- A
Deny
Why wrong: The Deny effect blocks the creation or modification of non-compliant resources. This prevents the deployment of VMs with non-approved images, which contradicts the requirement to allow deployments during the transition period.
- B
Audit
The Audit effect evaluates resources for compliance and generates a warning event in the activity log, but does not block the resource operation. This allows the governance team to identify and report non-compliant VMs without interrupting the deployment process.
- C
Append
Why wrong: The Append effect is used to add additional fields (such as tags) to a resource during creation or update. It does not evaluate or report on existing properties like the OS image, so it cannot identify VMs with non-approved images.
- D
Modify
Why wrong: The Modify effect is used to add, update, or remove properties on a resource. While it can change configurations, it does not inherently log compliance or allow for tracking of non-approved images without additional logic. It also may alter the resource, which is not desired here.
Quick Answer
The answer is Audit. The Audit effect is the correct Azure Policy effect because it allows the governance team to identify and report non-compliant resources—such as VMs using unapproved images from an Azure Compute Gallery—without blocking their creation, logging a warning in the activity log for each violation. This enables compliance tracking over time through Azure Policy compliance reports and Azure Monitor, perfectly supporting a transition period where enforcement is not yet required. On the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how policy effects differ: Audit is for monitoring and reporting, while Deny blocks non-compliant resources outright. A common trap is choosing Deny because it sounds stricter, but the key phrase “do not want to block” points directly to Audit. Remember the mnemonic: “Audit alerts, Deny denies”—if the goal is to see violations without stopping them, Audit is your only choice.
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 govern its Azure environment. The governance team wants to enforce that all virtual machines (VMs) deployed in the production subscription use only approved operating system images from a specific Azure Compute Gallery. However, during a transition period, the team does not want to block the creation of VMs that use non-approved images; instead, they need to identify and report on any non-compliant VMs. They also want to track compliance over time. Which Azure Policy effect should the governance team use in the policy definition to meet these requirements?
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
Audit
The Audit effect is correct because it enables the governance team to identify and report non-compliant VMs without blocking their creation. Azure Policy's Audit effect logs a warning in the activity log for resources that violate the policy, allowing the team to track compliance over time via Azure Policy compliance reports and Azure Monitor, while the transition period remains unblocked.
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
The Deny effect blocks the creation or modification of non-compliant resources. This prevents the deployment of VMs with non-approved images, which contradicts the requirement to allow deployments during the transition period.
- ✓
Audit
Why this is correct
The Audit effect evaluates resources for compliance and generates a warning event in the activity log, but does not block the resource operation. This allows the governance team to identify and report non-compliant VMs without interrupting the deployment process.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Append
Why it's wrong here
The Append effect is used to add additional fields (such as tags) to a resource during creation or update. It does not evaluate or report on existing properties like the OS image, so it cannot identify VMs with non-approved images.
- ✗
Modify
Why it's wrong here
The Modify effect is used to add, update, or remove properties on a resource. While it can change configurations, it does not inherently log compliance or allow for tracking of non-approved images without additional logic. It also may alter the resource, which is not desired here.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often choose Deny because they assume governance requires enforcement, missing the explicit requirement to allow creation and only report non-compliance during the transition period.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, the Audit effect evaluates resources against the policy rule at resource creation, update, or during periodic compliance scans, and writes a compliance state of 'Non-compliant' to the policy evaluation results. The activity log entries generated by Audit can be ingested into Azure Monitor for alerting or dashboarding, enabling long-term compliance tracking. In a real-world scenario, this is often used during a migration from legacy images to a curated gallery, where blocking would break existing workflows but visibility is critical for governance.
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.
What to study next
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this AZ-900 question test?
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: Audit — The Audit effect is correct because it enables the governance team to identify and report non-compliant VMs without blocking their creation. Azure Policy's Audit effect logs a warning in the activity log for resources that violate the policy, allowing the team to track compliance over time via Azure Policy compliance reports and Azure Monitor, while the transition period remains unblocked.
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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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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