Wondering if you're ready for the AZ-900 exam? The best way to find out is to test yourself with realistic practice questions. We've created 25 free practice questions that mirror the actual exam format, covering all three major domains.
These aren't just basic definition questions. Each question is scenario-based, just like the real exam, and includes detailed explanations for every answer option. Whether you get a question right or wrong, you'll understand the underlying concepts.
What You'll Get:
- ✓25 practice questions across all exam domains
- ✓Detailed explanations for correct and incorrect answers
- ✓Real exam format with scenario-based questions
- ✓Scoring guide to assess your readiness
Created by a Microsoft certified professional with years of experience in Azure, these questions reflect the current exam objectives and question patterns you'll encounter on test day.
How to Use These Practice Questions
Getting the Most Value
Don't just casually browse through these questions. To get the most benefit, treat this like a mini practice exam:
- 1.Take it as a timed test: Give yourself 25 minutes for all 25 questions (same pace as the real exam)
- 2.Don't peek at answers: Answer all questions first, then scroll down to check
- 3.Review ALL explanations: Even for questions you got right. You might have guessed correctly without fully understanding
- 4.Track your weak areas: Note which domains you struggle with and focus your study there
What These Questions Cover
📝 Practice Test Instructions
- • Each question has ONE correct answer
- • Read each scenario carefully before selecting your answer
- • Keep track of your answers (write them down if needed)
- • Scroll to the bottom after finishing for the answer key with explanations
- • Aim to complete all 25 questions in 25 minutes
Cloud Concepts Questions
Questions 1-6
Cloud Service Models
Your company is planning to migrate their on-premises application to Azure. The development team wants to maintain full control over the operating system, runtime environment, and middleware, but they don't want to manage physical hardware or the underlying networking infrastructure.
Which cloud service model should you recommend?
Capital Expenditure vs Operating Expenditure
A retail company currently maintains their own data center with physical servers. They pay upfront for hardware every 3-4 years and employ a team to manage the infrastructure. The CFO wants to understand how cloud computing would change their cost structure.
What is the PRIMARY financial benefit of moving to the cloud?
High Availability
Your organization is deploying a critical business application that must be available 99.99% of the time. The application experiences variable traffic, with significant spikes during business hours and lower usage at night.
Which cloud characteristic is MOST important for meeting this requirement?
Cloud Deployment Models
A healthcare company needs to comply with strict data residency requirements. They want to keep patient data on their own infrastructure but use Azure services for analytics and reporting. The data must never leave their premises.
Which cloud deployment model best fits this scenario?
Shared Responsibility Model
Your team is deploying a web application using Azure App Service (PaaS). You're reviewing the security checklist and need to determine who is responsible for patching the underlying operating system.
In this scenario, who is responsible for OS patching?
Consumption-Based Pricing
A startup company is launching a mobile app and expects highly variable usage. Some months might have 10,000 users, others might have 100,000. They want to avoid paying for capacity they don't need.
Which pricing model would be MOST cost-effective for this scenario?
Azure Architecture & Services
Questions 7-16
Azure Virtual Machines
Your company needs to run a legacy application that requires Windows Server 2012 R2. The application cannot be containerized or modernized, and you need complete control over the OS configuration.
Which Azure compute service should you use?
Azure Storage Types
You need to store large amounts of unstructured data including images, videos, and documents. The data will be accessed frequently via HTTP/HTTPS, and you need a cost-effective solution that can scale to petabytes.
Which Azure storage type is MOST appropriate?
Azure Networking
Your organization wants to connect their on-premises network to Azure in a secure, private manner. The connection must not traverse the public internet and should provide predictable bandwidth and latency.
Which Azure service should you use?
Azure SQL Database
You're migrating a SQL Server database to Azure. You want automatic backups, patching, and high availability without managing the underlying infrastructure. You also need the ability to scale compute and storage independently.
Which service should you choose?
Azure Functions
Your development team needs to run small pieces of code in response to events (like file uploads or HTTP requests) without provisioning or managing servers. The code runs for only a few seconds and you want to pay only when it executes.
Which Azure service is designed for this use case?
Azure Regions and Availability Zones
You're designing a mission-critical application that must remain available even if an entire datacenter fails. You want redundancy within the same geographic region.
What should you use to achieve this?
Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Your e-commerce website serves customers globally. Users in Asia are experiencing slow page load times because your servers are located in the US. You need to improve performance for global users.
Which Azure service would BEST address this issue?
Azure Cosmos DB
You're building a globally distributed application that requires single-digit millisecond latency, automatic scaling, and multi-region replication. The data is document-based with varying schemas.
Which Azure database service is designed for this scenario?
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
Your organization has containerized microservices applications and needs to orchestrate, scale, and manage these containers across multiple hosts. You want a managed Kubernetes service.
Which Azure service should you use?
