Design solutions that align with security best practices and priorities →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
SC-100 Practice Question: Design solutions that align with security best practices and priorities
A company needs to design a secure DevOps pipeline using GitHub Actions and Microsoft Defender for Cloud. They want to scan infrastructure-as-code (IaC) templates for misconfigurations before deployment. What should they integrate?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse Microsoft Defender for Cloud's IaC scanning with Microsoft Sentinel's threat detection capabilities, mistakenly thinking Sentinel can scan code before deployment, when in fact Sentinel only analyzes logs and alerts from already-deployed resources.
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 Defender for Cloud Infrastructure as Code scanning
Microsoft Defender for Cloud includes a native Infrastructure as Code (IaC) scanning capability that integrates directly with GitHub Actions. This feature automatically analyzes IaC templates (such as ARM, Bicep, Terraform, and CloudFormation) for security misconfigurations during the CI/CD pipeline, providing pre-deployment guardrails. By failing the pipeline on critical findings, it ensures only compliant infrastructure is deployed, aligning with the secure DevOps principle of shifting security left.
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 Defender for Cloud Infrastructure as Code scanning
Why this is correct
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Infrastructure as Code scanning is the correct choice because it directly integrates with DevOps platforms like GitHub and Azure DevOps to continuously scan Infrastructure as Code templates (e.g., ARM, Bicep, Terraform) in pull requests and pipelines. It leverages Defender for Cloud's security recommendations and policy library to identify misconfigurations before deployment, preventing insecure cloud resources from ever being provisioned. This is a native cloud security posture management capability purpose-built for IaC validation.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is a regulatory compliance assessment and management tool within the Microsoft Purview portfolio. It helps organizations track their compliance posture against standards like ISO 27001, NIST, and GDPR, using assessments, improvement actions, and evidence collection. It does not perform any code scanning or infrastructure-as-code analysis; its scope is administrative and procedural compliance, not the technical validation of IaC templates.
- ✗
Microsoft Sentinel
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Sentinel is a cloud-native security information and event management (SIEM) and security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) solution. It ingests logs, telemetry, and alerts from across the hybrid environment to detect threats, investigate incidents, and automate responses. Sentinel operates on runtime and operational data after resources are deployed; it does not perform static analysis or scanning of Infrastructure as Code templates, which occurs pre-deployment in the pipeline.
- ✗
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is a cloud access security broker (CASB) designed to provide visibility, control, and data protection for software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. It monitors user activities, file sharing, anomaly behavior, and app permissions to enforce policies like session control and conditional access. It does not scan Infrastructure as Code templates; its focus is on governing cloud app usage and securing data, not on validating the configuration of infrastructure code before deployment.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SC-100 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 SC-100 exam.