The answer is an Availability Zone for Workload A and an Availability Set for Workload B. This is correct because Availability Zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking, so deploying VMs across multiple zones protects against a full datacenter failure. In contrast, an Availability Set distributes VMs across fault domains (hardware hosts) and update domains (planned maintenance cycles), which guards against a single host failure or planned maintenance but not a zone-level outage. On the AZ-104 exam, this distinction tests your understanding of Azure’s resilience tiers: zones for region-wide disasters, sets for rack-level faults. A common trap is assuming an Availability Set can survive a datacenter failure—it cannot, as all VMs in a set reside within the same datacenter. Remember the mnemonic: “Set is for single server, Zone is for zero datacenter.”
AZ-104 Deploy and Manage Azure Compute Practice Question
This AZ-104 practice question tests your understanding of deploy and manage azure compute. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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.
Two workloads have different resilience requirements. Workload A must stay available if a single datacenter in the region fails. Workload B only needs protection from planned maintenance and a single hardware host failure. Which two deployment models should the administrator use? Select two.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Availability Zones for Workload A
Workload A requires protection against a full datacenter failure within a region. Availability Zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Deploying VMs across multiple zones ensures that if one zone (datacenter) fails, the workload remains available in another zone. Workload B only needs protection from planned maintenance and a single hardware host failure. An Availability Set distributes VMs across multiple fault domains (hardware hosts) and update domains (planned maintenance cycles), providing resilience against these specific failure scenarios without requiring zone-level separation.
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.
✓
Availability Zones for Workload A
Why this is correct
Zones protect the workload from a datacenter-level outage.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Availability Set for Workload B
Why this is correct
Availability sets help with host faults and planned maintenance.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Virtual Machine Scale Set without zones
Why it's wrong here
Scale alone does not provide the required fault isolation.
✗
Proximity Placement Group
Why it's wrong here
Improves latency placement, but does not provide failure protection.
✗
Single VM with premium SSD
Why it's wrong here
A single VM still leaves a single point of failure.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Availability Zones with Availability Sets, mistakenly thinking an Availability Set can protect against a full datacenter failure, or they assume a Virtual Machine Scale Set inherently provides zone-level resilience without explicitly configuring zones.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Availability Zones provide a 99.99% SLA when two or more VMs are deployed across zones, as each zone is a separate fault and update domain with a minimum physical distance of several kilometers. Availability Sets offer a 99.95% SLA by distributing VMs across up to 3 fault domains (each representing a separate rack with independent power and network) and up to 20 update domains (ensuring only a subset of VMs are rebooted during planned maintenance). Under the hood, Azure's Fabric Controller manages the placement of VMs within an Availability Set to ensure no two VMs in the same fault domain share the same hardware host, while zone-level placement uses the region's physical datacenter boundaries.
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: Availability Zones for Workload A — Workload A requires protection against a full datacenter failure within a region. Availability Zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. Deploying VMs across multiple zones ensures that if one zone (datacenter) fails, the workload remains available in another zone. Workload B only needs protection from planned maintenance and a single hardware host failure. An Availability Set distributes VMs across multiple fault domains (hardware hosts) and update domains (planned maintenance cycles), providing resilience against these specific failure scenarios without requiring zone-level separation.
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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