We have listed our collective experience of attempting multiple Azure certifications, courses & practice test and the overall exam format.
Some Azure Facts:
- Azure treats exams and certifications differently. Certain certifications require two or more exams to be successfully completed to get a certification (eg: AZ-303 & AZ-304). Doing any one of the exams will not provide a certificate but you will get score report for all the exams. Below is sample of two certification that requires 1 and 2 exams respectively. As of now, there is no requirement to take the exams in particular sequence (eg: AZ-303 can be taken before AZ-304 but certification is issued only both of the exams are cleared)
Online Proctored Exam:
Azure certifications are only available on Pearson Vue and all of their active exam/certifications are available as proctored and can be taken from your home
https://home.pearsonvue.com/Clients/Microsoft/Online-proctored.aspx
Exam format:
Azure exams are quite different from AWS as these have multiple sections (at least 3) where candidates can’t go back once they finish a section.
A typical exam consists of below sections:
- Scenario (Yes/No): This section consists one or two sets of Scenario questions where each set contains 3 to 4 Yes/No options for a scenario. This section doesn’t allow you to go back to a question or mark a question for review once you answer and move forward to next question in the section
- Multiple Choice/Dropdowns/Drag & Drop: This section covers majority of the exam (at least 70%) and allows you to mark the questions for review and lets you go back and forward. At the end of the section, you will have an opportunity to review the questions that were marked
- Case Studies: There may be one or two case studies and can’t go back to a case study once finished. This section gives a long-winded case study with heavy wordings and distraction sentences and ask 3 to 4 questions that contain dropdowns, drag & drop and MCQ
- Labs: This is usually the last section of the exam but might come up in the front. You may get one or two labs each with 7 to 8 tasks to complete on the portal. This is the most time consuming part. You will be asked to do simple to medium tasks where some are just enabling few options in the portal and others involve creating resources such as VNET peering, etc. As long as you initiated a task then you can move on to next task. Meaning, If you are asked to launch a VM then do all necessary steps to launch it but you don’t have to wait till the VM is launched. 95% of the time, tasks are not dependent on each other and you will not be asked to do some lab task on a previous task.
Free Courses on Azure:
Many of the exam related courses and more can be found in Microsoft Azure learning documentation which is available at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/browse/?products=azure
You can narrow down the search based on what role the exam that you are attempting as shown below
Learning Path:
Disclaimer: We are not affiliated with any of the courses recommended here and we don’t get benefited. These are our learning resources.
Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
Certification Details:
- Exam Overview: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-900
- Exam Guide: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE3VwUY
Online Courses & Documents:
- https://www.udemy.com/course/microsoft-azure-beginners-guide/
- https://www.udemy.com/course/az900-azure/
- https://www.pluralsight.com/paths/microsoft-ignite-2019-azure-fundamentals
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/azure-fundamentals/
Practice Test:
Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification (AZ-104)
Certification Details:
- Exam Overview: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-104
- Exam Guide: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE4pCWy
Online Courses & Documents:
- https://www.udemy.com/course/microsoft-certified-azure-administrator/
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-103?tab=tab-learning-paths
Practice Test:
Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure (AZ-204)
Certification Details:
- Exam Overview: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-204
- Exam Guide: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE4oZ7B
- Note: The exam pattern has changed from previous AZ-203 and it focuses more on .Net C# code, Powershell & bit of CLI commands. If you were to choose between AZ-204 and other exams like AZ-303/304/104/500, DP-200 & 201 then give preference to latter exams than AZ-204
Online Courses & Documents:
- https://www.udemy.com/course/exam-microsoft-azure-dev
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-204?tab=tab-learning-paths
Practice Test:
Microsoft Azure Security Technologies (AZ-500)
Certification Details:
- Exam Overview: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-500
- Exam Guide: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE3VC70
Online Courses & Documents:
- https://linuxacademy.com/course/az-500-microsoft-azure-security-technologies/
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-500?tab=tab-learning-paths
Practice Test:
Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies (AZ-303)
Certification Details:
- Exam Overview: AZ-303: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-303
- Exam Guide: AZ-303: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE4psD6
Online Courses & Documents:
- https://www.udemy.com/course/az-102-azure-administrator-certification-transition
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-303?tab=tab-learning-paths
Practice Test:
Microsoft Azure Architect Design (AZ-304)
Certification Details:
- Exam Overview: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-304
- Exam Guide: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE4pCWz
Online Courses & Documents:
- https://www.udemy.com/course/exam-az-microsoft-azure-exam-role1/ (do a refresh on the same instructor course from AZ-300 and then follow this)
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-304?tab=tab-learning-paths
Practice Test:
Microsoft Azure DevOps Solutions (AZ-400)
Certification Details:
- Pre-req: AZ-103 or AZ-204
- Exam Overview: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-400
- Exam Guide: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE3VP8d
Online Courses & Documents:
- https://www.udemy.com/course/azure100/
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-400?tab=tab-learning-paths
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/browse/?products=azure&roles=devops-engineer
Practice Test:
Microsoft Azure Implementing an Azure Data Solution (DP-200)
Certification Details:
- Exam Overview: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/dp-200
- Exam Guide: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE3Vzx2
Online Courses & Documents:
- https://www.udemy.com/course/dp200exam/
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/dp-200?tab=tab-learning-paths
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/browse/?products=azure&roles=data-engineer
Practice Test:
Microsoft Azure Designing an Azure Data Solution (DP-201)
Certification Details:
- Exam Overview: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/dp-201
- Exam Guide: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE3VRMb
Online Courses & Documents:
- https://www.udemy.com/course/azuredp201/
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/dp-201?tab=tab-learning-paths
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/browse/?products=azure&roles=data-engineer
Practice Test:
Designing & Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure (DP-100)
Certification Details:
- Exam Overview: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/dp-100
- Exam Guide: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE3VUjA
- Note: This is one of the toughest Azure exam as it covers general machine learning, deep learning, Azure ML (Data Prep, Train, Deploy, Monitor, AutoML) and focuses lot on code snippets covering Scikit-learn, Tensorflow, Azure ML SDK, etc. Pluralsight courses will give good foundation but Azure learning path mentioned below and Azure ML Service documentation is a must to review. Unlike other Azure exams, this one mostly resembles AWS professional exams with long winded questions and very long answer choices.
Online Courses & Documents:
- https://www.udemy.com/course/machine-learning-using-azureml/
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/ml-crash-course/
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/build-ai-solutions-with-azure-ml-service/
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/data-science/
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/explore-data-science-tools-in-azure/
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/get-started-with-azure-dsvm/
Practice Test:
- None available at this time.
Designing & Implementing an Azure AI Solution (AI-100)
Certification Details:
- Exam Overview: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/ai-100
- Exam Guide: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE3VC6C
- Note: Do this exam after DP-100 as it has lot of overlap with that exam. AI-100 is 40% focused on Azure Cognitive Service and rest is on topics from DP-100 and how one can architect, orchestrate and design AI solutions
Online Courses & Documents:
- https://www.udemy.com/course/azure-machine-learning-using-cognitive-services (this purely focuses on cognitive services and some content is for older version of cognitive service. But still good one to go thru)
- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/ai-100?tab=tab-learning-paths
Practice Test:
- https://www.udemy.com/course/ai-100-designing-and-implement-azure-ai-solution-exam-prep-certacademy/
Author: Raghavan Madabusi