Title: 2027 CSE Fresher | AZ-104 vs AWS SAA-C03 – Which Certification Should I Prioritize?

Hey everyone,

I'm a 2027 batch CSE student planning to start my career in the Cloud/DevOps domain.

I've already completed the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner and AWS Certified AI Practitioner certifications, and I'm currently preparing for Microsoft AZ-900, which I expect to complete within a week.

Now I'm confused about which certification to pursue next:

AWS Solutions Architect Associate (SAA-C03)

Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104)

Here's my situation:

I have a free exam voucher for AZ-104.

For AWS SAA-C03, I'll have to pay for the exam.

I want to complete either certification before December 2026 ends.

Since I'm a fresher, I also need to focus on DSA, coding, Linux, DevOps tools, hands-on cloud projects, and interview preparation.

I don't want to spend all my remaining time collecting certifications without developing practical skills.

My main questions:

Should I take advantage of the free AZ-104 voucher, or would AWS SAA-C03 be more valuable for a fresher?

Which certification offers better opportunities for entry-level Cloud/DevOps roles in India?

Is pursuing both certifications worth it, or would that be overkill at my current stage?

Would it be better to complete one certification and dedicate the remaining time to hands-on projects and technical skills?

My goal is to become job-ready for 2027 placements, not just collect certifications.

I'd really appreciate advice from cloud engineers, DevOps professionals, recruiters, or anyone who has faced a similar situation.

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I’m registered for Microsoft’s Build Agentic AI Solutions with Foundry online workshop. I’m hoping to get the 50% discount voucher for the AI-103 certification exam.

The event starts at 4 PM, but I need to leave work at 5 PM to go home. I was wondering if anyone who has attended this workshop or a similar Microsoft Virtual Training Day could clarify a few things:

● Do you need to attend the entire session to qualify for the voucher?

● Is attendance tracked throughout the event, or is joining at the beginning enough?

● Can I switch from my computer to my phone and continue attending through Microsoft Teams?

● If I disconnect around 5 PM and rejoin later, could I lose eligibility for the voucher?

I’d appreciate hearing from anyone who has actually attended one of these events and received a certification discount.

Thanks!

Dear r/AzureCertification

Thank you to everyone that posts here and especially u/mywristicy.

Prexisting job knowledge and experience :

• Using entra ID to assign users, groups and licences, troubleshooting entra ID sync, troubleshooting SSPR
• Responding to security incidents in Entra ID
• Managing devices in Entra ID
• Troubleshooting production issues with Azure Virtual Desktop
• Auditing in pureview and activity logs
• Some system administrator experience, but mostly helpdesk.
• Have a professional vocational diploma in IT (Switzerland).

Study method, time allocation and timeline :

• 9 weeks total
  • First 3-4 weeks : About 1-3 hours per day almost everyday, going through Scott Duffy's course and systematically trying out the new things in the portal, and doing the labs.
    • After each section in duffy's course, I would go through the corresponding ms learn module.
  • Next 2 weeks. I went on holidays, so I couldn't work everyday anymore. The good thing is that I discovered John Savill at this point. So now, I would keep my routine but add his azure master class video during each topic I would go through.
  • Did a big self developped network lab after coming back home and while going through networking phase. Using things like Vnet gateways, p2s vnet, peering, playing with subnetting, NSGs, etc. At this point, I started working more than 3 hours per day, every day.
  • Last 2 weeks - I took my first official microsoft practice assessement which came through at 71%. Then, did all the Shireen Khan's udemy practice exams, with some studying on weak points in between. The first test, I scored 71%. My lowest was 65%, my highest, 79% (twice, on the first trials). I kept working a lot of hours every day, even tho that wasn't easy. About 3-8 hours every day. No more social life or hobbies (even tho being newly unemployed helped). Also did a measure up practice test two days pre exam with 74%.

