SC-200 Practice Question: Mitigate threats using Microsoft Defender for Cloud
This SC-200 practice question tests your understanding of mitigate threats using microsoft defender for cloud. 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 has multiple Azure subscriptions managed by Microsoft Defender for Cloud with enhanced security features enabled. The security team wants to ensure that all Azure SQL Servers have Advanced Data Security (ADS) enabled, including Vulnerability Assessment. They decide to use Azure Policy to enforce this at scale. Which built-in policy initiative should they assign 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 Security Benchmark
The Azure Security Benchmark initiative includes built-in policies to enforce Advanced Data Security (ADS) and Vulnerability Assessment on Azure SQL Servers. Assigning this initiative at scale ensures compliance with security best practices across all subscriptions, as it contains the specific policy effect to enable ADS and VA automatically.
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.
✗
Enable Azure Monitor for VMs
Why it's wrong here
This initiative is for VM monitoring, not SQL security configurations.
✓
Azure Security Benchmark
Why this is correct
The Azure Security Benchmark initiative includes policies to enable Advanced Data Security and Vulnerability Assessment on SQL servers.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Deploy Diagnostics Settings for SQL Databases
Why it's wrong here
This is a single policy, not an initiative, and it focuses on diagnostic logs, not ADS.
✗
Enable Advanced Threat Protection for SQL servers
Why it's wrong here
This is a single policy effect; an initiative groups multiple policies for comprehensive compliance.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse a single policy (like 'Enable Advanced Threat Protection for SQL servers') with a policy initiative that bundles multiple related policies, leading them to select option D instead of the broader Azure Security Benchmark initiative that covers both ADS and Vulnerability Assessment enforcement.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
The Azure Security Benchmark initiative (formerly Azure Security Benchmark v2) is a collection of policies mapped to security controls from the Microsoft cloud security benchmark. It includes the policy 'Advanced Data Security should be enabled on your SQL servers' which, when assigned with a 'DeployIfNotExists' effect, automatically enables ADS and its Vulnerability Assessment component on all existing and new SQL servers. Under the hood, this policy uses Azure Policy's remediation task to deploy the 'Microsoft.Sql/servers/databases/vulnerabilityAssessments' resource type with the required storage account.
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this SC-200 question in full detail.
Mitigate threats using Microsoft Defender for Cloud — This question tests Mitigate threats using Microsoft Defender for Cloud — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Azure Security Benchmark — The Azure Security Benchmark initiative includes built-in policies to enforce Advanced Data Security (ADS) and Vulnerability Assessment on Azure SQL Servers. Assigning this initiative at scale ensures compliance with security best practices across all subscriptions, as it contains the specific policy effect to enable ADS and VA automatically.
What should I do if I get this SC-200 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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