SC-900 Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Entra Practice Question
This SC-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe the capabilities of microsoft entra. 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.
Your company has a hybrid identity environment with Microsoft Entra ID and on-premises Active Directory. You need to ensure that users can use the same password on-premises and in the cloud without having to sync password hashes. Additionally, you want to prevent accounts from being locked out after a few bad password attempts in the cloud. Which Microsoft Entra feature should you implement?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Deploy password writeback and enable Microsoft Entra smart lockout.
Option B is correct because password writeback enables password changes made in the cloud to be written back to on-premises Active Directory, ensuring the same password is used without syncing password hashes. Microsoft Entra smart lockout prevents accounts from being locked out after a few bad password attempts in the cloud by intelligently recognizing and blocking malicious sign-in attempts while allowing legitimate users to continue, without locking the on-premises account.
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.
✗
Use password hash synchronization and set up custom lockout policies.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Password hash sync does not provide password writeback.
✓
Deploy password writeback and enable Microsoft Entra smart lockout.
Why this is correct
Correct: Password writeback enables on-premises password changes from the cloud, and smart lockout prevents cloud lockouts.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Implement federation with Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS).
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Federation does not natively provide password writeback or smart lockout.
✗
Implement pass-through authentication and configure on-premises lockout thresholds.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Pass-through authentication does not support password writeback.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse pass-through authentication with password writeback, thinking that pass-through authentication alone prevents cloud lockouts, but it does not—smart lockout is required to decouple cloud lockout from on-premises lockout thresholds.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Password writeback uses the Microsoft Entra Connect synchronization engine to write password change events back to on-premises AD via the Password Reset Service, leveraging the Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) feature. Smart lockout uses machine learning to distinguish between legitimate users and attackers, applying a lockout threshold that is separate from on-premises lockout policies, thus preventing cloud-based brute-force attacks from locking on-premises accounts. In a real-world scenario, if a user mistypes their password multiple times in the cloud, smart lockout will block further attempts without triggering the on-premises lockout, while password writeback ensures any password reset in the cloud is immediately reflected on-premises.
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 Entra — This question tests Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Entra — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Deploy password writeback and enable Microsoft Entra smart lockout. — Option B is correct because password writeback enables password changes made in the cloud to be written back to on-premises Active Directory, ensuring the same password is used without syncing password hashes. Microsoft Entra smart lockout prevents accounts from being locked out after a few bad password attempts in the cloud by intelligently recognizing and blocking malicious sign-in attempts while allowing legitimate users to continue, without locking the on-premises account.
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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