AZ-400 Develop a security and compliance plan Practice Question
Your organization uses Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) for identity management. You need to ensure that only authorized users can access the Azure DevOps organization. What is the most secure way to manage access?
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
✓
Require all users to use multi-factor authentication (MFA) and enable Conditional Access policies.
Requiring multi-factor authentication (MFA) and enabling Conditional Access policies provides the most secure access control. MFA adds an extra layer of security beyond passwords, and Conditional Access allows granular policy enforcement based on user, device, location, and risk, ensuring only authorized users under secure conditions can access Azure DevOps. Option B is less secure as it does not enforce additional authentication. Option C only restricts access by network location but does not prevent unauthorized access if an attacker is on the corporate network. Option D only grants basic access without security controls.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Require all users to use multi-factor authentication (MFA) and enable Conditional Access policies.
Why this is correct
Requiring multi-factor authentication (MFA) ensures users prove their identity via a second factor, and Conditional Access policies enforce context-aware conditions such as device compliance, sign-in risk, and location for Azure DevOps resources. This combined approach mitigates credential theft and provides adaptive, secure access controls directly integrated with Microsoft Entra ID.
- ✗
Disable external user access and only allow internal users.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling external user access reduces the attack surface by limiting who can authenticate, but it does not enforce any security conditions like MFA, device health, or sign-in risk for internal users. Internal accounts remain vulnerable to compromise, especially if passwords are weak or devices are unmanaged.
- ✗
Use IP address restrictions to limit access to the corporate network.
Why it's wrong here
IP address restrictions limit access to traffic originating from specified corporate network ranges, but remote users connecting via VPN, home broadband, or other external networks would be blocked or have unpredictable source IPs. Additionally, this approach does not provide step-up authentication such as MFA or evaluate device compliance, so it fails to secure access for legitimate remote workers without adding a security layer at the identity level.
- ✗
Add users to the Azure DevOps organization and assign them to the 'Basic' access level.
Why it's wrong here
Adding users to an Azure DevOps organization and assigning the 'Basic' access level only grants feature entitlements within the service, such as work item tracking and pipeline access. It does not configure any authentication or access policies; MFA and Conditional Access operate at the Microsoft Entra ID level and are necessary to enforce secure sign-in and condition-based access to Azure DevOps resources.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Introduction to DevOps and Azure DevOps
Key term
Azure DevOps
Azure DevOps is a Microsoft service that provides development tools for planning, building, testing, and deploying software applications using automated pipelines and collaboration features.
Key term
Least privilege
Least privilege is a security principle that means giving users, systems, or programs only the minimum permissions they need to do their job and nothing more.
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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.