SC-900 Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Entra Practice Question
Your organization uses Microsoft Entra ID and needs to block sign-ins from legacy authentication protocols to reduce risk. Which feature should you use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse Security defaults (which do block legacy authentication by default) with the ability to customize or target that block, but the question asks for a feature to 'block sign-ins from legacy authentication protocols' in a way that can be tailored to organizational needs, which only Conditional Access supports.
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
✓
Conditional Access
Conditional Access policies in Microsoft Entra ID allow you to block sign-ins from legacy authentication protocols by targeting client apps that use protocols like POP3, IMAP, SMTP, or older Office clients that do not support modern authentication. This is the correct feature because it provides granular, policy-based control to explicitly deny authentication requests that use legacy protocols, directly addressing the requirement to reduce risk from these less secure methods.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Security defaults
Why it's wrong here
Security defaults enforce a fixed baseline including MFA and blocking legacy authentication, but only when no Conditional Access policies exist, and they cannot be scoped or tuned per group. They suit small tenants wanting basic protection without licensing; this scenario needs granular control over specific protocols.
- ✗
Privileged Identity Management
Why it's wrong here
Privileged Identity Management governs just-in-time activation, approval, and review of privileged directory roles; it has no mechanism for evaluating authentication protocol type at sign-in. It is correct when controlling standing admin access, not for blocking legacy authentication across the tenant.
- ✗
Identity Protection
Why it's wrong here
Identity Protection detects and scores risky users and sign-ins, feeding risk-based Conditional Access, but it does not itself block legacy authentication protocols. It is the right choice for automating responses to compromised credentials or anomalous sign-in behaviour, not for protocol-level sign-in restriction.
- ✓
Conditional Access
Why this is correct
Conditional Access evaluates sign-in conditions and can enforce a block for legacy authentication clients, which cannot perform modern interactive authentication or MFA. This directly satisfies the requirement to block legacy protocol sign-ins, since the policy targets those client types at authentication time.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
The Modern Threat Landscape
Key term
SMTP
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is the standard internet protocol used to send emails from a client to a server or between email servers.
Key term
Microsoft Entra ID
Microsoft Entra ID is a cloud-based identity and access management service that lets employees sign in and access resources both inside and outside of your organization.
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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.