Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
Certification Guide 2025: Complete Study Plan,
Real Practice Questions, and Exam Success
Strategies for Beginners
Scenario 1: You have an on-premises network that contains several servers. You plan to migrate
all the servers to Azure. You need to recommend a solution to ensure that some of the servers
are available if a single Azure data center goes offline for an extended period.
Question: What should you include in the recommendation?
A. fault tolerance
B. elasticity
C. scalability
D. low latency
Correct Answer: A. fault tolerance
Rationale:
• Fault tolerance is the ability of a system to continue operating without interruption even
if one or more components fail. To ensure servers are available if a single Azure data
center (which could be an Availability Zone or an entire region, depending on the scale
of "goes offline") fails, you must design for fault tolerance by distributing your resources
(e.g., VMs) across multiple geographically separate locations or Availability Zones. This
provides redundancy and resilience against broad outages.
• Elasticity refers to the ability to automatically grow or shrink resources based on
demand, which is primarily for cost optimization and performance during fluctuating
workloads, not for disaster recovery from a data center outage.
• Scalability is the ability to handle an increasing amount of work or to be enlarged, which
is about performance and capacity, not about surviving a data center failure.
• Low latency refers to minimizing delays in data transmission, which is about
performance and responsiveness, not high availability during an outage.
,Scenario 2: What are two characteristics of the public cloud? Each correct answer presents a
complete solution.
Question: What are two characteristics of the public cloud? (Choose two)
A. dedicated hardware
B. unsecured connections
C. limited storage
D. metered pricing
E. self-service management
Correct Answers: D. metered pricing AND E. self-service management
Rationale:
• D. Metered pricing: A fundamental characteristic of the public cloud is its consumption-
based billing model, often referred to as pay-as-you-go or metered pricing. You only pay
for the resources you consume, typically by the minute, hour, or amount of data. This
avoids large upfront capital expenditures.
• E. Self-service management: Public cloud providers offer extensive portals, APIs, and
command-line interfaces that empower users to provision, configure, and manage their
cloud resources independently, without requiring manual intervention from the cloud
provider's staff.
• A. Dedicated hardware: While specialized offerings for dedicated hosts exist, the
general characteristic of the public cloud is multi-tenancy, meaning the underlying
physical hardware is shared among multiple customers for efficiency.
• B. Unsecured connections: Public cloud providers implement robust security measures,
and connections to cloud services are typically encrypted (e.g., via HTTPS, VPNs) to
ensure data confidentiality and integrity. Security is a shared responsibility, but
connections are not inherently unsecured.
• C. Limited storage: Public cloud storage services are designed for immense scalability,
offering virtually unlimited storage capacity, making "limited storage" an incorrect
characteristic.
,Scenario 3: Your company hosts an accounting application named App1 that is used by all the
customers of the company. App1 has low usage during the first three weeks of each month and
very high usage during the last week of each month.
Question: Which benefit of Azure Cloud Services supports cost management for this type of
usage pattern?
A. high availability
B. high latency
C. elasticity
D. load balancing
Correct Answer: C. elasticity
Rationale:
• Elasticity is the ability of a cloud system to automatically expand or shrink its computing
resources (like VMs or application instances) in direct response to changes in workload
or demand. For an application with fluctuating usage like App1, elasticity allows
resources to be scaled up during peak usage (the last week of the month) to handle the
increased load and then automatically scaled down during periods of low usage (the first
three weeks) to reduce costs. This ensures you only pay for the resources you actively
consume.
• High availability ensures uptime and resilience to failures but doesn't directly address
cost optimization for fluctuating usage.
• High latency is a negative characteristic (slow response times) and not a benefit.
• Load balancing distributes incoming traffic across multiple resources to optimize their
utilization and improve responsiveness, but it's a mechanism that supports
scalability/elasticity, rather than the core benefit itself for cost management based on
dynamic demand.
Scenario 4: You plan to migrate a web application to Azure. The web application is accessed by
external users. You need to recommend a cloud deployment solution to minimize the amount of
administrative effort used to manage the web application.
Question: What should you include in the recommendation?
A. Software as a Service (SaaS)
, B. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
C. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
D. Database as a Service (DaaS)
Correct Answer: B. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Rationale:
• Platform as a Service (PaaS) is the ideal solution for minimizing administrative effort
when deploying a custom web application. With PaaS (e.g., Azure App Service), the
cloud provider manages the underlying infrastructure, operating systems, networking,
and middleware (like web servers and runtime environments). Your responsibility is
primarily limited to deploying your application code and managing its data, significantly
reducing the administrative overhead compared to IaaS.
• Software as a Service (SaaS) would mean consuming a pre-built, ready-to-use
application, which might not fit if you have a specific custom "web application" to
migrate and manage. You have minimal control over the application itself beyond its
features.
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) would require you to manage the virtual machines
yourself, including installing and patching the operating system, web server, and
application runtime, which increases administrative effort.
• Database as a Service (DaaS) is a specific component (a managed database service) and
not a complete deployment solution for an entire web application.
Scenario 5: You have an on-premises network that contains 100 servers. You need to
recommend a solution that provides additional resources to your users. The solution must
minimize capital and operational expenditure costs.
Question: What should you include in the recommendation?
