MS-900 Describe Microsoft 365 apps and services Practice Question
A user needs to co-author a Word document stored in Microsoft SharePoint Online with external partners who do not have Microsoft 365 licenses. What must the administrator enable?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse Microsoft Entra B2B collaboration as a separate setting that must be enabled, when in fact it is automatically activated once SharePoint external sharing is turned on, making the direct answer the SharePoint-level sharing configuration.
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
✓
External sharing in SharePoint Online
External sharing in SharePoint Online must be enabled at the tenant or site level to allow users to share documents with external partners who lack Microsoft 365 licenses. This setting controls the ability to send sharing invitations or generate shareable links for people outside the organization, which is the prerequisite for co-authoring with unlicensed 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.
- ✓
External sharing in SharePoint Online
Why this is correct
External sharing in SharePoint Online is the correct mechanism because it allows sharing a Word document stored in a SharePoint site or OneDrive with authenticated external users. By configuring the sharing settings to grant edit permissions, external users can open the document in the Office desktop, web, or mobile apps and co-author in real time. This feature specifically applies to document-level collaboration in SharePoint, making it the direct and appropriate solution.
- ✗
Microsoft Entra B2B collaboration
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Entra B2B collaboration provides the identity layer that lets external users authenticate into your Microsoft Entra ID tenant, but it does not by itself enable sharing or co-authoring of SharePoint content. Even if B2B is configured, the SharePoint Online external sharing feature must also be enabled at the tenant or site level for documents to be shared and edited. B2B is a prerequisite or supporting service, not the mechanism that grants document access.
- ✗
Anonymous access links for documents
Why it's wrong here
Anonymous access links (also known as 'Anyone with the link') are not suitable for co-authoring because they lack user authentication and identity in Microsoft Entra ID. While anonymous links can be set to allow editing in some cases, real-time co-authoring is only supported for users who are authenticated and uniquely identified in the document's collaboration session. The lack of a persistent identity prevents the document service from tracking changes per user or enabling live co-authoring features.
- ✗
Guest access in Microsoft Teams
Why it's wrong here
Guest access in Microsoft Teams is scoped to team membership and the Teams client, not directly to sharing a specific Word document outside of a Team context. While guests can access files in a Team's SharePoint document library, enabling co-authoring for an external user on a standalone document requires configuring SharePoint Online external sharing settings. Teams guest access does not bypass the need to enable document-level external sharing, and it is not the primary control for per-document collaboration.
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Related to this question
Learn chapter
External Sharing in SharePoint and OneDrive
Key term
Tenant
A dedicated and isolated instance of Microsoft Entra ID that an organization receives when signing up for a Microsoft cloud service.
Key term
User
A user is any person, system, or device that interacts with an IT service, resource, or identity system, typically authenticated through credentials and authorized to perform specific actions.
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JA
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.