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Preparing for a AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals interview in 2026? This comprehensive guide covers the most frequently asked questions across freshers and experienced levels, with detailed answers written by industry professionals. Each answer explains both the concept and how to articulate it clearly during an interview.
Roles these questions apply to: Cloud Associate, Junior Azure Engineer, IT Support Engineer
Expected salary range: ₹4–10 LPA
Core skills tested: Cloud Concepts, Azure Services, Security, Compliance, Pricing
How to Use This Guide
- Read each answer carefully — understand the concept, don’t just memorize
- Practice explaining each answer aloud in your own words
- For technical questions, try implementing the concept hands-on
- Focus on questions relevant to your target role and experience level
- Prepare 2–3 real examples from your projects for each concept
AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Interview Questions with Answers
1. What are the three cloud service models?
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): you manage OS, apps, data — provider manages hardware, networking, virtualisation. Examples: Azure VMs, VNets. PaaS (Platform as a Service): provider also manages OS and runtime — you manage apps and data. Examples: Azure App Service, Azure SQL. SaaS (Software as a Service): provider manages everything — you just use the application. Examples: Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365.
2. Explain the shared responsibility model.
In cloud computing, security responsibilities are shared between provider and customer. Microsoft always manages: physical hosts, physical network, physical datacenter. Customer always manages: data, devices, accounts/identities. The middle layers (OS, network controls, applications, identity infrastructure) shift depending on service model — IaaS puts more on customer, SaaS puts more on provider.
3. What are Azure Availability Zones?
Availability Zones are physically separate datacenters within an Azure region, each with independent power, cooling, and networking. They protect against datacenter-level failures. Deploy resources across zones (zone-redundant) for 99.99% SLA. Not all regions have zones. Zone-redundant services (like ZRS storage, zone-redundant VMs) automatically spread across zones.
4. Explain Azure Regions and Region Pairs.
A Region is a set of datacenters in a geographic area (e.g., Central India, South India). Region Pairs are two regions in the same geography linked for disaster recovery — updates roll to one pair member first, recovery is prioritised for paired regions. Examples: East US ↔ West US, Central India ↔ South India. Some services offer automatic geo-replication between pairs.
5. What is Azure Active Directory (now Entra ID)?
Azure AD (Microsoft Entra ID) is the cloud-based identity and access management service. It handles: authentication (verifying identity), single sign-on (one login for multiple apps), multi-factor authentication (MFA), conditional access (context-based policies), B2B/B2C collaboration, application management, and device registration. It is NOT the same as on-premises Active Directory Domain Services.
6. What are the benefits of cloud computing?
High availability (SLA-guaranteed uptime), Scalability (vertical/horizontal growth), Elasticity (automatic scaling to demand), Agility (rapid provisioning), Geo-distribution (deploy globally), Disaster recovery (built-in replication), Cost efficiency (pay-as-you-go, no upfront CapEx), and Security (provider invests billions in security infrastructure). Trade-off: dependency on internet connectivity and provider.
7. Explain CapEx vs OpEx in cloud context.
CapEx (Capital Expenditure): upfront investment in physical infrastructure — servers, datacenters, networking equipment. Depreciated over time. OpEx (Operating Expenditure): ongoing pay-as-you-go costs for cloud services — you pay for what you use, when you use it. Cloud shifts IT from CapEx to OpEx, reducing upfront costs and enabling budget flexibility.
8. What Azure governance tools should you know?
Azure Policy (enforce organisational standards — e.g., only deploy to allowed regions), Azure Blueprints (package policies + RBAC + templates for repeatable environments), Management Groups (hierarchy above subscriptions for organisation-wide governance), Resource Locks (prevent accidental deletion/modification), Tags (metadata for cost tracking and organisation), and Cost Management (monitor and optimise spending).
9. What is Azure Cost Management?
Azure Cost Management provides: cost analysis (visualise spend by resource/service/tag), budgets (set spending limits with alerts), recommendations (identify underused resources), exports (scheduled cost data to storage), and Azure Advisor cost optimisation suggestions. Key strategies: use Reserved Instances (1–3 year commitment for 40–72% savings), right-size VMs, delete unused resources, and use Spot VMs for interruptible workloads.
10. What Azure compute services should a fresher know?
Virtual Machines (full OS control, IaaS), App Service (PaaS web hosting — no OS management), Azure Functions (serverless, event-driven, pay per execution), Container Instances (run containers without managing infrastructure), Azure Kubernetes Service (orchestrate container clusters), and Virtual Desktop (cloud-hosted Windows desktops). Choose based on control needs vs management overhead trade-off.
Interview Preparation Tips for AZ-900 Roles
For Freshers
- Focus on core concepts and fundamentals (questions 1–5)
- Build at least 2 hands-on projects you can discuss in detail
- Prepare to explain your learning journey and motivation
- Practice coding/configuration challenges related to Cloud Concepts, Azure Services, Security, Compliance, Pricing
For Experienced Professionals
- Prepare architecture and design discussions (questions 6–10)
- Have production war stories ready — problems you solved and lessons learned
- Be ready to whiteboard solutions and discuss trade-offs
- Show leadership through mentoring examples and process improvements
Prepare with Structured Training
AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Training at SkilBrill includes dedicated interview preparation with mock interviews conducted by hiring professionals. The programme covers all concepts tested in these questions through hands-on labs and real-world projects. Placement support with 200+ hiring partners. Call +91 8610964691.
