AZ-204 Develop Azure compute solutions Practice Question
You are developing a background job that runs every hour to process data. You choose Azure Functions with a timer trigger. What is the correct format for the cron expression to run at the start of every hour?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse the six-field Azure Functions cron format with the standard five-field UNIX cron format, leading them to pick '0 * * * * *' (which runs every minute) or '* 0 * * * *' (which runs every second during minute 0).
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
✓
0 0 * * * *
In Azure Functions timer triggers, the cron expression uses six fields: {second} {minute} {hour} {day} {month} {day-of-week}. To run at the start of every hour (i.e., at minute 0 and second 0 of every hour), the expression must be '0 0 * * * *'. Option C correctly sets second to 0, minute to 0, and hour to '*' (every hour), with the remaining fields as '*' (every day, every month, every day-of-week).
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
0 * * * * *
Why it's wrong here
This expression specifies that the job should run when the second is 0, regardless of the minute, hour, day of month, month, or day of week. Since the minute field is a wildcard ("*"), this means it will trigger at the 0th second of *every* minute. This results in the job executing 60 times per hour, which is far more frequent than the desired hourly execution.
- ✗
* 0 * * * *
Why it's wrong here
This cron expression is configured to trigger for every second ("*") when the minute is exactly 0. This means that for the first minute of every hour (e.g., from 00:00:00 to 00:00:59, then 01:00:00 to 01:00:59, etc.), the job will execute once per second. This results in 60 executions at the start of each hour, which is not the single hourly execution required.
- ✓
0 0 * * * *
Why this is correct
This cron expression precisely defines a schedule for a job to run at the very beginning of every hour. By setting both the second and minute fields to "0", it ensures the trigger occurs exactly at the 0th second of the 0th minute of any given hour. The wildcard "*" in the hour, day of month, month, and day of week fields ensures this execution pattern repeats consistently, once per hour, every hour of every day.
- ✗
0 0 0 * * *
Why it's wrong here
This cron expression specifies that the job should execute precisely at midnight (00:00:00) every day. The "0" in the hour field restricts execution to only the 0th hour of the day, while the "0"s in the second and minute fields ensure it's the very start of that hour. This schedule results in a single daily execution, which does not meet the requirement for a job that needs to run every hour.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Azure Functions Development
Key term
Azure Functions Bindings
Azure Functions Bindings are declarative connections that link your serverless function code to Azure services or external resources, handling input and output data automatically without writing extra networking or authentication code.
Key term
Durable Functions
Durable Functions is an extension of Azure Functions that lets you write stateful workflows in code, managing complex sequences of tasks, retries, and delays automatically.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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