Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Resource Group vs Management Group

  • Resource Group = holds resources (VMs, Storage, VNets).

  • Management Group = holds subscriptions for governance.

  • Exam trap: “Apply policy across all subscriptions” → Management Group, not Resource Group.

• Tags vs Locks vs Policy

  • Tags = classification & cost tracking.

  • Locks = prevent accidental deletion or modification.

  • Policy = enforce compliance (e.g., require encryption, deny expensive SKUs).

  • Exam trap: “Tags prevent deletion.” → False, use Locks.

• Budgets vs Policy

  • Budget = alerts only (no enforcement).

  • Policy = blocks creation of non-compliant resources.

  • Exam trap: “Stop users from deploying costly VMs by budget.” → False — must use Policy.

• Reserved Instances vs Spot VMs

  • RI = long-term savings (1 or 3 years, predictable workloads).

  • Spot = cheap but can be evicted anytime (non-critical workloads).

  • Exam trap: If workload is production-critical → RI, not Spot.

Quick Recall Hacks

• “Organize resources” → Resource Group

• “Group subscriptions” → Management Group

• “Prevent accidental deletion” → Lock

• “Track costs by department” → Tags

• “Set alerts for spend limit” → Budget

• “Block deployment of non-compliant resources” → Policy

• “Long-term predictable savings” → Reserved Instances

• “Cheap, fault-tolerant workloads” → Spot VMs

What to Expect in the Exam

• 1–2 direct questions on Resource Groups, Tags, Locks.

• 1–2 scenario questions on Budgets vs Policies.

• At least one question on cost optimization (Reserved Instances, Spot VMs, scaling).

• A governance question around Management Group scope.

Final Exam Strategy

1. Always check the scope (resource, RG, subscription, or management group).

2. If it’s financial alerts → Budget.

3. If it’s prevent or enforce → Policy.

4. If it’s accidental deletion protection → Lock.

5. For cost savings:

   • Predictable workloads → Reserved Instances.

   • Non-critical workloads → Spot VMs.