- A
Azure Load Balancer
Why wrong: Azure Load Balancer distributes incoming traffic within a single Azure region. It cannot route traffic across multiple regions or consider latency between a user and different regions.
- B
Azure Application Gateway
Why wrong: Azure Application Gateway is a regional layer-7 load balancer that provides features such as SSL termination, URL-based routing, and web application firewall. It cannot route traffic across multiple regions.
- C
Azure Traffic Manager
Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer that operates globally. It supports the Performance routing method, which directs users to the region with the lowest latency, and automatically fails over to a healthy region if an endpoint becomes unavailable.
- D
Azure Front Door
Why wrong: Azure Front Door is a global layer-7 load balancer and application delivery network that provides HTTP/HTTPS acceleration, SSL offload, and web application firewall. While it can route traffic globally based on latency, it is a more feature-rich service than needed for simple DNS-based latency routing, and Azure Traffic Manager is the simpler, correct service for this requirement.
AZ-900 Describe Azure architecture and services Practice Question
This AZ-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe azure architecture and services. 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 company deploys web servers across Azure regions East US and West Europe. The application must automatically direct each user to the region that provides the lowest network latency, and if an entire region becomes unavailable, traffic must be seamlessly redirected to the remaining healthy region. Which Azure service should the company use?
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 Traffic Manager
Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer that directs user requests to the nearest available endpoint based on the lowest network latency. It also supports automatic failover: if a region becomes unavailable, Traffic Manager detects the endpoint health failure via health probes and redirects traffic to the remaining healthy region, providing seamless global load balancing and disaster recovery.
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.
- ✗
Azure Load Balancer
Why it's wrong here
Azure Load Balancer distributes incoming traffic within a single Azure region. It cannot route traffic across multiple regions or consider latency between a user and different regions.
- ✗
Azure Application Gateway
Why it's wrong here
Azure Application Gateway is a regional layer-7 load balancer that provides features such as SSL termination, URL-based routing, and web application firewall. It cannot route traffic across multiple regions.
- ✓
Azure Traffic Manager
Why this is correct
Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer that operates globally. It supports the Performance routing method, which directs users to the region with the lowest latency, and automatically fails over to a healthy region if an endpoint becomes unavailable.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Azure Front Door
Why it's wrong here
Azure Front Door is a global layer-7 load balancer and application delivery network that provides HTTP/HTTPS acceleration, SSL offload, and web application firewall. While it can route traffic globally based on latency, it is a more feature-rich service than needed for simple DNS-based latency routing, and Azure Traffic Manager is the simpler, correct service for this requirement.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Azure Load Balancer or Application Gateway with Traffic Manager because all three are load balancing services, but only Traffic Manager operates at the DNS level to provide global, cross-region traffic routing and failover based on latency or geographic location.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure Traffic Manager uses DNS resolution to route users to the optimal endpoint based on the Performance traffic-routing method, which uses a global network of DNS servers and latency measurements from the user's resolver to the Azure regions. Health probes are sent over HTTP/HTTPS or TCP to each endpoint every 10 seconds by default, and after three consecutive failures, the endpoint is marked as degraded, triggering automatic failover to the next healthy region. In a real-world scenario, this ensures that even during a regional outage, users are redirected without manual intervention, maintaining application availability.
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 healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this AZ-900 question test?
Describe Azure architecture and services — This question tests Describe Azure architecture and services — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Azure Traffic Manager — Azure Traffic Manager is a DNS-based traffic load balancer that directs user requests to the nearest available endpoint based on the lowest network latency. It also supports automatic failover: if a region becomes unavailable, Traffic Manager detects the endpoint health failure via health probes and redirects traffic to the remaining healthy region, providing seamless global load balancing and disaster recovery.
What should I do if I get this AZ-900 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.
About these practice questions
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This AZ-900 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-900 exam.
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