MS-102 Deploy and manage a Microsoft 365 tenant Practice Question
You are a Microsoft 365 administrator. You need to allow external users to access a SharePoint Online site without requiring them to sign in. Which sharing setting should you enable?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse 'Anyone' (anonymous) sharing with guest sharing options, mistakenly thinking that 'New and existing guests' allows anonymous access, but it actually requires sign-in for all external users.
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
✓
Set the sharing option to 'Anyone' (Anonymous) for the site.
Setting the SharePoint Online site sharing option to 'Anyone' (Anonymous) allows external users to access the site without signing in. This creates an anonymous access link that bypasses authentication, meeting the requirement of no sign-in for external users.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Set the sharing option to 'Existing guests' and send an invitation.
Why it's wrong here
The 'Existing guests' sharing limit only allows link sharing with external users who already have a guest account in your Microsoft 365 tenant. Sending an invitation to a new external user would be blocked by this configuration, and even if an existing guest receives a link, they must authenticate with their own credentials. This does not satisfy the requirement to allow external access without requiring sign-in.
- ✗
Set the sharing option to 'Only people in your organization' and use a direct link.
Why it's wrong here
Sharing set to 'Only people in your organization' restricts link access exclusively to authenticated users in your own Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) tenant. A direct link cannot bypass this permission boundary; any external user clicking it will be denied access or prompted to sign in as an internal account. This configuration explicitly excludes external users, so it fails the requirement for external collaboration.
- ✗
Set the sharing option to 'New and existing guests' and require guest sign-in.
Why it's wrong here
The 'New and existing guests' setting enables you to invite external users as B2B guest accounts, and requiring guest sign-in means each invitee must authenticate against their own identity provider before accessing the shared link. Although this permits external access, it does not meet a 'no sign-in' requirement because every guest must complete a one-time redemption and subsequent authentication. Anonymous sharing is deliberately disabled under this mode.
- ✓
Set the sharing option to 'Anyone' (Anonymous) for the site.
Why this is correct
The 'Anyone' (Anonymous) sharing link allows anyone who has the link to access the site or item without being required to sign in as a guest or internal user. This link type is the only option that permits external access with no authentication, exactly matching the stated business requirement. Because these links are the most permissive, they should be used with caution and ideally paired with expiration dates and password protection.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Emergency Access (Break-Glass) Accounts
Key term
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based cloud service from Microsoft that combines productivity tools like Office apps with security, device management, and online storage.
Key term
SharePoint Online
SharePoint Online is a cloud-based collaboration platform from Microsoft that lets teams create, store, organize, and share content securely from anywhere.
About these practice questions
This MS-102 question is part of Courseiva's 712-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This MS-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 MS-102 exam.