This AZ-204 practice question tests your understanding of develop for azure storage. 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 need to provide temporary access to a file in Azure Blob Storage for a duration of one hour. The solution must not require authentication. What should you generate?
Storage account key.
Why wrong: Storage account key provides full access permanently.
Enable anonymous public read access on the container.
Why wrong: Public access is not temporary.
A user delegation key.
Why wrong: User delegation key is used to sign SAS, not directly for access.
A shared access signature (SAS) with read permission and an expiration time of one hour.
SAS provides time-limited access without authentication.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
A shared access signature (SAS) with read permission and an expiration time of one hour.
Option D is correct because a shared access signature (SAS) with read permission and a one-hour expiration provides time-limited, delegated access to a specific blob without requiring authentication. The SAS token is appended to the URL and grants the specified permissions for the defined duration, meeting the requirement of temporary access without authentication.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Storage account key.
Why it's wrong here
Storage account key provides full access permanently.
Enable anonymous public read access on the container.
Why it's wrong here
Public access is not temporary.
A user delegation key.
Why it's wrong here
User delegation key is used to sign SAS, not directly for access.
A shared access signature (SAS) with read permission and an expiration time of one hour.
Why this is correct
SAS provides time-limited access without authentication.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse a SAS with a storage account key or user delegation key, mistakenly thinking those provide temporary access without authentication, when in fact they are secrets used to generate SAS tokens or require authentication themselves.
Detailed technical explanation
A shared access signature (SAS) is a URI that grants restricted access rights to Azure Storage resources, with parameters including permissions, start time, and expiry time encoded in the token. For blob-level access, a service SAS can be generated using the storage account key or a user delegation key, but the SAS itself is a signed token that can be distributed without further authentication. In practice, SAS tokens are commonly used for scenarios like uploading files from a browser or sharing temporary download links, with the expiry enforced server-side by Azure Storage.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
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FAQ
Develop for Azure storage — This question tests Develop for Azure storage — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: A shared access signature (SAS) with read permission and an expiration time of one hour. — Option D is correct because a shared access signature (SAS) with read permission and a one-hour expiration provides time-limited, delegated access to a specific blob without requiring authentication. The SAS token is appended to the URL and grants the specified permissions for the defined duration, meeting the requirement of temporary access without authentication.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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