Quick Answer
The answer is the “Start and wait for an approval” action. This action is the correct choice because it is specifically built to send an approval request that includes adaptive cards or lightweight approval buttons directly within the email notification, allowing managers to approve or reject expense reports without signing in to Power Automate or any other service. On the PL-900 exam, this concept tests your understanding of how to enable approvals directly from email without signing in, a common scenario for streamlining business processes. A frequent trap is confusing this with the “Send an email” action, which only delivers a message but lacks built-in approval controls. Remember the memory tip: “Start and wait” means the approval buttons come with the email, so no login is needed.
This PL-900 practice question tests your understanding of demonstrate the capabilities of power automate. 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.
You are designing a Power Automate flow to approve expense reports. The flow must allow managers to approve or reject directly from the email notification without signing in. Which action should you use?
Create a file
Why wrong: Incorrect. This does not send approvals.
Send an email (V2)
Why wrong: Incorrect. This only sends a plain email without approval buttons.
Start and wait for an approval
Correct. This creates an approval request that can be acted upon from email.
Send an HTTP request
Why wrong: Incorrect. This would require custom coding.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Start and wait for an approval
The 'Start and wait for an approval' action is specifically designed to send an approval request via email or the Power Automate mobile app, and it allows recipients to approve or reject directly from the email notification without needing to sign in, using adaptive cards or lightweight approval buttons. This meets the requirement for manager approval without authentication.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Create a file
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. This does not send approvals.
Send an email (V2)
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. This only sends a plain email without approval buttons.
Start and wait for an approval
Why this is correct
Correct. This creates an approval request that can be acted upon from email.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Send an HTTP request
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. This would require custom coding.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse 'Send an email (V2)' with the ability to embed approval buttons, but that action only sends a static email and cannot capture responses without a separate custom solution, whereas 'Start and wait for an approval' is the native, correct action for this scenario.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, the 'Start and wait for an approval' action creates an approval request that is tracked in the Power Automate approvals center and, when sent via email, uses Microsoft's adaptive card technology to embed 'Approve' and 'Reject' buttons that trigger a callback to the flow via a secure token, eliminating the need for the user to authenticate. A subtle behavior is that if the email client does not support adaptive cards (e.g., plain text email), the user may be redirected to a sign-in page, so the 'Approval type' (e.g., 'Approve/Reject - First to respond') must be chosen carefully to match the organization's email client capabilities.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
What to study next
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FAQ
Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Automate — This question tests Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Automate — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Start and wait for an approval — The 'Start and wait for an approval' action is specifically designed to send an approval request via email or the Power Automate mobile app, and it allows recipients to approve or reject directly from the email notification without needing to sign in, using adaptive cards or lightweight approval buttons. This meets the requirement for manager approval without authentication.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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Same concept, more angles
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. Refer to the exhibit. A developer created an approval flow using Power Automate. The flow is triggered manually but the approval email never sends. What is the most likely cause?
hardWhy B: Option B is correct because the Send_approval_email action uses a manual trigger but there is no approval connector action to wait for response. Option A is not an issue; the connection is defined. Option C is not true; the manual trigger does not require a schema. Option D is not the cause; the body is provided.
Variation 2. A company uses Power Automate to automate invoice processing. The flow must send an email with the invoice PDF as an attachment to the manager for approval. However, the approval step is failing with an error. What is the most likely cause?
mediumWhy D: Option A is correct because Power Automate requires the file content to be explicitly included as an attachment in the approval action; simply referencing the file path does not attach the file. Option B is wrong because SharePoint connectors can handle PDFs. Option C is wrong because the issue is not about premium licenses—standard connectors support attachments. Option D is wrong because there is no 10 MB limit for standard approvals.
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This PL-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 PL-900 exam.
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