MS-900 Describe Microsoft 365 apps and services Practice Question
A company wants to automate a business process where an approval request is sent to a manager when a new employee is added to the HR system. The HR system is a custom list in SharePoint Online. The process should run without any custom code. Which Microsoft 365 tool should they use to create this automation?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse Microsoft Power Apps (for building apps) with Power Automate (for workflows), or mistakenly think SharePoint Designer is still a viable no-code option, when in fact it is deprecated and requires custom code.
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
✓
Microsoft Power Automate
Microsoft Power Automate is the correct tool because it is designed specifically for creating automated workflows between apps and services without custom code. In this scenario, Power Automate can use a trigger (e.g., 'When an item is created or modified' in SharePoint) to send an approval request to a manager, fully meeting the requirement for a no-code solution.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Microsoft Power Automate
Why this is correct
Microsoft Power Automate is the correct choice because it is a cloud-based workflow service within the Power Platform designed specifically for automating business processes. It offers pre-built connectors for SharePoint, such as the 'When an item is created or modified' trigger, and an Approvals connector that can route an approval request to specific users or groups with customizable conditions and templates. This makes it the ideal tool to listen for SharePoint list changes and initiate an interactive approval workflow without requiring custom code.
- ✗
Microsoft Power Apps
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Power Apps is incorrect because it is a low-code application development platform for building custom user-facing apps (canvas or model-driven) with rich interfaces, not for running unattended backend workflows. While a Power App can include a button that triggers a Power Automate flow, the app itself does not monitor SharePoint list changes or send approval requests natively. Therefore, it lacks the event-driven trigger and approval-specific actions required for this scenario.
- ✗
Microsoft SharePoint Designer
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft SharePoint Designer is incorrect because its workflow capabilities are deprecated in modern SharePoint Online, and the legacy 2010 and 2013 workflow engines are no longer supported for custom list workflows. Even where it remains available, it relies on the old imperative workflow model and is incompatible with modern lists and the Power Automate approval experience. Microsoft explicitly recommends migrating all custom workflows to Power Automate, making this option obsolete and unsupported.
- ✗
Microsoft Visio
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Visio is incorrect because it is a diagramming and visualization tool used to create flowcharts and process diagrams, not to implement or execute automations. While you can use Visio to draft the logical flow of an approval process, it has no connectors or runtime capability to listen to SharePoint list events or send approval messages to users. Thus, it serves only as a design aid, not as a functional workflow engine.
Go deeper
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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
Power Automate
Power Automate is a cloud-based service from Microsoft that lets you create automated workflows between apps and services without writing code.
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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.