- A
Create a Conditional Access policy that grants access, requiring MFA for all locations.
Why wrong: This requires MFA even from trusted IPs.
- B
Create a Conditional Access policy that requires MFA for all users and all locations.
Why wrong: Same issue: MFA required from trusted IPs.
- C
Create a Conditional Access policy that blocks access from all locations except trusted IPs.
Why wrong: Blocking prevents access, not requiring MFA.
- D
Create a Conditional Access policy that includes 'All users' and 'All cloud apps', with conditions for locations: include 'All trusted' and exclude 'All trusted'? Wait, correct approach: include 'All locations' and exclude 'Trusted IPs', and require MFA.
Correct: Include 'Any location' and exclude 'Trusted IPs', then require MFA.
Quick Answer
The correct answer is to create a Conditional Access policy that includes 'All locations' as a condition, excludes the 'Trusted IPs' named location, and requires MFA as a grant control. This works because the policy evaluates every access attempt against the location condition—by including all locations and then explicitly excluding the trusted IP range, MFA is only enforced when the user is outside the corporate network, while users connecting from the defined trusted IPs bypass the MFA requirement entirely. On the Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how named locations and conditional access conditions interact, and a common trap is confusing the include/exclude logic—students often mistakenly include 'All trusted' instead of excluding it. Remember the memory tip: "Include the world, exclude your home"—include all locations, then exclude your trusted IPs to keep MFA off for internal access.
SC-100 Practice Question: Design security operations, identity, and compliance capabilities
This SC-100 practice question tests your understanding of design security operations, identity, and compliance capabilities. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 global organization uses Microsoft Entra ID with Conditional Access policies. They want to enforce multifactor authentication (MFA) for all users accessing sensitive apps from outside the corporate network, but allow access without MFA from trusted IPs. What should they configure?
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
Create a Conditional Access policy that includes 'All users' and 'All cloud apps', with conditions for locations: include 'All trusted' and exclude 'All trusted'? Wait, correct approach: include 'All locations' and exclude 'Trusted IPs', and require MFA.
Option D is correct because it configures a Conditional Access policy that includes 'All locations' as a condition and excludes 'Trusted IPs' (defined as named locations in Entra ID), then requires MFA as a grant control. This enforces MFA for all access attempts from outside the corporate network while allowing access without MFA from trusted IPs, precisely matching the requirement.
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.
- ✗
Create a Conditional Access policy that grants access, requiring MFA for all locations.
- ✗
Create a Conditional Access policy that requires MFA for all users and all locations.
- ✗
Create a Conditional Access policy that blocks access from all locations except trusted IPs.
Why it's wrong here
Blocking prevents access, not requiring MFA.
- ✓
Create a Conditional Access policy that includes 'All users' and 'All cloud apps', with conditions for locations: include 'All trusted' and exclude 'All trusted'? Wait, correct approach: include 'All locations' and exclude 'Trusted IPs', and require MFA.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse 'include all locations and exclude trusted IPs' with 'include only trusted IPs' or 'block untrusted locations', leading them to pick options that either block all untrusted access or fail to exclude trusted IPs from the MFA requirement.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, Conditional Access policies evaluate location conditions using IPv4/IPv6 address ranges or country/region named locations, and the 'Exclude' condition takes precedence over 'Include' when processing policy assignments. In a real-world scenario, an organization might define trusted IPs as their corporate office subnets (e.g., 10.0.0.0/8) and exclude them from the MFA requirement, ensuring employees on-site have a seamless experience while remote users must satisfy MFA via the Microsoft Authenticator app or other methods.
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 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
Questions learners often ask
What does this SC-100 question test?
Design security operations, identity, and compliance capabilities — This question tests Design security operations, identity, and compliance capabilities — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create a Conditional Access policy that includes 'All users' and 'All cloud apps', with conditions for locations: include 'All trusted' and exclude 'All trusted'? Wait, correct approach: include 'All locations' and exclude 'Trusted IPs', and require MFA. — Option D is correct because it configures a Conditional Access policy that includes 'All locations' as a condition and excludes 'Trusted IPs' (defined as named locations in Entra ID), then requires MFA as a grant control. This enforces MFA for all access attempts from outside the corporate network while allowing access without MFA from trusted IPs, precisely matching the requirement.
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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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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.
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