AZ-204 Practice Question: Connect to and consume Azure services and third-party services
Which TWO Azure services can be used to store and manage secrets, such as API keys and connection strings? (Choose 2)
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse Azure App Configuration (which can store configuration values but not secrets securely) with Azure Key Vault, or they mistakenly think Managed Identity is a secret store when it is actually an authentication mechanism for accessing secrets.
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
✓
Azure Key Vault
Azure Key Vault is the dedicated service for securely storing and managing secrets, keys, and certificates. Managed Identity, on the other hand, is an authentication mechanism that provides an identity for Azure resources to access secrets stored elsewhere, such as Key Vault. It does not store secrets itself. Therefore, only Azure Key Vault qualifies as a service for storing and managing secrets among the given options.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Azure Key Vault
Why this is correct
Azure Key Vault is designed for secure secret storage and management, making it the correct choice.
- ✗
Azure App Configuration
Why it's wrong here
App Configuration is for configuration settings, not secrets.
- ✗
Azure Storage
Why it's wrong here
Storage is for data, not secrets.
- ✗
Azure SQL Database
Why it's wrong here
SQL Database is for relational data.
- ✗
Azure Managed Identity
Why it's wrong here
Azure Managed Identity provides an identity for Azure resources to authenticate to services like Key Vault, but it does not store secrets. It is not a secret store.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Azure Functions Development
Key term
Key Vault Secrets
Key Vault Secrets are secure containers in Microsoft Azure that store sensitive information like passwords, connection strings, and API keys, keeping them encrypted and accessible only to authorized applications and users.
Key term
Managed identity
A managed identity is an automatically managed service principal in Azure that allows your code to authenticate to any service that supports Azure AD authentication without storing credentials.
About these practice questions
One of 881 original AZ-204 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AZ-204 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-204 exam.