Free AZ-900 practice test: 20 questions
Twenty questions across the three AZ-900 skill areas, weighted roughly as the real exam is: six on cloud concepts, eight on Azure architecture and services, and six on management and governance. These are original scenario questions, not questions from the real exam. Read the constraint in each question — cost, location, who, or what — before picking an answer.
Describe cloud concepts
Question 1. A company replaces its own email servers with Microsoft 365. Under the shared responsibility model, which task remains the company's responsibility?
- A. Patching the mail server software
- B. Physical security of the datacenter
- C. Updating the server operating system
- D. Managing user accounts and who has access to mailboxes
Show answer
Answer: D
In SaaS the provider runs the application, operating system and infrastructure, but the customer always keeps responsibility for its accounts, identities, devices and data. Patching the mail servers, operating the datacenter and updating the operating system all move to Microsoft.
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Question 2. A startup does not want to spend money on hardware before it knows whether its product will succeed. Which financial benefit of the cloud does this describe?
- A. Moving from capital expenditure to operational expenditure
- B. Increasing capital expenditure
- C. Committing to reserved capacity for three years
- D. Paying a fixed monthly licence regardless of usage
Show answer
Answer: A
The cloud replaces up-front capital expenditure on hardware with operational expenditure paid as resources are used. Capital expenditure is what the startup wants to avoid. Reserved capacity is a commitment, which is the opposite of avoiding one. A fixed monthly licence is not the defining characteristic of the consumption model.
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Question 3. An online shop adds more web servers automatically during a sale and removes them afterwards. Which term describes adding servers rather than making one server bigger?
- A. Vertical scaling
- B. Reliability
- C. Horizontal scaling
- D. Predictability
Show answer
Answer: C
Adding more instances is horizontal scaling, also called scaling out. Vertical scaling, or scaling up, means giving one instance more CPU or memory. Reliability and predictability are separate cloud benefits that do not describe how capacity is added.
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Question 4. A team needs to run a legacy application that requires a specific operating system version and a custom driver installed on the server. Which cloud service type fits?
- A. Platform as a service
- B. Infrastructure as a service
- C. Software as a service
- D. Serverless
Show answer
Answer: B
Infrastructure as a service gives full control over the operating system, so a specific version and custom drivers can be installed. PaaS and serverless hide the operating system. SaaS provides finished software, not a platform to install your own.
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Question 5. A developer writes a small function that resizes an image whenever a file is uploaded. The company wants to pay only when the function runs and not manage any servers. What is this an example of?
- A. Serverless computing
- B. A private cloud
- C. Infrastructure as a service
- D. Software as a service
Show answer
Answer: A
Serverless computing runs code in response to events, bills per execution and requires no server management. A private cloud and IaaS both involve managing or paying for capacity. SaaS is finished software rather than your own code.
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Question 6. A company runs a steady workload on the same virtual machines around the clock and expects to do so for the next three years. Which pricing approach will usually cost least?
- A. Pay-as-you-go
- B. Spot pricing
- C. Buying a larger VM size
- D. Reserved capacity
Show answer
Answer: D
Reserved capacity gives a lower price in exchange for a one- or three-year commitment, which suits predictable, continuous workloads. Pay-as-you-go suits variable demand. Spot pricing is cheap but capacity can be reclaimed, so it does not suit a workload that must run continuously. Larger VMs cost more.
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Describe Azure architecture and services
Question 7. A company wants to apply the same access and policy settings to twelve subscriptions at once. Which Azure feature should it use to group them?
- A. Resource groups
- B. Tags
- C. Management groups
- D. Availability zones
Show answer
Answer: C
Management groups sit above subscriptions and let policies and role assignments be applied to many subscriptions, which inherit them. Resource groups sit inside a subscription. Tags label resources but do not apply settings. Availability zones are a physical resilience feature.
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Question 8. A project team deletes a resource group at the end of a project. What happens to the virtual machines and storage accounts inside it?
- A. They are moved to the default resource group
- B. They are deleted with the resource group
- C. They remain, without a resource group
- D. They become read-only
Show answer
Answer: B
A resource group shares a lifecycle with the resources it contains, so deleting the group deletes every resource in it. Resources cannot exist outside a resource group, they are not moved automatically, and nothing is kept in a read-only state.
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Question 9. A web application must automatically increase and decrease the number of identical virtual machines based on CPU load. What should you use?
- A. Virtual Machine Scale Sets
- B. An availability set
- C. Azure Virtual Desktop
- D. A single larger virtual machine
Show answer
Answer: A
Virtual Machine Scale Sets manage a group of identical VMs and scale their number automatically on metrics such as CPU. An availability set improves resilience but does not scale. Azure Virtual Desktop delivers desktops to users. A single larger VM scales vertically and requires manual resizing.
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Question 10. Two virtual networks in different Azure regions must communicate privately with each other. What should you configure?
- A. Azure ExpressRoute
- B. Azure DNS
- C. Microsoft Entra Conditional Access
- D. Virtual network peering
Show answer
Answer: D
Virtual network peering connects two virtual networks, including across regions, so resources communicate privately over Microsoft’s backbone. ExpressRoute and VPN Gateway connect on-premises networks to Azure. Azure DNS resolves names but does not connect networks.
