MS-900 Describe cloud concepts Practice Question
Your organization uses Microsoft 365 and wants to automatically scale resources based on demand, paying only for what is used. Which cloud characteristic does this describe?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is confusing elasticity with high availability or scalability; candidates may pick high availability because it sounds like the system is always available, but elasticity specifically addresses automatic scaling and pay-per-use.
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
✓
Elasticity
Elasticity is the cloud characteristic that allows resources to automatically scale based on demand, paying only for what is used. This matches the requirement to scale resources automatically and pay only for consumption.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Fault tolerance
Why it's wrong here
Fault tolerance keeps a system running despite component failure through redundancy, without scaling or consumption-based billing. The stem describes elasticity and pay-as-you-go. Fault tolerance is correct when the requirement is uninterrupted operation during hardware faults.
- ✗
Disaster recovery
Why it's wrong here
Disaster recovery restores workloads after a major outage via backup and failover sites; it does not meter resource consumption or scale automatically with demand. Elasticity is the characteristic described. Disaster recovery fits when the requirement is recovering from a region-wide failure.
- ✗
High availability
Why it's wrong here
High availability keeps services reachable by eliminating single points of failure through redundancy across zones or regions; it does not provision or release capacity on demand. It is tempting because resilient Microsoft 365 workloads genuinely depend on it, and it would be the right answer if the scenario asked how to maintain uptime during a datacentre outage.
- ✓
Elasticity
Why this is correct
Elasticity matches the stem's demand-based scaling requirement: resources expand or contract automatically as workload fluctuates. Unlike vertical scaling, which resizes a single resource, elasticity adds or removes instances horizontally. Consumption-based billing then charges only for what is used, satisfying both stated constraints.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on MS-900
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A business wants to use a cloud solution where they can scale computing resources up or down automatically based on demand and only pay for what they use. The cloud provider manages the underlying hardware. Which two cloud characteristics are being described? (Choose two.)
easy- ✓ A.Elasticity
- ✓ B.Measured service
- C.Scalability
- D.High availability
Why A: Elasticity is correct because it describes the ability to automatically scale computing resources up or down based on demand, which is a key characteristic of cloud computing. The scenario explicitly states that resources scale automatically, which aligns with elasticity rather than just the ability to scale (scalability). Measured service is correct because the business pays only for what they use, which is the pay-per-use billing model enabled by metering resource consumption.
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Microsoft exam blueprint
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