AZ-900 Describe Azure architecture and services Practice Question

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 SQL Database

  Why it's wrong here

  Azure SQL Database is a platform-as-a-service relational database engine that stores structured data in tables with predefined schemas and relationships. It is optimized for transactional queries, ACID compliance, and complex joins, not for streaming large binary payloads. Images and videos would need to be broken into BLOB columns or external links, which incurs overhead and lacks the cost-efficient, object-level HTTP access Blob Storage provides natively.

  When this WOULD be correct

  A company needs to store and query structured transactional data (e.g., customer orders, inventory) with support for ACID transactions and T-SQL queries, and requires high availability and durability. Azure SQL Database would be the correct choice.

• ✗

  Azure Files

  Why it's wrong here

  Azure Files provides fully managed cloud file shares that support the SMB and NFS protocols, making it ideal for lift-and-shift file servers or shared drives accessed by virtual machines and on-premises clients. However, it is a hierarchical, file-based system designed for sequential or random access to files, not for massive-scale, URL-addressed object storage. Serving millions of media assets directly over HTTP/HTTPS to browsers or mobile apps is inefficient compared to Blob Storage, which is purpose-built for that scenario.

  When this WOULD be correct

  A company needs to migrate an on-premises file server to the cloud, requiring shared access to files via SMB protocol from multiple virtual machines. Azure Files would be the correct choice for this lift-and-shift scenario.

• ✓

  Azure Blob Storage

  Why this is correct

  Azure Blob Storage is a massively scalable object storage service designed to hold petabytes of unstructured data such as images, videos, documents, and backups. It exposes a REST-based HTTP/HTTPS API and SDKs, allowing clients to access blobs directly via URLs, with features like lifecycle management, geo-redundancy, and tiered storage (hot/cool/archive) to optimize cost and durability.

• ✗

  Azure Disk Storage

  Why it's wrong here

  Azure Disk Storage delivers persistent block-level storage volumes attached to Azure virtual machines, functioning as raw disks for operating systems and applications that require low-latency I/O. These disks are accessed over the virtualized infrastructure via the VM, not directly via HTTP/HTTPS, and they cannot be served to external clients as URLs. While you could place images on a disk, scaling and distributing that data globally would require additional infrastructure like VM scale sets and load balancers, making it an inappropriate choice for storing large amounts of unstructured media.

  When this WOULD be correct

  A company needs to attach high-performance, durable storage to an Azure virtual machine for a database or application that requires low-latency disk access. The storage must be managed as a disk (e.g., OS disk or data disk) and can be either managed or unmanaged.

Option-by-option analysis

Why each answer is right or wrong

Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The AZ-900 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.

Analysis generated from the official AZ-900blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”

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