Azure Storage Redundancy
You need to store critical backup data that must be protected against regional disasters. The data must be automatically replicated to a secondary region at least 300 miles away from the primary region.
Which storage redundancy option should you choose?
Azure Management & Governance
Questions 17-25
Azure Policy
Your organization wants to enforce that all virtual machines must have a specific tag (CostCenter) before they can be created. This requirement must apply to all subscriptions in your organization.
Which Azure service should you use to enforce this requirement?
Azure Monitor
You need to collect and analyze telemetry data from your Azure resources, including metrics, logs, and traces. You want a centralized solution for monitoring all your Azure services.
Which Azure service provides this functionality?
Azure Cost Management
Your finance team wants to receive an email alert whenever your monthly Azure spending exceeds $5,000. They also want to see spending trends and forecasts.
Which tool should you use to set up this alert and view spending analysis?
Resource Groups
You're deploying a new web application that includes a web server, database, and storage account. You want to manage all these resources together and be able to delete them all at once.
What should you use to organize these resources?
Azure Resource Locks
You have a production database that must never be accidentally deleted. However, authorized users should still be able to modify its configuration and settings.
Which type of Azure Resource Lock should you apply?
Azure Service-Level Agreements (SLAs)
You're designing an application using Azure VMs. A single VM has an SLA of 99.9%. You deploy two VMs in an availability set. What happens to the SLA?
How does deploying multiple VMs in an availability set affect the SLA?
Azure Advisor
You want to receive personalized recommendations to optimize your Azure resources for cost, security, reliability, performance, and operational excellence.
Which Azure tool provides these recommendations?
Azure Tags
Your organization has hundreds of Azure resources across multiple departments. You need to organize resources for billing purposes and identify which department should be charged for each resource.
What should you use to categorize resources for cost tracking?
Azure Service Health
You want to be notified if there's an Azure service outage that affects your resources or if Microsoft is performing planned maintenance in your region.
Which Azure service provides this visibility into Azure platform health?
✋ Stop Here Before Scrolling!
Have you answered all 25 questions? Make sure to complete the test before checking the answers below.
Pro tip: Write down your answers
Track which questions you struggled with for focused study
📝 Answer Key with Detailed Explanations
Review each explanation carefully, even for questions you answered correctly
Question 1: Cloud Service Models
✓ Correct Answer: C) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Why this is correct:
IaaS provides virtualized computing resources over the internet. With IaaS, you control the operating system, middleware, and runtime environment, while Microsoft manages the physical hardware, networking infrastructure, and virtualization layer. This is perfect when you need OS-level control without managing physical servers.
Why other answers are incorrect:
💡 Key Concept to Remember:
Think of cloud service models as layers of control from most to least:
- • IaaS: You manage OS, middleware, runtime, applications, data ✓
- • PaaS: You manage applications and data
- • SaaS: You only use the software
Question 2: CapEx vs OpEx
✓ Correct Answer: A) Converting capital expenditure (CapEx) to operational expenditure (OpEx)
Why this is correct:
The primary financial benefit of cloud computing is converting CapEx to OpEx. Instead of large upfront investments in hardware (CapEx), you pay-as-you-go for cloud services (OpEx). This improves cash flow, reduces financial risk, and allows costs to scale with business needs. It's one of the most significant advantages from a CFO's perspective.
Why other answers are incorrect:
💡 Key Concept to Remember:
CapEx (Capital Expenditure): Upfront costs for physical infrastructure (servers, data centers).
OpEx (Operational Expenditure): Ongoing costs for services as you use them (cloud subscription).
The shift from CapEx to OpEx provides better cash flow management and financial flexibility.
Question 3: High Availability
✓ Correct Answer: B) High availability
Why this is correct:
High availability is specifically designed to maximize uptime and meet strict SLA requirements like 99.99%. It ensures your application remains accessible even when individual components fail, through redundancy and failover mechanisms. This is the primary characteristic needed to meet the 99.99% uptime requirement.
Why other answers are incorrect:
💡 Key Concept to Remember:
High Availability: Focuses on maximizing uptime through redundancy and failover (99.9%, 99.99%, 99.999%).
Disaster Recovery: Focuses on recovering from major failures (RPO/RTO).
Elasticity: Focuses on scaling resources dynamically based on demand.
Question 4: Cloud Deployment Models
✓ Correct Answer: C) Hybrid cloud
Why this is correct:
Hybrid cloud combines on-premises infrastructure with cloud services. It's perfect for scenarios where data must remain on-premises (for compliance, security, or regulatory reasons) while still leveraging cloud services for analytics, compute, or other workloads. The data stays local, but Azure services can process it.
Why other answers are incorrect:
💡 Key Concept to Remember:
Public Cloud: Everything runs in provider's data centers.
Private Cloud: Everything runs on your infrastructure.
