SC-100 Design a Zero Trust strategy and architecture Practice Question
This SC-100 practice question tests your understanding of design a zero trust strategy and architecture. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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.
A company is designing a Zero Trust network strategy. They want to ensure that all network traffic between on-premises and Azure is inspected and logged, regardless of source or destination. Which Azure service should they use to achieve this?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Azure Firewall
Azure Firewall is a managed, cloud-based network security service that provides inbound and outbound traffic inspection and logging for all traffic between on-premises networks and Azure, regardless of source or destination. It supports application and network-level filtering, threat intelligence-based filtering, and integrates with Azure Monitor for comprehensive logging, making it the correct choice for a Zero Trust network strategy that requires full traffic inspection and logging.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Azure Front Door
Why it's wrong here
Azure Front Door is for global load balancing and web application firewall, not for inspecting all network traffic.
✗
Azure Bastion
Why it's wrong here
Azure Bastion provides secure remote access to VMs, not network traffic inspection.
✓
Azure Firewall
Why this is correct
Azure Firewall can inspect and log all traffic between on-premises and Azure.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Azure DDoS Protection
Why it's wrong here
Azure DDoS Protection is focused on mitigating distributed denial-of-service attacks, not general traffic inspection.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may confuse Azure Firewall with Azure Front Door or Azure Bastion, thinking that any security or access service can inspect all traffic, but only Azure Firewall provides the necessary stateful inspection and logging for all network traffic between on-premises and Azure.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure Firewall uses a stateful firewall as a service with built-in high availability and auto-scaling, supporting both network rules (based on source/destination IP, port, and protocol) and application rules (based on FQDN). It can be deployed with forced tunneling to route all traffic through the firewall for inspection, and logs can be sent to Log Analytics workspaces for detailed analysis, enabling compliance with Zero Trust requirements for full traffic visibility and logging.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this SC-100 question in full detail.
Design a Zero Trust strategy and architecture — This question tests Design a Zero Trust strategy and architecture — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Azure Firewall — Azure Firewall is a managed, cloud-based network security service that provides inbound and outbound traffic inspection and logging for all traffic between on-premises networks and Azure, regardless of source or destination. It supports application and network-level filtering, threat intelligence-based filtering, and integrates with Azure Monitor for comprehensive logging, making it the correct choice for a Zero Trust network strategy that requires full traffic inspection and logging.
What should I do if I get this SC-100 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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