The answer is to assign the Contributor role to a Microsoft Entra security group that contains the team members. This is correct because Azure RBAC allows you to grant permissions to a group rather than individual users, enabling centralized identity governance. When you assign the Contributor role to a security group, any member added to or removed from that group automatically gains or loses the corresponding permissions, eliminating the need to manually update role assignments as personnel changes occur. On the AZ-104 exam, this scenario often appears in exhibits showing a team with fluctuating membership, testing your understanding of role-based access control best practices. A common trap is choosing to assign the role directly to a user or a service principal, which defeats the purpose of scalable management. Remember the memory tip: "Group the role, not the soul"—always attach Azure roles to groups, not individuals, for maintainable access control.
AZ-104 Manage Azure Identities and Governance Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of manage azure identities and governance. 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.
Exhibit
Current access review
Team members:
- Asha Khan
- Ben Miller
- Chen Wu
- Dana Ortiz
All four users need Contributor access to rg-app today.
Requirement: The team changes every month. When people join or leave, the administrator wants to update one membership list instead of editing Azure role assignments for each user.
Based on the exhibit, which identity should be granted the Contributor role so access can be managed centrally as team members change?
Current access review
Team members:
- Asha Khan
- Ben Miller
- Chen Wu
- Dana Ortiz
All four users need Contributor access to rg-app today.
Requirement: The team changes every month. When people join or leave, the administrator wants to update one membership list instead of editing Azure role assignments for each user.
A
Assign Contributor to each user account individually.
Why wrong: Individual assignments work, but every join or leave would require editing multiple role assignments, which is exactly what the requirement wants to avoid.
B
Assign Contributor to a Microsoft Entra security group that contains the team members.
A security group provides a single identity for access management. Updating group membership automatically changes access for all assigned members without rewriting RBAC assignments.
C
Assign Contributor to a managed identity.
Why wrong: Managed identities are for Azure resources to authenticate to services, not for grouping human users for team-based access control.
D
Assign Contributor to the management group that contains rg-app.
Why wrong: Management group scope would grant the permission far more broadly than the single application resource group requires.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Assign Contributor to a Microsoft Entra security group that contains the team members.
Assigning the Contributor role to a Microsoft Entra security group that contains the team members allows access to be managed centrally. As team members join or leave, you simply add or remove them from the group, and their permissions update automatically without needing to modify role assignments for each individual user. This aligns with Azure RBAC best practices for centralized identity governance.
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.
✗
Assign Contributor to each user account individually.
Why it's wrong here
Individual assignments work, but every join or leave would require editing multiple role assignments, which is exactly what the requirement wants to avoid.
✓
Assign Contributor to a Microsoft Entra security group that contains the team members.
Why this is correct
A security group provides a single identity for access management. Updating group membership automatically changes access for all assigned members without rewriting RBAC assignments.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Assign Contributor to a managed identity.
Why it's wrong here
Managed identities are for Azure resources to authenticate to services, not for grouping human users for team-based access control.
✗
Assign Contributor to the management group that contains rg-app.
Why it's wrong here
Management group scope would grant the permission far more broadly than the single application resource group requires.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often think assigning roles to individual users (Option A) is simpler or more direct, overlooking the centralized management and scalability benefits of using a security group, or they confuse managed identities (Option C) with user identities, not realizing managed identities are for Azure resources, not human users.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure RBAC role assignments can be scoped to security groups, enabling dynamic access control. When a user is added to or removed from a Microsoft Entra security group, the change propagates to Azure RBAC within minutes (typically 5–10 minutes) due to replication delays in the Azure AD graph. This approach leverages group-based licensing and role assignment, reducing the number of role assignments and simplifying auditing, as the group itself becomes the single point of management for permissions.
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
A company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-104 question in full detail.
Manage Azure Identities and Governance — This question tests Manage Azure Identities and Governance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Assign Contributor to a Microsoft Entra security group that contains the team members. — Assigning the Contributor role to a Microsoft Entra security group that contains the team members allows access to be managed centrally. As team members join or leave, you simply add or remove them from the group, and their permissions update automatically without needing to modify role assignments for each individual user. This aligns with Azure RBAC best practices for centralized identity governance.
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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