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Question 11. An Azure storage account must keep data available if one datacenter in the region fails, while keeping all data within that region. Which redundancy option fits?
- A. Locally redundant storage (LRS)
- B. Geo-redundant storage (GRS)
- C. Zone-redundant storage (ZRS)
- D. Geo-zone-redundant storage (GZRS)
Show answer
Answer: C
Zone-redundant storage copies data across availability zones in one region, so it survives the loss of a datacenter without leaving the region. LRS keeps all copies in one datacenter. GRS and GZRS copy data to a second region, which the requirement excludes.
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Question 12. A company must move 80 TB of archive data to Azure, but its internet connection would take months to transfer it. What should it use?
- A. AzCopy
- B. Azure Data Box
- C. Azure Storage Explorer
- D. Azure File Sync
Show answer
Answer: B
Azure Data Box is a physical device shipped to the customer, filled with data and returned to Microsoft for upload, designed for large offline transfers. AzCopy and Storage Explorer both transfer over the network. Azure File Sync synchronises file servers continuously, also over the network.
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Question 13. A company wants employees to sign in once and then access several cloud applications without entering credentials again. Which capability is this?
- A. Single sign-on
- B. Multifactor authentication
- C. Azure role-based access control
- D. Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Show answer
Answer: A
Single sign-on lets a user authenticate once and access multiple applications. MFA adds verification factors to a sign-in. RBAC decides what a signed-in user can do on Azure resources. Defender for Cloud monitors security posture.
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Question 14. A security team wants every request to be verified explicitly, users to get only the access they need, and systems designed as if an attacker is already inside. Which security model is this?
- A. Defense in depth
- B. A perimeter-based model
- C. Zero Trust
- D. The shared responsibility model
Show answer
Answer: C
Zero Trust is built on verifying explicitly, using least-privilege access and assuming breach. Defense in depth describes layers of protection. A perimeter model trusts everything inside the network, which Zero Trust rejects. The shared responsibility model divides duties between customer and provider.
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Describe Azure management and governance
Question 15. Finance wants to see monthly Azure costs broken down by department, across resources in many resource groups. What should be applied to the resources?
- A. Resource locks
- B. Tags
- C. Availability zones
- D. A separate region per department
Show answer
Answer: B
Tags add metadata such as department to resources, and cost reports can then group spending by tag across resource groups and subscriptions. Resource locks prevent deletion or change. Azure Policy can require tags but does not by itself report costs. Availability zones are unrelated to cost allocation.
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Question 16. An organisation wants to discover and classify sensitive data across Azure storage, on-premises databases and other sources, and see where that data is used. Which service fits?
- A. Azure Policy
- B. Azure Advisor
- C. Resource locks
- D. Microsoft Purview
Show answer
Answer: D
Microsoft Purview provides data discovery, classification and governance across Azure, on-premises and other sources. Azure Policy governs resource configurations, not data content. Azure Advisor gives recommendations. Resource locks protect resources from deletion or change.
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Question 17. An administrator wants to run Azure CLI commands from a browser without installing anything on a shared computer. What should they use?
- A. Azure Cloud Shell
- B. A local installation of the Azure CLI
- C. Azure Arc
- D. An ARM template
Show answer
Answer: A
Azure Cloud Shell is a browser-based shell with the Azure CLI and Azure PowerShell preinstalled and authenticated. Installing the CLI locally requires installation. Azure Arc manages resources outside Azure. ARM templates describe deployments but are not a shell.
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Question 18. A team wants to deploy the same set of resources to development, test and production in a repeatable way, with the definition stored in version control. What should they use?
- A. The Azure portal, following a written checklist
- B. Resource locks
- C. ARM templates
- D. Tags
Show answer
Answer: C
ARM templates are declarative infrastructure-as-code files that deploy the same resources consistently and can be stored in version control. Using the portal manually is not repeatable. Resource locks and tags do not deploy anything.
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Question 19. A company wants personalised recommendations to reduce cost and improve the reliability and security of its existing Azure resources. Which tool provides this?
- A. Azure Service Health
- B. Azure Advisor
- C. The Azure pricing calculator
- D. Log Analytics
Show answer
Answer: B
Azure Advisor analyses deployed resources and gives recommendations on cost, reliability, security, performance and operational excellence. Service Health reports platform incidents. The pricing calculator estimates future costs. Log Analytics runs queries on logs you collect.
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Question 20. An operations team must be notified by email whenever CPU on a production virtual machine stays above 90% for ten minutes. What should they configure?
- A. Azure Service Health
- B. Azure Advisor
- C. A resource lock
- D. An Azure Monitor alert rule
Show answer
Answer: D
An Azure Monitor alert rule evaluates a metric condition such as CPU over a threshold and triggers an action group, for example an email. Service Health covers Azure platform events, not your VM’s metrics. Advisor gives recommendations, not real-time alerts. A resource lock does not monitor anything.
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How did you do?
Sixteen or more correct suggests you are close. Below fourteen, the domain guides in this section are the fastest way to find the gaps. Questions 7–14 cover the largest domain: if you missed more than two of them, spend your next study week on architecture and services. If questions 15–20 were the problem, the management and governance guide sorts out the look-alike tools. Then take Microsoft’s free practice assessment for a second opinion.