
- Write the block size before choosing the subnet.
- Check whether the question asks for hosts, subnets or a specific address range.
- Do not confuse /24, /25, /26 and /27 host counts.
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More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A route table contains these entries: 10.0.0.0/8 with next hop Virtual appliance, and 10.1.1.0/24 with next hop Virtual network gateway. Which next hop will Azure use for traffic to 10.1.1.5?
Question 2
You are deploying a stateless web application on Azure virtual machines. The solution must automatically add and remove instances based on CPU demand and allow all instances to be managed as one logical group. Which Azure compute feature should you deploy?
Question 3
You are deploying a Windows Server VM for an internal app. The VM must support Secure Boot and vTPM later, its OS disk must survive host moves, and the team wants the lowest-cost managed disk tier that still behaves like a normal writable OS disk. Which two choices should you make? Select two.
Question 4
You need to deploy several identical virtual machines and ensure that the failure of a single Azure host does not affect all of them. Which feature should you use?
Question 5
You need to connect VNet-Hub and VNet-Spoke so that resources in both virtual networks can communicate privately over the Microsoft backbone. Both virtual networks are in the same region. What should you configure?
Question 6
You need to create a storage account that provides the lowest-cost redundant storage for non-critical data and only needs protection against local disk or server failure within a single datacenter. Which redundancy option should you choose?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this AZ-104 question test?
CIDR notation defines the prefix length.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: A route for 172.16.0.0/16 with next hop Virtual appliance. — The correct configuration is a user-defined route that matches only 172.16.0.0/16 and points to the virtual appliance as the next hop. Azure then uses that route for traffic to the specified network while leaving all other destinations to the built-in system routes. This is the standard way to send selected traffic through a firewall or inspection device without changing the routing for the whole subnet. Why others are wrong: A default route would capture all outbound traffic, which is broader than the requirement. An NSG deny rule blocks traffic but does not forward it to an appliance. Service endpoints are not used for routing arbitrary IP ranges and do not solve next-hop selection to a network virtual appliance.
What should I do if I get this AZ-104 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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