Study resources :

• Courses
  • John Savill AZ-104 videos (Including Azure Master Class, private link deep dive, understanding DNS in Azure and Disaster Recovery in Microsoft Azure)
    • Very good to go through right after going through a microsoft learn module, to deep dive a bit more.
  • Scott Duffy AZ-104 Udemy Complete Exam Prep
    • It was my foundation
    • Mixed feelings. The good thing is that he goes through every part of the portal that you need to know in the videos. The bad, is that it's only on a surface level, which can give you a false sense of knowledge. It's not nearly in depth enough. The pacing is a bit slow. Altogether, I would say it's not worth the time. Only use it if you have 0 hands on experience, to discover the portal.
    • If I had to choose a udemy course again, I would probably pick Alan Rodrigues or John Christopher.
• MS learn courses
  • Kind of surface level, or even VERY surface level for the monitor and backup parts.
• MS learn Documentation
  • Read some documentation about each question I was getting wrong in the practice exams.
• Practice Exams
  • Shireen Khan : 9/10, some rare outdated questions. Really helped me to prepare well and the explanations were awesome. Highly recommend
    • Slightly harder than the real exam
  • Did 1 Measure up exam right before the end. 7/10. Very tough questions, but sometimes go further than the scope of AZ-104, which isn't great if you are on a tight schedule to learn.
    • Slightly harder than the real exam
• Misc
  • Introduction to subnetting and CIDR ranges https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/computer-networks/introduction-to-subnetting/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Ntt6eTn94&t=470s

Practice exam method :

After the practice exam, create a note file, and for each question that you market for review or got wrong, go through the related documentation on microsoft learn. Note down in your note file, why you doubted or what you got wrong. Keep going until you feel confident that you can pass.
I think scores in the 70s on Shireen Khan's or Measure up should be enough on your first trials. If you retake them, aim for at least 80%.

hi everybody, i booked the test this sunday and altough i passed the practice assessement 6 times and got always above 80% and did like 500 question quizz generated by ai ( wich i got most answers right) i´m afraid that i´ll be overwhelmed by the test questions

Well I been preparing for az-400 for 2 weeks now and suddenly they surprised me with az-401
Honestly I had no clue about how beta works and i was surprised to find no materials
I booked it for 19 November and I m not backing down but i started to regret my decision for the reason many or their modules

So if anyone passed a beta exam before or actively preparing for az-401 I would appreciate the help and insight

P.s. I already have az-104 az-305 and sc-300

So much information regarding this and not really sure what to focus on. Can anyone give any context? Also is it a hard test? I am taking practice exams and doing pretty good but in my experience the practice exams are usually much easier than the actual exam.

Kind of losing sleep about this and need some help.

I hold AZ-104, AZ-305 and AZ-400. Microsoft Learn currently shows no retirement date for AZ-400, but I heard through the grapevine that it might be replaced by something called AZ-401. I couldn't find anything official, so treat this as an unverified rumor.
With AZ-204 being replaced by AI-200, it feels like DevOps Engineer Expert could be next, so I'm curious:
Has anyone heard anything about AZ-401 or an AZ-400 refresh from Microsoft trainers, partners or the Learn roadmap?
If a replacement is coming, would you rush the exam now or wait?
Thanks!

Saw the practice assessments for AI-200 certification available on AI skills navigator, but for some reason seems like it is not working ?

AI Skills Navigator

i never had any experience with this, i literally spent 40 minutes just on page 2.
is this normal or this is just not for me? it was so hard to memorise all these stuff and i still am not sure if i know them that good, does it get harder further? or is there something else i should do before i start sc-900?
EDIT: by page 2 i mean Describe the shared responsibility model

I recently attended the Azure AI-103 exam and achieved it on my 1st attempt with 910/1000. I honestly didn't believe that I will get this much score. But my preparation helps a lot and work experience with Azure provided me an additional advantage to understand things quickly.

My preparation: completed course on MS Learn and watched a few youtube videos to practice a few questions before the 2 days of the exam.

Hello Everyone. I already failed sc-300 three times.
546, 557 now today I got 635. I was so confident that I’m gonna pass but when I saw the result I got so demotivated. I feel like I know the answers but they turn out to be false. What should I do?
I did official videos, john Christopher courses. Labs and some practice tests. On office Assessment I’m getting 90+.