Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) · 35% practice allocation

Azure AZ-900: Describe Azure management and governance Practice Questions

5 free sample questions from the Describe Azure management and governance domain, with answers and explanations. The full AZ-900 bank has 60 questions across 3 domains. Questions are scenario-based and written from the official Azure exam guide.

1.

A platform team deploys the same three-tier environment repeatedly. They want deployments to be declarative, repeatable, version-controlled, and idempotent — the same template always produces the same environment. Which approach BEST fits?

  • A. Infrastructure as code using ARM templates (or Bicep)✓ Correct
  • B. Clicking through the Azure portal using a documented checklist
  • C. Manually running individual CLI commands from memory
  • D. Emailing configuration screenshots between engineers
Explanation

ARM templates (and Bicep) are Azure's infrastructure-as-code: declarative JSON/Bicep definitions that are idempotent, repeatable, and storable in source control. Portal checklists (B) and ad-hoc CLI (C) are imperative, error-prone, and drift over time. Option D isn't a deployment method at all — it's how configuration knowledge gets lost.

2.

During a production incident, a team must determine whether the problem is caused by an Azure platform outage in their region or by their own application. Which service shows personalized information about Azure service issues, planned maintenance, and health advisories affecting THEIR resources?

  • A. Azure Advisor
  • B. The Azure pricing calculator
  • C. Microsoft Entra ID
  • D. Azure Service Health✓ Correct
Explanation

Azure Service Health provides a personalized view of Azure platform incidents, planned maintenance, and health advisories relevant to the regions and services you actually use — the first place to check 'is it Azure or is it us?'. Advisor (A) is optimization recommendations, not live incident status. The pricing calculator (B) estimates costs. Entra ID (C) is identity management.

3.

A company manages 200 on-premises Windows servers and 50 VMs in another cloud provider. They want to apply Azure Policy, RBAC, and tags to these machines through the Azure portal as if they were Azure resources. Which service enables this?

  • A. Azure Migrate
  • B. Azure Arc✓ Correct
  • C. Azure ExpressRoute
  • D. Azure Virtual Desktop
Explanation

Azure Arc projects non-Azure machines (on-premises or other clouds) into Azure Resource Manager, so you can govern them with Azure Policy, RBAC, and tags without migrating them. Azure Migrate (A) is for moving workloads INTO Azure — these servers are staying put. Azure Virtual Desktop (D) is desktop virtualization. ExpressRoute (C) provides private network connectivity, not management-plane projection.

4.

Which TWO factors can reduce the effective cost of running Azure virtual machines for predictable, long-running workloads? (Select 2)

  • A. Choosing the region with the highest demand
  • B. Deploying duplicate idle VMs in a second region
  • C. Disabling monitoring on the VMs
  • D. Azure Reservations committing to one or three years of usage✓ Correct
  • E. Azure Hybrid Benefit reusing existing on-premises Windows Server or SQL Server licenses✓ Correct
Explanation

Reservations exchange a 1- or 3-year commitment for significant discounts on predictable workloads, and Azure Hybrid Benefit lets you bring existing Windows Server/SQL Server licenses to avoid paying for them again in VM pricing. Option A, if anything, correlates with higher prices. Option B doubles cost for zero benefit if the VMs sit idle. Option C saves a negligible amount and sacrifices operational visibility.

5.

An administrator notices their subscription contains idle VMs and over-provisioned resources. Which free Azure service proactively recommends cost reductions (like resizing or shutting down underused VMs) alongside security, reliability, performance, and operational-excellence suggestions?

  • A. Azure Advisor✓ Correct
  • B. Azure Policy
  • C. Microsoft Purview
  • D. Azure Service Health
Explanation

Azure Advisor analyzes your resource usage and configuration and gives personalized recommendations across five pillars: cost, security, reliability, performance, and operational excellence — including spotting underutilized VMs. Purview (C) governs data. Service Health (D) reports platform incidents. Policy (B) enforces rules you define; it doesn't generate optimization recommendations.

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