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MS-900 Practice Question: A growing company with 120 users currently holds…
A growing company with 120 users currently holds Microsoft 365 Business Basic licenses. They need to add endpoint management (Microsoft Intune) and advanced threat protection (Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1). They also want to keep their existing Business Basic subscriptions. What is the most cost-effective way to add these capabilities?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume they must upgrade to a higher-tier plan (like Business Premium or E3) to get Intune and Defender, overlooking that Microsoft 365 Business Basic supports targeted add-on subscriptions for specific capabilities, which is the most cost-effective path.
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
✓
Purchase add-on subscriptions for Microsoft Intune Plan 1 and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1
Microsoft 365 Business Basic supports add-on subscriptions for Microsoft Intune Plan 1 and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1, allowing the company to retain their existing licenses while adding endpoint management and advanced threat protection. This is the most cost-effective approach as it avoids the higher per-user cost of upgrading to Business Premium or switching to E3, which would include unnecessary features like desktop Office apps.
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 Premium
Why it's wrong here
Upgrading all users to Microsoft 365 Business Premium changes the base SKU from Business Basic to Business Premium, which includes both Intune Plan 1 and Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 but also adds Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise (desktop Office), extra compliance and security tools, and a higher per-user price. Since the company only needs device management and email protection, this upgrade forces payment for unneeded desktop Office licenses, making it materially more expensive than a targeted add-on. For 120 users, the overpayment compounds with every seat.
- ✗
Add Microsoft 365 Business Premium licenses as a standalone for all users
Why it's wrong here
Purchasing Microsoft 365 Business Premium as a standalone license for all users is not a valid additive approach; you cannot stack a full platform SKU on top of Business Basic without incurring duplicate subscriptions for overlapping services like Exchange Online and Teams. It would require either maintaining two conflicting license types or replacing the current license, which still forces users to take desktop Office apps they may not need. This is effectively a more expensive and administratively messy version of the same upgrade path, with no added capability beyond option 1.
- ✓
Purchase add-on subscriptions for Microsoft Intune Plan 1 and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1
Why this is correct
The correct approach is to purchase Microsoft Intune Plan 1 and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 as add-on subscriptions for the existing Business Basic users. These are incremental, per-user services designed to be attached to base plans, delivering exactly the mobile device management and email threat protection required without changing current workloads. For 120 users, this minimizes cost by paying only for the missing capabilities while preserving the existing Office 365 services and administrator familiarity.
- ✗
Switch to Microsoft 365 E3 and drop Business Basic
Why it's wrong here
Switching to Microsoft 365 E3 and dropping Business Basic would give users Intune and Defender for Office 365, but it is an enterprise-tier SKU with a far higher license cost per user and a broader set of features—such as advanced compliance, eDiscovery, and Windows endpoint security—that are irrelevant to the stated requirements. The transition also forces migration of existing tenant configuration to a new license model, which may cause feature differences in Exchange Online and Teams and is impractical for a 120-user small business. The total ownership cost would be several times that of the Business Basic plus targeted add-ons.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Benefits of Microsoft Cloud
Key term
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a cloud-based email and collaboration security service that protects organizations against malicious threats like phishing, malware, and spam in email messages and Office 365 apps.
Key term
Anti-phishing policy
An anti-phishing policy is a set of rules and technical controls that organizations use to detect, block, and respond to email or message-based attacks that trick users into revealing sensitive information.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This MS-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 MS-900 exam.