SC-900 Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Entra Practice Question
A company uses Microsoft Entra ID and wants to provide external business partners with access to a specific internal application. The partners already use Microsoft Entra ID in their own organization. The company wants the partners to use their existing corporate credentials to sign in, without creating new user accounts in the company's tenant. The company also wants to manage the access lifecycle, including automatically removing access after a project ends. Which Microsoft Entra ID feature should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse B2B collaboration (for business partners with existing corporate identities) with B2C (for customers using social or local accounts), leading them to select B2C when the scenario clearly describes partner organizations using their own corporate credentials.
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 Entra B2B collaboration
Microsoft Entra B2B collaboration is the correct feature because it allows external users from partner organizations who already have their own Microsoft Entra ID accounts to sign in using their existing corporate credentials, without requiring new user accounts in the company's tenant. It also supports access lifecycle management through features like entitlement management and access reviews, enabling automatic removal of access when a project ends.
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 Entra B2B collaboration
Why this is correct
Microsoft Entra B2B collaboration is the correct solution for enabling external partners to access resources within a company's Microsoft Entra ID tenant using their existing corporate identities. This feature allows inviting guest users from other Microsoft Entra organizations, social identity providers, or email-verified accounts, integrating them into the tenant for seamless access to applications and resources. It provides robust lifecycle management, allowing administrators to manage guest user access and permissions effectively.
- ✗
Microsoft Entra B2C
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Entra B2C (Business-to-Consumer) is an identity and access management solution primarily designed for customer-facing applications, allowing users to sign in with social accounts (like Facebook, Google) or create local accounts. It provides a highly customizable, white-label experience for millions of consumers. B2C operates as a separate directory from a company's main Microsoft Entra ID tenant and is not intended for integrating business partners who need to use their existing corporate Microsoft Entra credentials to access internal business applications.
When this WOULD be correct
A company wants to allow external customers to sign up for an application using their own email (e.g., Gmail, Facebook) or create local accounts, and the company needs to customize the sign-up and sign-in experience. In that scenario, Microsoft Entra B2C would be the correct feature.
- ✗
Identity Protection
Why it's wrong here
Identity Protection is a feature within Microsoft Entra ID that focuses on detecting potential vulnerabilities affecting an organization's identities and identifying suspicious actions related to those identities. It uses machine learning to detect risk events such as leaked credentials, impossible travel, or unfamiliar sign-in properties. While crucial for security, it does not facilitate the onboarding, access provision, or lifecycle management of external partner users to tenant resources.
When this WOULD be correct
A company wants to automatically detect and block risky sign-in attempts for all users, including external guests, and enforce conditional access policies based on risk level. Identity Protection would be the correct feature to use.
- ✗
Privileged Identity Management (PIM)
Why it's wrong here
Privileged Identity Management (PIM) is a service in Microsoft Entra ID that enables organizations to manage, control, and monitor access to important resources. It provides just-in-time and time-bound access to roles, requiring approval or multi-factor authentication for activation, thereby minimizing the exposure time of privileged permissions. PIM is designed for managing elevated roles for *existing* users (internal or guest) within the tenant, not for the initial provisioning or lifecycle management of external partner identities themselves.
When this WOULD be correct
A company needs to provide time-limited, elevated access to an internal admin role for a contractor who is an existing user in the company's tenant, with approval workflows and automatic removal of access after a project ends.
Option-by-option analysis
Why each answer is right or wrong
Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The SC-900 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.
✓Microsoft Entra B2B collaborationCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
Microsoft Entra B2B collaboration is the correct solution for enabling external partners to access resources within a company's Microsoft Entra ID tenant using their existing corporate identities. This feature allows inviting guest users from other Microsoft Entra organizations, social identity providers, or email-verified accounts, integrating them into the tenant for seamless access to applications and resources. It provides robust lifecycle management, allowing administrators to manage guest user access and permissions effectively.
✗Microsoft Entra B2CWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Microsoft Entra B2C is designed for customer-facing applications where users sign up with social or local identities, not for business partners using their own corporate credentials. The question requires partners to use existing Entra ID credentials, which is B2B collaboration, not B2C.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company wants to allow external customers to sign up for an application using their own email (e.g., Gmail, Facebook) or create local accounts, and the company needs to customize the sign-up and sign-in experience. In that scenario, Microsoft Entra B2C would be the correct feature.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse 'B2B' and 'B2C' because both involve external users, and the 'C' in B2C might be misinterpreted as 'collaboration' rather than 'customer'. They might also think B2C can handle any external identity, including partners.
✗Identity ProtectionWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Identity Protection is a tool for detecting and responding to identity-based risks, such as compromised credentials or suspicious sign-ins. It does not provide external user access management or lifecycle automation for business partners.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company wants to automatically detect and block risky sign-in attempts for all users, including external guests, and enforce conditional access policies based on risk level. Identity Protection would be the correct feature to use.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse Identity Protection's risk-based access controls with the ability to manage external access, assuming it can handle partner authentication and lifecycle, which it cannot.
✗Privileged Identity Management (PIM)Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Privileged Identity Management (PIM) manages just-in-time access and role activation for privileged roles within an organization, not external partner access or lifecycle management for external users.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company needs to provide time-limited, elevated access to an internal admin role for a contractor who is an existing user in the company's tenant, with approval workflows and automatic removal of access after a project ends.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse PIM's access lifecycle management (time-bound roles, automatic removal) with the external user lifecycle management required in the question, overlooking that PIM is for internal privileged roles, not external identities.
Analysis generated from the official SC-900blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”
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Related to this question
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Microsoft Entra ID
Key term
Tenant
A dedicated and isolated instance of Microsoft Entra ID that an organization receives when signing up for a Microsoft cloud service.
Key term
Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft Entra ID is a cloud-based identity and access management service that lets employees sign in and access resources both inside and outside of your organization.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SC-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 SC-900 exam.