A. a complete migration to the public cloud
B. an additional data center
C. a private cloud
D. a hybrid cloud
Correct Answer: D. a hybrid cloud
Certification Guide 2025: Complete Study Plan,
Real Practice Questions, and Exam Success
Strategies for Beginners
Scenario 1: You have an on-premises network that contains several servers. You plan to migrate
all the servers to Azure. You need to recommend a solution to ensure that some of the servers
are available if a single Azure data center goes offline for an extended period.
Question: What should you include in the recommendation?
A. fault tolerance
B. elasticity
C. scalability
D. low latency
Correct Answer: A. fault tolerance
Rationale:
• Fault tolerance is the ability of a system to continue operating without interruption even
if one or more components fail. To ensure servers are available if a single Azure data
center (which could be an Availability Zone or an entire region, depending on the scale
of "goes offline") fails, you must design for fault tolerance by distributing your resources
(e.g., VMs) across multiple geographically separate locations or Availability Zones. This
provides redundancy and resilience against broad outages.
• Elasticity refers to the ability to automatically grow or shrink resources based on
demand, which is primarily for cost optimization and performance during fluctuating
workloads, not for disaster recovery from a data center outage.
• Scalability is the ability to handle an increasing amount of work or to be enlarged, which
is about performance and capacity, not about surviving a data center failure.
• Low latency refers to minimizing delays in data transmission, which is about
performance and responsiveness, not high availability during an outage.
,Scenario 2: What are two characteristics of the public cloud? Each correct answer presents a
complete solution.
Question: What are two characteristics of the public cloud? (Choose two)
A. dedicated hardware
B. unsecured connections
C. limited storage
D. metered pricing
E. self-service management
Correct Answers: D. metered pricing AND E. self-service management
Rationale:
• D. Metered pricing: A fundamental characteristic of the public cloud is its consumption-
based billing model, often referred to as pay-as-you-go or metered pricing. You only pay
for the resources you consume, typically by the minute, hour, or amount of data. This
avoids large upfront capital expenditures.
• E. Self-service management: Public cloud providers offer extensive portals, APIs, and
command-line interfaces that empower users to provision, configure, and manage their
cloud resources independently, without requiring manual intervention from the cloud
provider's staff.
• A. Dedicated hardware: While specialized offerings for dedicated hosts exist, the
general characteristic of the public cloud is multi-tenancy, meaning the underlying
physical hardware is shared among multiple customers for efficiency.
• B. Unsecured connections: Public cloud providers implement robust security measures,
and connections to cloud services are typically encrypted (e.g., via HTTPS, VPNs) to
ensure data confidentiality and integrity. Security is a shared responsibility, but
connections are not inherently unsecured.
• C. Limited storage: Public cloud storage services are designed for immense scalability,
offering virtually unlimited storage capacity, making "limited storage" an incorrect
characteristic.
,Scenario 3: Your company hosts an accounting application named App1 that is used by all the
customers of the company. App1 has low usage during the first three weeks of each month and
very high usage during the last week of each month.
Question: Which benefit of Azure Cloud Services supports cost management for this type of
usage pattern?
A. high availability
B. high latency
C. elasticity
D. load balancing
Correct Answer: C. elasticity
Rationale:
• Elasticity is the ability of a cloud system to automatically expand or shrink its computing
resources (like VMs or application instances) in direct response to changes in workload
or demand. For an application with fluctuating usage like App1, elasticity allows
resources to be scaled up during peak usage (the last week of the month) to handle the
increased load and then automatically scaled down during periods of low usage (the first
three weeks) to reduce costs. This ensures you only pay for the resources you actively
consume.
• High availability ensures uptime and resilience to failures but doesn't directly address
cost optimization for fluctuating usage.
• High latency is a negative characteristic (slow response times) and not a benefit.
• Load balancing distributes incoming traffic across multiple resources to optimize their
utilization and improve responsiveness, but it's a mechanism that supports
scalability/elasticity, rather than the core benefit itself for cost management based on
dynamic demand.
Scenario 4: You plan to migrate a web application to Azure. The web application is accessed by
external users. You need to recommend a cloud deployment solution to minimize the amount of
administrative effort used to manage the web application.
Question: What should you include in the recommendation?
A. Software as a Service (SaaS)
, B. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
C. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
D. Database as a Service (DaaS)
Correct Answer: B. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Rationale:
• Platform as a Service (PaaS) is the ideal solution for minimizing administrative effort
when deploying a custom web application. With PaaS (e.g., Azure App Service), the
cloud provider manages the underlying infrastructure, operating systems, networking,
and middleware (like web servers and runtime environments). Your responsibility is
primarily limited to deploying your application code and managing its data, significantly
reducing the administrative overhead compared to IaaS.
• Software as a Service (SaaS) would mean consuming a pre-built, ready-to-use
application, which might not fit if you have a specific custom "web application" to
migrate and manage. You have minimal control over the application itself beyond its
features.
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) would require you to manage the virtual machines
yourself, including installing and patching the operating system, web server, and
application runtime, which increases administrative effort.
• Database as a Service (DaaS) is a specific component (a managed database service) and
not a complete deployment solution for an entire web application.
Scenario 5: You have an on-premises network that contains 100 servers. You need to
recommend a solution that provides additional resources to your users. The solution must
minimize capital and operational expenditure costs.
Question: What should you include in the recommendation?
A. a complete migration to the public cloud
B. an additional data center
C. a private cloud
D. a hybrid cloud
Correct Answer: D. a hybrid cloud
