If you’re preparing for the AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals exam, mastering Domain 1 is a key first step. This domain focuses on core cloud concepts, including deployment models, service types, reliability, and responsibilities.
In this article, you’ll find a mix of scenario-based and concept-based questions — just like the real exam. Each question includes a clear explanation to help you not only get the right answer, but understand the reasoning behind it.
A financial services company must keep sensitive customer data on-premises to meet regulatory requirements. However, seasonal spikes in trading activity require them to scale quickly without overbuilding their datacenter. They want to offload non-sensitive processing to Azure during busy periods.
Question: Which cloud deployment model should the company adopt?
- Public cloud
- Private cloud
- Hybrid cloud
- Multi-cloud
Correct Answer:
C. Hybrid cloud
Explanation:
The correct answer is Hybrid cloud. It allows the company to keep regulated data on-premises for compliance while using public cloud capacity to handle peak workloads. This combination ensures data sovereignty and flexibility. Public cloud alone cannot meet regulatory requirements. Private cloud lacks the elasticity needed to support seasonal spikes without heavy upfront investment. Multi-cloud involves multiple public providers, which is unrelated to this scenario.
A startup is building a human resources app and wants to outsource as much reliability planning as possible. They don’t want to configure high-availability zones or set up backups themselves; instead they prefer a service that already includes those features.
Question: Which Azure service category most reduces the customer’s responsibility for reliability?
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Functions as a Service (FaaS)
Correct Answer
A. Software as a Service (SaaS)
Explanation:
The correct answer is Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS applications are fully managed by the provider, including high availability, backups, and infrastructure reliability. This offloads the most responsibility from the customer. Platform as a Service (PaaS) still requires customers to configure and manage certain reliability features. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) demands the highest level of customer involvement in planning for resilience. Functions as a Service (FaaS) allows you to run event-driven code without managing servers, but it does not automatically handle full application-level reliability requirements.
A shipping company serves customers on multiple continents and needs low-latency access to its tracking portal. Management also wants the portal to remain available if an entire Azure region fails, so they plan to deploy the application in more than one geographic area.
Question: Which Azure concept should the company incorporate to meet these requirements?
- Availability zones
- Regions
- Resource groups
- Virtual networks
Correct Answer:
Regions
Explanation:
The correct answer is Regions. Deploying the application across multiple Azure regions provides geographic redundancy and helps deliver low-latency access to users around the world. If one region fails, another can take over, ensuring continuity. Availability zones improve resiliency within a single region but do not provide geographic failover. Resource groups are used for organizing and managing resources but have no effect on availability or performance. Virtual networks enable secure communication between resources but do not address regional distribution or redundancy.
Which option accurately describes Software as a Service (SaaS)?
A. A model in which you rent or use a fully developed application, such as email or financial software, without managing the underlying infrastructure.
B. A model that lets you deploy your own code on a managed hosting environment without managing virtual machines or networking.
C. A model that requires you to provision virtual machines, storage and networking and manage the operating system.
D. A model that runs event‑driven code snippets that automatically scale with demand.
Correct Answer:
A. A model in which you rent or use a fully developed application, such as email or financial software, without managing the underlying infrastructure.
Explanation:
The correct answer is a model in which you rent or use a fully developed application, such as email or financial software, without managing the underlying infrastructure. This is the definition of Software as a Service (SaaS), where the provider is responsible for everything from infrastructure to application updates. Platform as a Service (PaaS) allows you to deploy custom applications in a managed environment but still requires configuration. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides infrastructure control but requires you to manage the OS and runtime. Functions as a Service (FaaS) is designed for running small, event-triggered code snippets.
In the context of cloud computing, what does high availability refer to?
- Planning for catastrophic outages such as natural disasters
- Designing a solution to remain operational during day-to-day issues and meet the required level of uptime
- Automatically scaling resources up and down based on user demand
- Reducing costs through economies of scale by sharing infrastructure with other customers
Correct Answer:
C. Designing a solution to remain operational during day-to-day issues and meet the required level of uptime
Explanation:
The correct answer is designing a solution to remain operational during day-to-day issues and meet the required level of uptime. High availability focuses on making systems resilient to common problems like hardware failure, ensuring minimal disruption. Planning for catastrophic outages refers to disaster recovery. Automatically scaling resources is part of elasticity and scalability, not availability. Reducing costs through economies of scale relates to cloud economics, not system resilience.
According to Microsoft’s shared responsibility model, which responsibilities always remain with the customer regardless of the cloud service type used?
- Physical datacenter security and power management
- Data, endpoint security, account management and access control
- Application patching and operating system updates
- Network connectivity and virtualization
Correct Answer:
A. Data, endpoint security, account management and access control
Explanation:
The correct answer is data, endpoint security, account management and access control. Microsoft states that these are always the customer’s responsibility, no matter the service model (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS). Customers must protect their data and identities, manage endpoint security, and control user access. Physical security and infrastructure management are handled by the provider. Application patching and OS updates are shared or delegated depending on the model, and network and virtualization responsibilities shift toward the provider in higher-level services.
You can also take our practice test that covers Domain 1: Describe Cloud Concepts. For more AZ-900 practice questions and exam prep resources
