Study Guide of Microsoft AZ-900 Exam

Example of a Scenario-Based Question

To illustrate, let’s consider a hypothetical scenario and a corresponding question that could be found on the AZ-900 exam:

Scenario: XYZ Corporation, a mid-sized e-commerce company, is preparing to migrate its on-premises infrastructure to Azure. The company experiences fluctuating traffic, with spikes during holiday seasons. XYZ Corporation’s goals include improving scalability, managing costs, and ensuring high availability. The current on-premises setup faces challenges in scaling and requires manual intervention to handle peak loads.

Question: As an Azure consultant, what services would you recommend to XYZ Corporation to meet its scalability and cost management requirements?

A) Deploy Azure Functions to handle backend processes, and use Azure Monitor to track usage and performance.

B) Utilize Azure Virtual Machines with Auto-Scaling and Load Balancers to manage the web application traffic.

C) Implement Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with cluster autoscaling enabled for containerized workloads.

D) Move the e-commerce platform to Azure Blob Storage to provide scalable storage solution.

Approach:

1. Read the entire scenario to understand the company’s objectives and constraints.
2. Identify the key requirements: scalability, cost management, and high availability.
3. Eliminate any options that don’t address all these requirements. Option D, for instance, offers scalable storage but doesn’t directly address compute scalability or traffic management.
4. Consider the remaining options in the context of the company’s needs. AKS (Option C) provides a highly scalable environment for containerized workloads and would handle traffic spikes efficiently. It also offers cost savings through cluster autoscaling, as it would only use resources as needed.
5. After evaluating all options, select the one that most closely aligns with the company’s requirements and the scenario provided. If the company’s workload is containerized, AKS might be the best choice.

Conclusion

Scenario-based questions are an integral part of the Azure certification exams, designed to test a candidate’s ability to apply Azure knowledge in practical situations. Preparing for these questions requires a solid grasp of Azure services, a strategic approach to problem-solving, and practice under exam-like conditions. By understanding the structure of these questions and developing a methodical approach to answering them, candidates can greatly enhance their chances of success on the AZ-900 exam.