Azure Fundamentals · 27% of the exam

Describe cloud concepts: free practice questions

5 sample questions from our 20-question bank for this domain — answers and explanations included. These are the same scenario-based style as the real Azure exam.

1. An architect is explaining why running in the cloud improves reliability compared to the company's single on-premises server room. Which capability is the STRONGEST supporting argument?

  • A. Cloud providers offer graphical management portals
  • B. Workloads can be deployed across multiple geographically separate facilities so a single site failure doesn't cause an outage✓ Correct
  • C. Cloud VMs never experience hardware failures
  • D. Cloud billing is monthly rather than annual
Explanation

Reliability in the cloud comes from designing across fault domains — multiple facilities, zones, and regions — so no single failure takes the workload down; a single server room cannot offer that. Option A is a convenience, not a reliability argument. Option C is false: individual hardware still fails in the cloud; the difference is the platform's ability to recover and distribute. Option D is a billing characteristic, irrelevant to reliability.

2. A retail company pays only for the compute and storage resources it actually consumes each month, with no upfront hardware purchases. Which cloud characteristic does this describe?

  • A. The consumption-based model✓ Correct
  • B. A capital expenditure (CapEx) model
  • C. A fixed-price licensing agreement
  • D. Vertical scaling
Explanation

The consumption-based model means you pay only for the resources you use, when you use them — an operational expenditure (OpEx) approach. Option B is the opposite: CapEx means large upfront investments in physical infrastructure. Option C describes traditional software licensing, not cloud billing. Option D (vertical scaling) is about resizing a resource, not how you pay for it.

3. A development team deploys an API using Azure Functions. They write only the function code and pay per execution; they never configure or see the underlying servers. Which TWO characteristics describe this serverless approach? (Select 2)

  • A. The team must still patch the guest operating system monthly
  • B. Compute resources are automatically allocated and scaled by the platform✓ Correct
  • C. Billing is based on actual executions and resource consumption rather than reserved capacity✓ Correct
  • D. The team must pre-provision a fixed number of VM instances
  • E. The code can only run on Windows Server hosts
Explanation

Serverless computing abstracts servers away entirely: the platform allocates and scales compute automatically (B), and you pay for actual consumption such as per-execution billing (C). Option A is wrong — there is no guest OS for the customer to patch in serverless. Option D describes IaaS capacity planning, exactly what serverless removes. Option E is false; the underlying host OS is invisible and irrelevant to the customer.

4. In the shared responsibility model, which responsibility shifts from the customer to Microsoft when moving from IaaS to PaaS?

  • A. Managing accounts and identities
  • B. Patching and maintaining the operating system✓ Correct
  • C. Classifying corporate data
  • D. Securing end-user devices
Explanation

With IaaS the customer manages the guest operating system, including patching; with PaaS the platform (Microsoft) takes over OS and runtime maintenance. Options A, C, and D — identities, data, and devices — always remain customer responsibilities in every service model, so they don't shift.

5. Which statement correctly compares IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS in terms of customer management burden, from MOST customer responsibility to LEAST?

  • A. SaaS → PaaS → IaaS
  • B. PaaS → IaaS → SaaS
  • C. IaaS → PaaS → SaaS✓ Correct
  • D. IaaS → SaaS → PaaS
Explanation

IaaS leaves the most to the customer (OS, runtime, apps, data), PaaS shifts OS and runtime management to the provider, and SaaS leaves the customer managing only data, users, and devices — the least burden. The other orderings misplace at least one model; remember the burden decreases as you move from infrastructure to platform to software.

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Describe cloud concepts — Free Azure Fundamentals Practice Questions | DataCertPrep — Certification Prep