SC-900 Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Entra Practice Question
A user reports that they cannot access the company's HR application, which requires Microsoft Entra ID authentication. The user can access other apps that also use Entra ID. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often assume a user-specific issue (like disabled account or expired password) when they see a single user blocked, but the key clue is that other apps work, pointing to an app-specific conditional access policy rather than a global or user-level problem.
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
✓
A conditional access policy is blocking access to that specific app.
The user can access other Microsoft Entra ID-integrated apps, which rules out account-level issues like a disabled account or expired password. A conditional access policy can target specific applications, so it is the most likely cause of the block on just the HR app.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The user's account is disabled.
Why it's wrong here
A disabled user account in Microsoft Entra ID prevents all authentication attempts across every application integrated with the tenant. If the user's account were disabled, they would be unable to sign into any application, not just the HR app, as their identity is globally inactive. This global state contradicts the user's ability to access other applications.
- ✗
The tenant is blocked for all sign-ins.
Why it's wrong here
A tenant blocked for all sign-ins implies a severe, tenant-wide disruption, such as a service outage or an administrative lock-down, which would render all applications within that Microsoft Entra ID tenant inaccessible to every user. Since the user can successfully access other applications, this indicates the tenant itself is operational and not globally preventing sign-ins. Therefore, the issue is not a tenant-wide block.
- ✗
The user's password expired.
Why it's wrong here
An expired password is a credential-level issue that affects a user's ability to authenticate to any service or application integrated with their identity provider. If the user's password had expired, they would be prompted to reset it or be denied access across all applications, not selectively for just one. The ability to access other applications confirms their password is still valid for general authentication.
- ✓
A conditional access policy is blocking access to that specific app.
Why this is correct
Conditional Access policies provide granular control over access to specific cloud applications based on various conditions, such as user location, device state, or sign-in risk. An administrator could have configured a policy specifically targeting the HR application to block access under certain circumstances, while allowing access to other applications that are not subject to the same restrictive policy. This targeted enforcement is a core capability of Conditional Access and aligns perfectly with the observed behavior.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Microsoft Entra ID
Key term
Policy
A policy is a set of rules or guidelines that defines how an organization manages, secures, and operates its IT systems and services.
Key term
User
A user is any person, system, or device that interacts with an IT service, resource, or identity system, typically authenticated through credentials and authorized to perform specific actions.
About these practice questions
One of 1,250 original SC-900 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.