Hybrid Cloud: Combination of on-premises and cloud (best for regulatory compliance).
Multi-Cloud: Using multiple cloud providers simultaneously.
Question 5: Shared Responsibility Model
✓ Correct Answer: B) Microsoft is responsible
In PaaS (like Azure App Service), Microsoft manages the underlying infrastructure including OS patching. Your responsibility is limited to your application code, data, and application-level configuration. The shared responsibility model defines what you manage vs. what the provider manages based on the service type.
Question 6: Consumption-Based Pricing
✓ Correct Answer: A) Pay-as-you-go (consumption-based)
Pay-as-you-go pricing means you only pay for what you use, when you use it. For highly variable workloads (10K to 100K users), this prevents overpaying during low usage periods. Reserved instances require commitment and are better for predictable workloads.
Question 7: Azure Virtual Machines
✓ Correct Answer: B) Azure Virtual Machines
Azure VMs provide IaaS with full OS control, perfect for legacy applications that can't be modernized. App Service (PaaS) doesn't give OS control, Functions is for serverless code, and Containers require the app to be containerized.
Question 8: Azure Storage Types
✓ Correct Answer: A) Azure Blob Storage
Blob Storage is designed for massive amounts of unstructured data (images, videos, backups) accessible via HTTP/HTTPS. File Storage is for file shares, Table Storage for NoSQL data, Queue Storage for messaging between applications.
Question 9: Azure Networking
✓ Correct Answer: B) Azure ExpressRoute
ExpressRoute provides private, dedicated connections that don't traverse the public internet, with predictable bandwidth and latency. VPN Gateway uses the internet (encrypted but public), Application Gateway and Front Door are for web traffic routing.
Question 10: Azure SQL Database
✓ Correct Answer: B) Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Database is a fully managed PaaS database with automatic backups, patching, and scaling. SQL on VMs requires managing the infrastructure yourself. Cosmos DB is for NoSQL workloads, MySQL is for open-source database workloads.
Question 11: Azure Functions
✓ Correct Answer: C) Azure Functions
Azure Functions is serverless compute for event-driven code execution. You only pay when code runs. Perfect for short-running tasks triggered by events. VMs and App Service require provisioning resources, Logic Apps is for workflow orchestration.
Question 12: Availability Zones
✓ Correct Answer: B) Deploy across multiple availability zones within a region
Availability zones are physically separate datacenters within a region, providing redundancy against datacenter failures while staying in the same geographic area. Multiple regions would add latency and cost.
Question 13: Azure CDN
✓ Correct Answer: B) Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN)
CDN caches content at edge locations closer to users globally, dramatically improving load times. Load Balancer distributes traffic within a region, Traffic Manager routes based on geography/performance, ExpressRoute is for private connectivity.
Question 14: Azure Cosmos DB
✓ Correct Answer: B) Azure Cosmos DB
Cosmos DB is Microsoft's globally distributed, multi-model database with guaranteed single-digit millisecond latency and automatic multi-region replication. Perfect for document-based data with global scale requirements.
Question 15: Azure Kubernetes Service
✓ Correct Answer: B) Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
AKS is a managed Kubernetes service for orchestrating containerized applications. Container Instances is for simple container hosting, App Service doesn't provide Kubernetes orchestration, VM Scale Sets are for VMs not containers.
Question 16: Storage Redundancy
✓ Correct Answer: C) Geo-Redundant Storage (GRS)
GRS replicates data to a secondary region hundreds of miles away, protecting against regional disasters. LRS replicates within one datacenter, ZRS across availability zones in one region, Premium Storage is about performance not redundancy.
Question 17: Azure Policy
✓ Correct Answer: B) Azure Policy
Azure Policy enforces organizational standards and compliance by evaluating resources against defined rules. It can require tags, restrict regions, enforce naming conventions, etc. ARM templates deploy resources, Blueprints package multiple policies, Resource Locks prevent deletion.
Question 18: Azure Monitor
✓ Correct Answer: C) Azure Monitor
Azure Monitor is the comprehensive solution for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from Azure resources and applications. Service Health tracks Azure platform issues, Advisor provides recommendations, Security Center focuses on security.
Question 19: Cost Management
✓ Correct Answer: B) Azure Cost Management and Billing
Cost Management tracks actual spending, provides budgets and alerts, shows trends and forecasts. Pricing Calculator estimates costs before deployment, TCO Calculator compares cloud vs on-premises, Advisor suggests optimizations but doesn't track spending.
Question 20: Resource Groups
✓ Correct Answer: B) Resource group
Resource groups are logical containers for Azure resources that share the same lifecycle. You can deploy, manage, and delete them together. Subscriptions are billing boundaries, management groups organize subscriptions, regions are physical locations.
