AZ-400 Design and implement a DevOps infrastructure Practice Question
This AZ-400 practice question tests your understanding of design and implement a devops infrastructure. 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.
A team uses Terraform to manage Azure infrastructure. They want to store the Terraform state file securely and enable collaboration. What is the recommended approach?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Store the state file in an Azure Storage account with state locking enabled
Storing the Terraform state file in an Azure Storage account with state locking enabled is the recommended approach because it provides a centralized, durable backend that supports native state locking via Azure Blob Storage leases. This prevents concurrent modifications and state corruption, enabling safe collaboration among team members. Azure Storage also offers encryption at rest and access control via RBAC, aligning with security best practices for infrastructure-as-code.
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.
✓
Store the state file in an Azure Storage account with state locking enabled
Why this is correct
Azure Storage provides remote state with leasing for locking, ensuring consistency.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Store the state file in a local folder and commit to Git
Why it's wrong here
Local state is not shared and committing to Git can expose secrets and cause conflicts.
✗
Store the state file in Terraform Cloud
Why it's wrong here
Terraform Cloud is a SaaS solution but not Azure-native; Azure Storage is the recommended backend for Azure.
✗
Store the state file in a Git repository with manual locking
Why it's wrong here
Git doesn't support state locking, leading to corruption.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume Terraform Cloud is always the best remote backend, but the question specifies Azure infrastructure, and the recommended approach for Azure is the native Azure Storage backend due to its tight integration, lower latency, and no additional licensing cost.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, the Azure Storage backend uses Blob Storage lease operations (via the REST API `Lease Blob`) to implement state locking: when a `terraform apply` runs, it acquires an infinite lease on the state blob, and other operations must wait or fail until the lease is released. This mechanism ensures only one writer at a time, even across distributed team members. A real-world scenario where this matters is during a CI/CD pipeline where multiple PRs trigger Terraform runs—without locking, two concurrent applies could overwrite each other's state, causing drift and resource mismanagement.
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 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.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-400 question in full detail.
Design and implement a DevOps infrastructure — This question tests Design and implement a DevOps infrastructure — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Store the state file in an Azure Storage account with state locking enabled — Storing the Terraform state file in an Azure Storage account with state locking enabled is the recommended approach because it provides a centralized, durable backend that supports native state locking via Azure Blob Storage leases. This prevents concurrent modifications and state corruption, enabling safe collaboration among team members. Azure Storage also offers encryption at rest and access control via RBAC, aligning with security best practices for infrastructure-as-code.
What should I do if I get this AZ-400 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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