User account

What it is

A user account is the identity record in Microsoft Entra ID that represents a person (or service account) and what they’re permitted to sign in as. Each user belongs to a tenant.

Why it exists

Users are the primary principals whose access administrators manage. Entra ID authenticates them (password, MFA) and they’re granted access either directly or through group membership.

Key ideas

• Properties — display name, user principal name (UPN, e.g. [email protected]), sign-in status, job title, department, and usage-location.
• Types — cloud-only users vs synchronized users (from on-prem AD via Entra Connect / cloud sync).
• Directory roles — a user can hold Entra roles (directory-level) and be subject to RBAC assignments.
• Guest users (B2B) — external collaborators invited into the tenant; governed by external collaboration settings.

How it fits (diagram)

Exam notes

• UPN vs sign-in name; Usage location is required for licensing/MFA in some cases.
• Creating/bulk-creating users, assigning licenses, and resetting credentials are common AZ-104 admin tasks.
• Understand guest vs member and how guest access is scoped (B2B).

Related

entraid · groups · tenant · service-principal · mfa

📘 Source: Microsoft Learn — User Account