Question 21: Resource Locks
✓ Correct Answer: A) CanNotDelete lock
CanNotDelete lock prevents deletion but allows modifications. ReadOnly lock prevents both deletion and modifications. The scenario requires preventing deletion while allowing configuration changes. DoNotModify and ProtectedResource are not real lock types.
Question 22: Service Level Agreements
✓ Correct Answer: B) The SLA increases to 99.95%
Deploying VMs in an availability set improves the SLA from 99.9% to 99.95% because Microsoft ensures VMs are distributed across fault domains and update domains, reducing the impact of hardware failures and planned maintenance.
Question 23: Azure Advisor
✓ Correct Answer: B) Azure Advisor
Azure Advisor analyzes your resource configuration and usage to provide personalized recommendations across five categories: cost, security, reliability, operational excellence, and performance. Monitor collects data, Policy enforces rules, Security Center focuses on security.
Question 24: Azure Tags
✓ Correct Answer: B) Azure tags
Tags are name-value pairs (like Department:Marketing, CostCenter:IT) that you apply to resources for organization and billing. You can filter costs by tags in Cost Management. Resource groups organize resources, but tags provide more granular categorization.
Question 25: Azure Service Health
✓ Correct Answer: C) Azure Service Health
Azure Service Health provides personalized alerts about Azure service issues, planned maintenance, and health advisories that affect your specific resources and regions. Monitor tracks your resource metrics, Advisor provides recommendations, Resource Health checks individual resource status.
📊 Your Practice Test Results
You're likely ready for the exam! Focus on timed practice and schedule your test.
Solid foundation. Review weak areas and practice 300-500 more questions.
More study needed. Review exam domains systematically with hands-on practice.
Begin with fundamentals. Use structured study plan for 2-4 weeks of daily study.
What to Do Next Based on Your Score
If you scored 80%+ (Ready):
- • Take 2-3 full-length practice tests (40-60 questions each)
- • Focus on timed practice to build exam-day confidence
- • Review any weak topics identified
- • Schedule your exam within 1-2 weeks while knowledge is fresh
If you scored 60-79% (Almost There):
- • Identify which domains you missed most questions in
- • Review Microsoft Learn modules for those specific topics
- • Practice 300-500 more questions to solidify knowledge
- • Retake practice tests until consistently scoring 80%+
- • Give yourself 1-2 more weeks of focused study
If you scored below 60% (Need More Prep):
- • Don't panic — many people start here and pass successfully
- • Follow a structured study plan (see our complete guide below)
- • Study 1-2 hours daily for 2-4 weeks
- • Focus on understanding concepts, not memorizing answers
- • Practice extensively (aim for 400+ questions total)
- • Consider getting hands-on Azure experience with free account
🎯 Common Question Patterns in AZ-900
What You Noticed in These Questions:
The Real Exam Will Have:
Same Question Types
Scenario-based questions just like these practice questions
Similar Difficulty
Not harder than these; actually very similar complexity
More Edge Cases
Some questions test nuanced understanding of service capabilities
40-60 Questions
More questions than this practice test (vs these 25)
Ready for More Practice?
These 25 questions are just a sample. The actual AZ-900 exam has 40-60 questions.
Why You Need 400-500 Practice Questions:
- ✓ Ensures coverage of all exam objectives (not just common topics)
- ✓ Exposes you to different question phrasings and scenarios
- ✓ Builds pattern recognition for faster answers
- ✓ Increases confidence and reduces test anxiety
- ✓ Identifies truly weak areas (not just lucky guesses)
Get 500 AZ-900 Practice Questions
MSCertQuiz offers 500 verified practice questions covering all AZ-900 exam domains:
$9.99 One-Time Payment
Lifetime access • No subscription • 500 questions
📚 Other Free AZ-900 Resources
Complete AZ-900 Study Guide
8,500-word guide with study timelines, resources, and exam strategies
AZ-900 Study Plan Generator
Personalized study schedules based on your timeline and experience
Coming SoonAzure Fundamentals Cheat Sheet
Quick reference guide for all major Azure services and concepts
Coming SoonFinal Thoughts
These 25 practice questions give you a solid taste of what to expect on the AZ-900 exam. If you scored well, that's a great sign — but remember, the real exam will test your knowledge across 40-60 questions covering even more scenarios and edge cases.
To truly prepare, you should practice with at least 400-500 questions to ensure you've seen every possible topic and question variation. This builds confidence, speeds up your response time, and helps you recognize patterns that make questions easier to answer.
Whether you're just starting your Azure journey or fine-tuning your knowledge before the exam, keep practicing, review the explanations thoroughly, and don't hesitate to dive deeper into any topics where you struggled. You've got this!
About MSCertQuiz
MSCertQuiz is created by a Microsoft certified IT professional with over 10 years of experience in Azure and Microsoft 365. Our practice questions are carefully crafted to reflect the actual exam format and difficulty, helping thousands of students pass their Microsoft certifications on the first try.