The answer is to assign the Reader role at the Corp management group scope. This is correct because Azure RBAC roles assigned at a management group scope are inherited by all child management groups, subscriptions, and resource groups within that hierarchy, ensuring the compliance team can read all current and future resources without needing separate assignments. On the AZ-104 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of scope inheritance and the principle of least privilege, often appearing as a trap where candidates mistakenly assign the role at a subscription or resource group level instead of the parent management group. A common memory tip is to think of management groups as folders in a file system—assigning permissions to the top folder automatically applies them to every subfolder and file inside, so always look for the highest scope that covers all required resources.
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
Management group hierarchy:
Corp
├─ Sub-Prod-01
│ └─ RG-Finance
└─ Sub-Prod-02
└─ RG-Shared
Current role assignment:
- Reader assigned to Entra ID group Auditors at scope: /providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/Corp
Requirement:
- Members of Auditors must read resources in any new subscription added under Corp without adding another assignment.
Based on the exhibit, a compliance team must read all current and future resources in every subscription under the Corp management group. Where should you assign the Reader role?
Management group hierarchy:
Corp
├─ Sub-Prod-01
│ └─ RG-Finance
└─ Sub-Prod-02
└─ RG-Shared
Current role assignment:
- Reader assigned to Entra ID group Auditors at scope: /providers/Microsoft.Management/managementGroups/Corp
Requirement:
- Members of Auditors must read resources in any new subscription added under Corp without adding another assignment.
A
Assign Reader at the RG-Finance resource group scope.
Why wrong: This only grants access to one resource group and does not cover other subscriptions under Corp.
B
Assign Reader at the Corp management group scope.
This scope covers all subscriptions currently under Corp and any subscriptions added later beneath that management group.
C
Assign Reader separately at each subscription scope.
Why wrong: This works for current subscriptions but requires extra assignments whenever a new subscription appears.
D
Assign Reader only at the individual resource scope.
Why wrong: This would be far too narrow and would not provide access to the rest of the environment.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Assign Reader at the Corp management group scope.
Assigning the Reader role at the Corp management group scope applies the role to all current and future subscriptions and resource groups within that management group hierarchy. This is because Azure RBAC roles assigned at a management group scope are inherited by all child management groups, subscriptions, and resources, ensuring the compliance team can read all resources across the entire Corp hierarchy without needing separate assignments.
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 Reader at the RG-Finance resource group scope.
Why it's wrong here
This only grants access to one resource group and does not cover other subscriptions under Corp.
✓
Assign Reader at the Corp management group scope.
Why this is correct
This scope covers all subscriptions currently under Corp and any subscriptions added later beneath that management group.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Assign Reader separately at each subscription scope.
Why it's wrong here
This works for current subscriptions but requires extra assignments whenever a new subscription appears.
✗
Assign Reader only at the individual resource scope.
Why it's wrong here
This would be far too narrow and would not provide access to the rest of the environment.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often think they must assign roles at the subscription or resource group level for granularity, overlooking that management group scope provides automatic inheritance to all child scopes, which is the most efficient way to grant permissions across an entire hierarchy.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure RBAC role assignments at a management group scope are inherited by all child scopes (management groups, subscriptions, resource groups, and resources) due to the hierarchical nature of Azure's resource management. This inheritance is enforced by Azure's role assignment engine, which evaluates effective permissions by traversing the management group tree. In a real-world scenario, if a new subscription is created under Corp, the Reader role assignment at the Corp management group automatically applies to that subscription without any additional configuration, ensuring continuous compliance coverage.
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 Reader at the Corp management group scope. — Assigning the Reader role at the Corp management group scope applies the role to all current and future subscriptions and resource groups within that management group hierarchy. This is because Azure RBAC roles assigned at a management group scope are inherited by all child management groups, subscriptions, and resources, ensuring the compliance team can read all resources across the entire Corp hierarchy without needing separate assignments.
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.
About these practice questions
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These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. Based on the exhibit, the Prod management group contains three subscriptions that host application workloads. An operations group must be able to read all current and future resources in those Prod subscriptions, but it must not have access to Sandbox. Where should you assign the Reader role?
medium
A.Assign Reader to OpsGroup at the Corp management group.
✓ B.Assign Reader to OpsGroup at the Prod management group.
C.Assign Reader to OpsGroup at one application resource group in AppSub1.
D.Assign Reader to OpsGroup at each subscription individually.
Why B: Assigning the Reader role at the Prod management group scope ensures that OpsGroup inherits read permissions to all current and future subscriptions and resources within that management group, while excluding the Sandbox subscription which is outside the Prod hierarchy. This leverages Azure RBAC inheritance, where roles assigned at a management group propagate to all child subscriptions and resource groups, meeting the requirement for a single assignment that covers all Prod workloads without granting access to Sandbox.
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Question Discussion
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