AZ-204 Develop Azure compute solutions Practice Question
This AZ-204 practice question tests your understanding of develop azure compute solutions. 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.
You are deploying a critical web application on Azure App Service that must handle sudden traffic spikes. The application stores session data in memory. You need to ensure session state is preserved across scale-out events. Which THREE actions should you take?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Enable sticky sessions (ARR affinity) in the App Service configuration.
Option A is correct because enabling sticky sessions (ARR affinity) ensures that all requests from a client session are routed to the same App Service instance. This preserves in-memory session state during scale-out events, as the load balancer uses the ARR cookie to maintain affinity. Without this, requests could be distributed to different instances, losing session data.
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.
✓
Enable sticky sessions (ARR affinity) in the App Service configuration.
Why this is correct
Sticky sessions route requests to the same instance, reducing session loss during scale-out.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Configure the application to use Azure Cache for Redis for session state.
Why this is correct
Redis provides a shared session store across instances.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Disable ARR affinity to allow any instance to handle requests.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling ARR affinity would cause session loss without external store.
✗
Set the session state mode to 'InProc' in the web.config.
Why it's wrong here
InProc stores session in memory and is lost on scale-out.
✓
Use a SQL Server session state provider to store session data.
Why this is correct
SQL Server can serve as a centralized session store.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may think disabling ARR affinity (Option C) or using InProc mode (Option D) is sufficient, but they fail to recognize that in-memory session state is inherently tied to a single instance and requires both sticky sessions and a shared external store for true scale-out resilience.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
ARR affinity uses a cookie named 'ARRAffinity' to bind a client to a specific backend instance via the Azure load balancer. Under the hood, the Application Request Routing (ARR) module inspects this cookie and routes requests accordingly. In a real-world scenario, if an instance fails or is recycled, the session is lost even with sticky sessions, which is why combining ARR affinity with a distributed cache like Redis is recommended for high availability.
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 startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-204 question in full detail.
Develop Azure compute solutions — This question tests Develop Azure compute solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Enable sticky sessions (ARR affinity) in the App Service configuration. — Option A is correct because enabling sticky sessions (ARR affinity) ensures that all requests from a client session are routed to the same App Service instance. This preserves in-memory session state during scale-out events, as the load balancer uses the ARR cookie to maintain affinity. Without this, requests could be distributed to different instances, losing session data.
What should I do if I get this AZ-204 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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