AZ-900 Describe Azure management and governance Practice Question
This AZ-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe azure management and governance. 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 uses Azure Policy to enforce that all virtual machines must be from an approved list of SKUs. They want to ensure that any non-compliant VMs that already exist are automatically remediated by changing the VM size to a compliant SKU. Which policy effect should they use?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Modify
The Modify effect is correct because it allows Azure Policy to automatically change non-compliant resources to a compliant state during evaluation. In this scenario, it can alter the VM size to an approved SKU without manual intervention, ensuring continuous compliance.
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.
✗
Deny
Why it's wrong here
Deny prevents creation or modification of non-compliant resources but does not remediate existing non-compliant resources.
✗
Audit
Why it's wrong here
Audit creates a log entry when a resource is non-compliant but does not automatically fix the issue.
✗
Append
Why it's wrong here
Append adds additional fields to a resource (like tags) but cannot change existing properties like VM size.
✓
Modify
Why this is correct
Modify can change resource properties such as VM size through a remediation task.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Append with Modify, but Append only adds to arrays or strings and cannot change an existing value like a VM SKU, while Modify is designed for altering existing properties.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
The Modify effect uses a 'roleDefinitionIds' property to assign a managed identity with the necessary permissions (e.g., Contributor) to perform the remediation task. Under the hood, Azure Policy triggers a deployment task that runs a template or REST API call to change the VM size. A subtle behavior is that Modify only works on properties that support in-place updates; for VM sizes, this is supported via the 'properties.hardwareProfile.vmSize' path.
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-900 question in full detail.
Describe Azure management and governance — This question tests Describe Azure management and governance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Modify — The Modify effect is correct because it allows Azure Policy to automatically change non-compliant resources to a compliant state during evaluation. In this scenario, it can alter the VM size to an approved SKU without manual intervention, ensuring continuous compliance.
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.
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Question Discussion
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