AZ-204 Practice Question: Connect to and consume Azure services and third-party services
A company uses Azure API Management (APIM) to expose a set of REST APIs. A new requirement mandates that all API calls must be throttled per user based on usage tiers (Free, Basic, Premium). User identity is provided via a JWT token. Which policy should the developer configure in APIM to enforce this throttling?
⚠ Common exam trap
Azure often tests the distinction between rate limiting (short-term, sliding window) and quota (long-term, fixed window), and the trap here is that candidates confuse 'quota-by-key' with 'rate-limit-by-key' because both use a key, but quota is for total usage over a month, not per-second throttling.
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
✓
rate-limit-by-key policy
The rate-limit-by-key policy is correct because it allows throttling based on a specific key extracted from the request, such as the user identity from a JWT token. This policy enables per-user rate limiting by using a policy expression to extract the 'sub' claim or a custom claim from the JWT as the counter key, which maps directly to the usage tiers 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.
- ✗
rate-limit policy
Why it's wrong here
rate-limit applies globally, not per user.
- ✓
rate-limit-by-key policy
Why this is correct
rate-limit-by-key can throttle based on a key extracted from JWT claims, enabling per-user throttling.
- ✗
quota-by-key policy
Why it's wrong here
quota-by-key limits total calls over a period, not the rate.
- ✗
IP-based throttling
Why it's wrong here
IP-based throttling does not consider user identity.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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