MS-900 Describe Microsoft 365 pricing and support Practice Question
This MS-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe microsoft 365 pricing and support. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 with 500 users currently has Microsoft 365 Business Basic licenses. They need to provide all users with the desktop versions of Office apps and increase email storage to 100 GB per user. What is the most cost-effective licensing upgrade from the options below?
Upgrade all users to Microsoft 365 Business Standard
Why wrong: Business Standard includes desktop apps but only provides 50 GB mailboxes, so it does not meet the 100 GB requirement.
B
Upgrade all users to Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Why wrong: Business Premium includes desktop apps and advanced security features but still only provides 50 GB mailboxes, failing the 100 GB requirement.
C
Keep Business Basic and purchase Exchange Online Plan 2 add-on for each user
Why wrong: This option does not provide the required desktop Office apps because Business Basic lacks them.
D
Upgrade to Microsoft 365 E3
Microsoft 365 E3 includes desktop versions of Office apps and provides a 100 GB mailbox per user, satisfying both requirements with a single license.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Upgrade to Microsoft 365 E3
Microsoft 365 Business Basic provides only web and mobile versions of Office apps and 50 GB of email storage. The requirement for desktop Office apps and 100 GB email storage per user is met by Microsoft 365 E3, which includes both the full desktop Office suite and Exchange Online Plan 2 (100 GB mailbox). Among the options, E3 is the most cost-effective upgrade because it bundles these features without the additional security and device management costs of Business Premium or the inefficiency of stacking add-ons on Business Basic.
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.
✗
Upgrade all users to Microsoft 365 Business Standard
Why it's wrong here
Business Standard includes desktop apps but only provides 50 GB mailboxes, so it does not meet the 100 GB requirement.
✗
Upgrade all users to Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Why it's wrong here
Business Premium includes desktop apps and advanced security features but still only provides 50 GB mailboxes, failing the 100 GB requirement.
✗
Keep Business Basic and purchase Exchange Online Plan 2 add-on for each user
Why it's wrong here
This option does not provide the required desktop Office apps because Business Basic lacks them.
✓
Upgrade to Microsoft 365 E3
Why this is correct
Microsoft 365 E3 includes desktop versions of Office apps and provides a 100 GB mailbox per user, satisfying both requirements with a single license.
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 assume Business Standard or Business Premium already includes 100 GB mailboxes, but they only include Exchange Online Plan 1 (50 GB), and the question specifically requires 100 GB per user, which forces the upgrade to an Enterprise plan like E3.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Exchange Online Plan 2 provides a 100 GB mailbox, unlimited archive storage, and litigation hold capabilities, whereas Exchange Online Plan 1 caps at 50 GB. Microsoft 365 E3 includes Exchange Online Plan 2 and the full desktop Office suite (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint) with perpetual local installation rights, plus additional compliance and security features like Azure Information Protection and Advanced Threat Analytics. In a real-world scenario, a company with 500 users needing both desktop apps and large mailboxes would find E3 more economical than mixing Business Basic with add-ons, as the per-user cost of E3 is lower than the combined cost of Business Basic plus Exchange Online Plan 2 plus separate Office licenses.
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
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this MS-900 question in full detail.
Describe Microsoft 365 pricing and support — This question tests Describe Microsoft 365 pricing and support — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Upgrade to Microsoft 365 E3 — Microsoft 365 Business Basic provides only web and mobile versions of Office apps and 50 GB of email storage. The requirement for desktop Office apps and 100 GB email storage per user is met by Microsoft 365 E3, which includes both the full desktop Office suite and Exchange Online Plan 2 (100 GB mailbox). Among the options, E3 is the most cost-effective upgrade because it bundles these features without the additional security and device management costs of Business Premium or the inefficiency of stacking add-ons on Business Basic.
What should I do if I get this MS-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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