AZ-400 Develop a security and compliance plan Practice Question
Your company is migrating to Microsoft Entra ID and needs to manage secrets used in Azure Pipelines. Which service should you use to securely store and rotate secrets?
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
✓
Azure Key Vault
Azure Key Vault is the correct service to securely store and rotate secrets used in Azure Pipelines. It is natively integrated with Azure Pipelines via library variable groups, allowing secrets to be referenced in pipelines without exposing them. Option B, GitHub Secrets, is designed for GitHub Actions, not Azure Pipelines. Option C, Azure App Configuration, manages feature flags and configuration settings, not secrets. Option D, Microsoft Purview, is for data governance and compliance, not secret management.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Azure Key Vault
Why this is correct
Azure Key Vault is the Azure-native service for securely storing and managing secrets, keys, and certificates. It integrates directly with Azure Pipelines through service connections or variable groups, providing centralized access control, auditing, and rotation of secrets used in pipeline tasks.
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GitHub Secrets
Why it's wrong here
GitHub Secrets is a secret store for GitHub Actions and repository automation, not for Azure Pipelines. Azure Pipelines cannot consume GitHub Secrets directly; secrets should be stored in Azure Key Vault or in pipeline variable groups for secure use in builds and releases.
- ✗
Azure App Configuration
Why it's wrong here
Azure App Configuration is designed for managing application configuration and feature flags, not for storing secrets. It supports Key Vault references so secrets stay in Key Vault, but App Configuration itself lacks the security controls and audit capabilities required for secret management.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview is a data governance, risk, and compliance solution for mapping and classifying data across your organization. It is not a secret storage service and provides no integration with Azure Pipelines for injecting secrets into build or release tasks.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to DevOps and Azure DevOps
Key term
Azure Key Vault
Azure Key Vault is a cloud service for securely storing and managing sensitive information like passwords, encryption keys, and certificates.
Key term
GitHub
GitHub is a cloud-based platform for storing, tracking, and collaborating on code using Git version control.
About these practice questions
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AZ-400 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the AZ-400 exam.