PL-900 Practice Question: Demonstrate the capabilities of Power Automate
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?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates 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.
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
✓
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.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
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
Create a file writes content to a storage location such as SharePoint or OneDrive; it has no mechanism to present approval choices or record a manager's decision. It is tempting because flows often persist approval evidence, and would be correct when the requirement is to store a document or log rather than obtain an interactive response.
- ✗
Send an email (V2)
Why it's wrong here
Send an email (V2) only delivers a message; it provides no actionable Approve/Reject controls and captures no response, so managers cannot decide without signing in. It is tempting because it is the standard notification action, and would be correct when the flow merely needs to inform recipients of an outcome, not collect their approval.
- ✓
Start and wait for an approval
Why this is correct
The Start and wait for an approval action sends actionable approval requests via email, letting managers approve or reject using Outlook buttons without signing in to Power Automate. This directly satisfies the stem's requirement for email-based decisions without authentication.
- ✗
Send an HTTP request
Why it's wrong here
An HTTP request action calls an endpoint and returns a response; it cannot embed Approve/Reject buttons in an email or capture a manager's decision without authentication. It is tempting because it underpins custom integrations, and would be correct when a flow must call an external REST API or webhook rather than request human approval.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every PL-900 question from scratch — 701 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.