This SC-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe the capabilities of microsoft entra. 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.
Your organization uses Microsoft Entra ID and needs to block sign-ins from legacy authentication protocols to reduce risk. Which feature should you use?
Security defaults
Why wrong: Security defaults block legacy auth but cannot be configured selectively.
Privileged Identity Management
Why wrong: PIM manages privileged access, not authentication protocols.
Identity Protection
Why wrong: Identity Protection detects but does not block legacy authentication protocols.
Conditional Access
Conditional Access can block legacy authentication by targeting client apps.
Answer choices
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.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
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 block legacy auth but cannot be configured selectively.
Privileged Identity Management
Why it's wrong here
PIM manages privileged access, not authentication protocols.
Identity Protection
Why it's wrong here
Identity Protection detects but does not block legacy authentication protocols.
Conditional Access
Why this is correct
Conditional Access can block legacy authentication by targeting client apps.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often 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.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, Conditional Access policies evaluate the 'Client Apps' condition, which includes a 'Legacy authentication clients' option that covers protocols like Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), POP3, IMAP4, SMTP, and older Office clients (e.g., Office 2010 without modern auth). When a policy is configured to block these clients, Microsoft Entra ID rejects the authentication request at the token issuance stage, preventing any legacy protocol from obtaining an access token. In a real-world scenario, an organization might create a Conditional Access policy that blocks all legacy authentication for all users except a service account used for a legacy application, demonstrating the granular control that Security defaults cannot provide.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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
Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Entra — This question tests Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Entra — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: 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.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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