MD-102 Protect devices Practice Question
You manage Windows 11 devices enrolled in Microsoft Intune. Security requires that devices with unsupported antivirus signatures be blocked from accessing Microsoft 365 resources. You create a compliance policy that sets the Microsoft Defender Antivirus requirement to 'Require' and the 'Antivirus signature age' to 3 days. A device reports an antivirus signature age of 5 days. What is the resulting device state?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that Intune only checks whether antivirus is enabled, not the signature age, leading to the incorrect belief that the device remains compliant.
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
✓
The device is marked noncompliant.
Compliance policies in Intune evaluate device settings such as antivirus signature age. When the signature age exceeds the configured value, the device is marked noncompliant. This status can be used by Conditional Access to block access to corporate resources. The correct outcome is that the device is noncompliant because it fails the defined requirement.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The device is marked compliant but a remediation script is triggered.
Why it's wrong here
Compliance policies do not automatically trigger remediation scripts. Remediation scripts are part of proactive remediations, which are separate from compliance policies. The device simply fails the compliance check and is marked noncompliant. No automatic script runs as a result of a compliance failure.
- ✗
The device is marked compliant because the signature age is not evaluated.
Why it's wrong here
The antivirus signature age setting is evaluated when the Microsoft Defender Antivirus requirement is set to Require. Intune does check the signature age against the configured threshold. Ignoring this setting would defeat the purpose of the compliance policy. Therefore, the device is not marked compliant.
- ✓
The device is marked noncompliant.
Why this is correct
The compliance policy requires the antivirus signature age to be no more than 3 days. The device reports 5 days, which exceeds the threshold, so Intune evaluates the device as noncompliant. Conditional Access can then block access to Microsoft 365 resources. This is the expected behavior for a device that fails a compliance setting.
- ✗
The device is marked noncompliant only if the user has not signed in for 30 days.
Why it's wrong here
The noncompliant state is determined by the compliance policy evaluation, not by user sign-in activity. The signature age threshold is checked regardless of when the user last signed in. There is no 30-day grace period for antivirus signature age in Intune compliance policies. Thus, the device is noncompliant immediately upon evaluation.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Updating Devices with Windows Update for Business
Key term
Security
Security in IT is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and data from unauthorized access, damage, or theft.
Key term
Microsoft Intune
Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based service that helps organizations manage employee devices, apps, and security policies without needing to own or control the physical hardware.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Microsoft exam blueprint
This MD-102 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 MD-102 exam.