- A
Confidentiality
Why wrong: Incorrect. Confidentiality ensures that data is accessible only to authorized parties. Backups may also support confidentiality if encrypted, but the primary goal of backups is availability.
- B
Integrity
Why wrong: Incorrect. Integrity ensures data is accurate and unaltered. While backups can restore data integrity, their main purpose is to ensure data is available after a loss.
- C
Availability
Correct. Availability ensures that systems and data are accessible and usable when needed. Backups and disaster recovery are key controls to maintain availability.
- D
Non-repudiation
Why wrong: Incorrect. Non-repudiation provides proof that an action or event occurred, such as through digital signatures. Backups do not provide non-repudiation.
SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity
This SC-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity. 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 implements regular data backups and a disaster recovery plan to restore critical systems after an outage. Which security principle is primarily being addressed by these measures?
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
Availability
Regular data backups and a disaster recovery plan directly ensure that critical systems and data can be restored and remain accessible after an outage. This aligns with the Availability principle of the CIA triad, which guarantees that authorized users have reliable access to resources when needed. In Azure, this is supported by services like Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery, which provide automated backup and failover capabilities to maintain uptime.
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.
- ✗
Confidentiality
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Confidentiality ensures that data is accessible only to authorized parties. Backups may also support confidentiality if encrypted, but the primary goal of backups is availability.
When this WOULD be correct
A question that asks which security principle is addressed by encrypting data at rest and in transit, or by implementing access controls to prevent unauthorized disclosure, would have confidentiality as the correct answer.
- ✗
Integrity
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Integrity ensures data is accurate and unaltered. While backups can restore data integrity, their main purpose is to ensure data is available after a loss.
When this WOULD be correct
A question asking which security principle is addressed by hashing or digital signatures to verify data has not been altered during transmission would make integrity the correct answer.
- ✓
Availability
Why this is correct
Correct. Availability ensures that systems and data are accessible and usable when needed. Backups and disaster recovery are key controls to maintain availability.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Non-repudiation
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Non-repudiation provides proof that an action or event occurred, such as through digital signatures. Backups do not provide non-repudiation.
When this WOULD be correct
A question that asks: 'A company uses digital signatures to ensure that employees cannot deny having submitted expense reports. Which security principle is being addressed?' In that context, non-repudiation would be the correct answer because digital signatures provide proof of origin and integrity, preventing denial of actions.
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.
✓AvailabilityCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
Correct. Availability ensures that systems and data are accessible and usable when needed. Backups and disaster recovery are key controls to maintain availability.
✗ConfidentialityWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Data backups and disaster recovery plans primarily ensure that systems and data can be restored after an outage, which directly supports availability. Confidentiality is about preventing unauthorized access, not about restoring systems after failures.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A question that asks which security principle is addressed by encrypting data at rest and in transit, or by implementing access controls to prevent unauthorized disclosure, would have confidentiality as the correct answer.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse backups with protecting data from unauthorized access, thinking backups prevent data breaches, but backups are about recovery, not confidentiality.
✗IntegrityWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Integrity ensures data is not tampered with or altered, but backups and disaster recovery primarily restore availability after an outage, not protect against unauthorized modifications.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A question asking which security principle is addressed by hashing or digital signatures to verify data has not been altered during transmission would make integrity the correct answer.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse backups with ensuring data remains unchanged (integrity), not realizing backups primarily restore access (availability).
✗Non-repudiationWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Non-repudiation ensures that actions or transactions cannot be denied by the parties involved, typically through digital signatures or audit logs. Data backups and disaster recovery do not address non-repudiation; they focus on restoring system functionality after an outage, which is about availability.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A question that asks: 'A company uses digital signatures to ensure that employees cannot deny having submitted expense reports. Which security principle is being addressed?' In that context, non-repudiation would be the correct answer because digital signatures provide proof of origin and integrity, preventing denial of actions.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse non-repudiation with availability because both involve ensuring that systems and data are accessible when needed, but non-repudiation specifically deals with accountability and proof of actions, not system uptime or recovery.
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?”
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse backups and disaster recovery with Confidentiality or Integrity, mistakenly thinking that protecting data copies implies preventing unauthorized access or tampering, rather than recognizing that the core goal is restoring access and system operation.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
The Availability principle is often measured by uptime metrics such as 99.9% (three nines) or higher, and disaster recovery plans implement Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) targets to quantify acceptable downtime and data loss. Under the hood, Azure Site Recovery orchestrates replication of virtual machines to a secondary region, using continuous replication and automated failover to meet these objectives. A real-world scenario is a regional outage in Azure where ASR fails over workloads to a paired region, ensuring business continuity.
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-900 question test?
Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity — This question tests Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Availability — Regular data backups and a disaster recovery plan directly ensure that critical systems and data can be restored and remain accessible after an outage. This aligns with the Availability principle of the CIA triad, which guarantees that authorized users have reliable access to resources when needed. In Azure, this is supported by services like Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery, which provide automated backup and failover capabilities to maintain uptime.
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.
About these practice questions
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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.
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