This AZ-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe cloud concepts. 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 wants to increase the number of virtual machines it uses during peak hours and decrease them during off-peak hours without manual intervention. Which characteristic of cloud computing does this represent?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Elasticity
Elasticity is the cloud characteristic that allows resources to automatically scale out (increase) during peak demand and scale in (decrease) during off-peak hours without manual intervention. This matches the company's requirement for dynamic, automatic adjustment of virtual machine counts based on workload changes.
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.
✗
High Availability
Why it's wrong here
High availability focuses on keeping services running despite failures, not on automatic scaling based on demand.
✓
Elasticity
Why this is correct
Elasticity allows resources to automatically scale out (increase) and scale in (decrease) with demand, paying only for what is used.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Scalability
Why it's wrong here
Scalability is the ability to handle growth, but it may involve manual capacity planning and does not imply automatic scaling.
✗
Load Balancing
Why it's wrong here
Load balancing distributes traffic across resources but does not automatically change the number of resources.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse Elasticity with Scalability, but Scalability is a broader capacity to handle growth (often manual or planned), while Elasticity specifically implies automatic, bidirectional scaling in response to real-time demand changes.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Elasticity in Azure is implemented through autoscaling features like Virtual Machine Scale Sets (VMSS) and Azure App Service autoscale, which use metrics such as CPU utilization or queue depth to trigger scale-out and scale-in operations. Under the hood, Azure Monitor collects performance data and the autoscale engine evaluates rules against thresholds, then calls the Azure Resource Manager API to adjust the VM count, ensuring cost optimization during low demand and performance during spikes.
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 cloud concepts — This question tests Describe cloud concepts — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Elasticity — Elasticity is the cloud characteristic that allows resources to automatically scale out (increase) during peak demand and scale in (decrease) during off-peak hours without manual intervention. This matches the company's requirement for dynamic, automatic adjustment of virtual machine counts based on workload changes.
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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