SC-900 Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Entra Practice Question
Your organization is deploying Microsoft Entra ID. You need to ensure that users can sign in using their existing on-premises Active Directory credentials without creating new cloud passwords. Which feature should you configure?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse Microsoft Entra Connect with Microsoft Entra Multifactor Authentication, thinking that MFA alone can authenticate against on-premises credentials, but MFA only provides an additional verification step and does not handle primary authentication against on-premises Active Directory.
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 Connect
Microsoft Entra Connect is the correct feature because it synchronizes on-premises Active Directory identities to Microsoft Entra ID and enables password hash synchronization or pass-through authentication, allowing users to sign in with their existing on-premises credentials without creating new cloud passwords. This ensures a seamless hybrid identity experience where the same username and password work for both on-premises and cloud resources.
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 Connect
Why this is correct
Microsoft Entra Connect is the essential tool for establishing and maintaining hybrid identity, synchronizing on-premises Active Directory users, groups, and contacts into Microsoft Entra ID. It facilitates seamless sign-in experiences by enabling features like Password Hash Synchronization (PHS), Pass-through Authentication (PTA), or federation with ADFS, allowing users to authenticate to cloud services using their existing on-premises credentials. This ensures a consistent identity and access management across both environments.
- ✗
Microsoft Entra Multifactor Authentication
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Entra Multifactor Authentication (MFA) enhances security by requiring users to provide two or more verification methods to prove their identity during sign-in. While crucial for protecting accounts from unauthorized access, MFA is an authentication method that layers on top of an existing identity infrastructure. It does not synchronize user identities, passwords, or other directory objects from an on-premises environment to Microsoft Entra ID, making it unsuitable for the initial integration task.
- ✗
Microsoft Entra Self-Service Password Reset
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Entra Self-Service Password Reset (SSPR) empowers users to reset their forgotten or locked passwords without administrator intervention, significantly improving productivity and reducing help desk calls. While beneficial for managing passwords, SSPR is a feature that operates within Microsoft Entra ID or writes back to on-premises AD after identities are already synchronized. It does not establish the initial synchronization channel for existing on-premises user accounts or their passwords to be brought into the cloud directory.
- ✗
Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM)
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM) is a service designed to manage, control, and monitor access to important resources within Microsoft Entra ID, Azure, and other Microsoft Online Services. It provides just-in-time (JIT) access and time-bound assignments for privileged roles, reducing the risk of excessive, unnecessary, or misused access permissions. PIM focuses on access governance for administrative roles and has no function in synchronizing user identities or their passwords from an on-premises directory to the cloud.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Identity Concepts
Key term
Organization
An Organization is a top-level container in Google Cloud that represents your company or entities and serves as the root node for all your cloud resources, policies, and access control.
Key term
Authentication
Authentication is the process of verifying that someone or something is who or what it claims to be before granting access to a system or resource.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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