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 developing a microservices application deployed on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). You need to ensure that service-to-service communication is encrypted using mutual TLS (mTLS) without modifying application code. What should you do?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Deploy Azure Service Mesh and enable mTLS.
Azure Service Mesh (e.g., Open Service Mesh or Istio-based) provides a transparent infrastructure layer that can automatically inject sidecar proxies into pods and enforce mTLS for all service-to-service communication without requiring any changes to application code. This meets the requirement of encrypting traffic with mutual TLS while keeping the application code untouched.
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.
✓
Deploy Azure Service Mesh and enable mTLS.
Why this is correct
Service Mesh provides transparent mTLS.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use Azure Application Gateway Ingress Controller with mTLS.
Why it's wrong here
Application Gateway is for ingress traffic, not internal service-to-service.
✗
Enable Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) pod-to-pod encryption.
Why it's wrong here
AKS does not have a built-in pod-to-pod encryption feature.
✗
Configure Azure Network Security Groups to enforce encryption.
Why it's wrong here
NSGs do not provide mTLS.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may confuse ingress-level mTLS (option B) with internal service-to-service mTLS, or assume that AKS has a built-in pod encryption feature (option C) when it does not.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, a service mesh deploys a sidecar proxy (e.g., Envoy) alongside each pod, intercepting all inbound and outbound traffic. When mTLS is enabled, the proxies automatically negotiate TLS 1.2/1.3 with mutual certificate exchange, encrypting traffic and verifying identities using SPIFFE-compliant identities. This is transparent to the application, which continues to send plain HTTP, while the proxy handles encryption/decryption.
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 healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
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: Deploy Azure Service Mesh and enable mTLS. — Azure Service Mesh (e.g., Open Service Mesh or Istio-based) provides a transparent infrastructure layer that can automatically inject sidecar proxies into pods and enforce mTLS for all service-to-service communication without requiring any changes to application code. This meets the requirement of encrypting traffic with mutual TLS while keeping the application code untouched.
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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