SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft security solutions
This SC-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe the capabilities of microsoft security solutions. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 security team wants to discover all cloud apps being used by employees, including unsanctioned personal apps like unauthorized file-sharing services. They plan to analyze firewall logs to identify traffic patterns and assess each app's risk score. Which feature of Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps should they enable?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Cloud Discovery
Cloud Discovery is the correct feature because it analyzes traffic logs (e.g., from firewalls or proxies) to identify all cloud apps in use, including unsanctioned personal apps like unauthorized file-sharing services. It then assesses each app's risk score based on over 80 risk factors, such as encryption standards and data residency, enabling the security team to discover and evaluate shadow IT.
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.
✓
Cloud Discovery
Why this is correct
Correct. Cloud Discovery uses log analysis to uncover all cloud apps in use and provides risk scores, helping to discover shadow IT.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
App Governance
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. App Governance monitors and manages OAuth applications that have access to Microsoft 365 data, not general cloud app discovery.
✗
Information Protection
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Information Protection focuses on classifying and protecting sensitive data, not discovering apps.
✗
Conditional Access App Control
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. This feature enforces real-time access policies for cloud apps via reverse proxy, but does not discover which apps are in use.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Cloud Discovery with Conditional Access App Control, mistakenly thinking that real-time session policies can also discover unsanctioned apps, but discovery requires log analysis, not policy enforcement.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cloud Discovery works by ingesting traffic logs via the Cloud Discovery log collector, which parses logs from sources like Cisco Firepower or Palo Alto Networks using the CEF (Common Event Format) or custom log formats. It then matches traffic against the Defender for Cloud Apps catalog of over 31,000 cloud apps, calculating a risk score (0–10) based on attributes like SOC 2 compliance and PCI DSS certification. In a real-world scenario, an organization might deploy the log collector on-premises to continuously upload firewall logs, enabling automated identification of a new file-sharing app with a risk score below 5, triggering an alert for investigation.
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.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this SC-900 question in full detail.
Describe the capabilities of Microsoft security solutions — This question tests Describe the capabilities of Microsoft security solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Cloud Discovery — Cloud Discovery is the correct feature because it analyzes traffic logs (e.g., from firewalls or proxies) to identify all cloud apps in use, including unsanctioned personal apps like unauthorized file-sharing services. It then assesses each app's risk score based on over 80 risk factors, such as encryption standards and data residency, enabling the security team to discover and evaluate shadow IT.
What should I do if I get this SC-900 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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