AZ-104 Manage Azure Identities and Governance Practice Question
An organization has one Azure subscription with separate resource groups for Development and Operations. A contractor must start, stop, and read the properties of virtual machines only in RG-Operations. The contractor must not have access to virtual machines in RG-Development. Where should the role assignment be created?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers assume assigning a role at the subscription scope is simpler and still allows them to control access via resource group membership, but they forget that role assignments at higher scopes are inherited by all child scopes, granting unintended access to resources in other resource groups like RG-Development.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
At the RG-Operations resource group scope
Role assignments in Azure are inherited from higher scopes (management group, subscription, resource group) down to lower scopes. To grant the contractor the Virtual Machine Contributor role (or a custom role with start/stop/read permissions) only on VMs in RG-Operations and explicitly deny access to RG-Development, the assignment must be scoped to the RG-Operations resource group. Assigning at a higher scope (subscription or management group) would grant access to all resource groups, including RG-Development, violating the requirement.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
At the subscription scope
Why it's wrong here
The subscription scope encompasses all resource groups in the subscription, so while the assignment technically covers RG-Operations, it simultaneously grants the contractor access to every other resource group in the subscription, including those holding sensitive or unrelated data. This makes the assignment excessively broad, as the contractor could then list and potentially modify resources far outside their operational remit. The requirement calls for access only to the Operations resource group, so a subscription-wide assignment is over-permissive and does not satisfy the least-privilege model required by Azure RBAC.
When this WOULD be correct
If the question required the contractor to manage virtual machines across all resource groups (e.g., both Development and Operations), then assigning the role at the subscription scope would be correct to provide uniform access.
- ✓
At the RG-Operations resource group scope
Why this is correct
Assigning the required role at the RG-Operations resource group scope is the narrowest level that still includes every relevant virtual machine and its supporting resources (like network interfaces and disks) as a single logical unit. Since RBAC assignments are inherited by all resources within the scope, this grants the contractor exactly the access needed for that group, without leaking permissions to other resource groups in the subscription. This adheres to the principle of least privilege because the assignment is limited to the organizational boundary where the contractor actually works.
- ✗
At the management group scope
Why it's wrong here
A management group sits above the subscription and is designed to manage multiple subscriptions; assigning the role here means the contractor would inherit permissions across every subscription nested under that management group, not just the one containing RG-Operations. This dramatically expands the attack surface and grants visibility into unrelated production workloads, which is entirely unnecessary for the contract work. Because the assignment would apply to any future subscription added to the group as well, it also creates a maintenance and security risk that violates least privilege.
- ✗
At an individual virtual machine scope
Why it's wrong here
An individual virtual machine scope would limit the role assignment to a single VM instance, which is far more restrictive than the stated requirement to manage all VMs in RG-Operations. You would need to create a separate identity-based assignment for every existing VM, and any new VM deployed later to that resource group would require a manual, additional assignment to be managed. This piecemeal approach is error-prone and fails to provide consistent access, making the resource group the appropriate atomic unit of management for this scenario.
When this WOULD be correct
A question where a specific user needs to manage only a single virtual machine (e.g., start, stop, change its properties) and must not have access to any other resources in the same resource group or subscription. The role assignment would be scoped to that individual VM.
Option-by-option analysis
Why each answer is right or wrong
Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The AZ-104 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.
✓At the RG-Operations resource group scopeCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
Assigning the required role at the RG-Operations resource group scope is the narrowest level that still includes every relevant virtual machine and its supporting resources (like network interfaces and disks) as a single logical unit. Since RBAC assignments are inherited by all resources within the scope, this grants the contractor exactly the access needed for that group, without leaking permissions to other resource groups in the subscription. This adheres to the principle of least privilege because the assignment is limited to the organizational boundary where the contractor actually works.
✗At the subscription scopeWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Assigning the role at the subscription scope would grant the contractor permissions to all resource groups, including RG-Development, violating the requirement to restrict access to RG-Operations only.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
If the question required the contractor to manage virtual machines across all resource groups (e.g., both Development and Operations), then assigning the role at the subscription scope would be correct to provide uniform access.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think assigning at a higher scope (subscription) is simpler and covers the needed resource group, overlooking that it also grants unintended access to other resource groups.
✗At an individual virtual machine scopeWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Assigning the role at an individual virtual machine scope would only grant access to that specific VM, not to all VMs in RG-Operations as required. The contractor needs to start, stop, and read properties of all VMs in the resource group, which requires a role assignment at the resource group scope.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A question where a specific user needs to manage only a single virtual machine (e.g., start, stop, change its properties) and must not have access to any other resources in the same resource group or subscription. The role assignment would be scoped to that individual VM.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think that assigning the role at the VM level is more restrictive and thus more secure, but they overlook that the requirement is to manage all VMs in the resource group, not just one.
Analysis generated from the official AZ-104blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Dynamic Membership Groups
Key term
Group
A group is a collection of users, devices, or other objects that are assigned permissions and policies together for simplified management in identity and governance systems like Microsoft Entra ID.
Key term
Role assignment
Role assignment is the process of granting a specific set of permissions to a user, group, or service principal so they can perform certain actions within a system.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AZ-104 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the AZ-104 exam.