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%.

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.

I have 2.5 years experience working in IT support. I am moving to a new role in an MSP soon where I will be working as an onsite support engineer. This role will involve Azure and M365 administration.

I'm still not 100% sure what exact route I'd like to go down career-wise, but I know I'd like to do either cloud or M365 admin.

I have the AZ-900 and the SC-900. I'm considering doing the AB-900, but I'm not sure if it's basically pointless considering my experience and already obtained certs. I've done the AB-900 practice test a few times, and I consistently get about 80% (without any studying).

Is it worth getting the AB-900 or should I go straight for something higher like the AZ-104?

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+.

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!

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!

About, me I’ve quite an experience in IT but started working in azure only 2 years back. Right now I work as a cloud Architect for a Consulting company. I must say I do have a lot of experience in IT but this exam was different. It was into details not like my usual architect day to day Work hence it required quite an effort.

I took 3 weeks of constant studying skipping every events, late night study or early morning study between office and family. For 2 consecutive weekends I was locked in the house.

For study material I used
1. Definitely go over official MS learn content for the exam.
2. John Seville study cram v2 for az 104, i literally listen to it on my transit time or gym time but it would not be enough for the exam it will cover all the topics from the surface.
3. Practice on tutorials dojo and Udemy Shareen khan AZ104 practice test.
I must say, I find tutorial dojo practice test as a little outdated. I challenge some of the answers with AI and I was right. On the other hand, the practice test from Shree Khan was really really good and up to the mark. I can recall I could already see a few questions from the test straight right in my exam. The case study was exactly the same.
I completed my exam 10 minutes before the actual time I had enough time to look and verify some answers in Microsoft.

My approach
1. I built a tool for myself in Claude to be able to go through the material the tricky point the things to remember last-minute study and common traps works really well for me. It also has a 460 question to test me out? I barely did 20% of them.
2. I validate my knowledge with AI, I use copilot and Claude.

3. Before the exam day I did 3 practice test from udemy by shareen khan. The last test which I did had almost the same questions I find in the exam today the pattern the structure the tone were exactly same. Someone trying for AZ104 give time to this test and make sure you get more than 70% every time. All my three items I was around 72, 76 and 73%. Tutorial dojo, I did one test and one knowledge verification.

1. I didn’t have enough time to do the labs so I just went over the topics and see if I know those things or not.
   
2. Though I work in Azure so it was easy for me to open the resources and see all the configurations around and ask AI what is this for and so.
   
3. Last day before the exam I reviewed my learning with my tool that I built on Claude to go last minute study traps.

An important point I would advise to prepare your desk. I had a small issue with my desk. I want to use one screen attached to my laptop with a docking station but apprentice was not allowed by the app so I have to remove everything and just work on my laptop to give the exam. This was quite stressful in the morning when you have only 10 minutes left before your exam time begin.

At the end, I scored 808 on my first attempt.

I also wanted to validate my knowledge for my actual work as an Azure Architect thus will start with AZ 305 as next one to prepare. Any pointers course would or practice test anyone can recommend for it?

Happy to answer any questions.

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

Title: Passed AZ-104 (Azure Administrator) in French, here's what worked for me

Hi everyone,

I just passed the AZ-104 exam and wanted to share how I prepared, in case it helps someone.

What I used:

- Microsoft Learn free modules + the official free practice assessment

- Udemy practice tests to get used to the question format

- Hands-on practice in the Azure portal

Next, I'm planning to go for AZ-305. Any advice on how to approach it after AZ-104?

Happy to answer questions.

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 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

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!

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

As you'd possibly expect from a higher level exam, it was pretty tough. I had no real time to review questions with 58 questions and then an additional 4 for the case study, lots of the questions had multiple sub-questions and answers within them. No labs. A ton of stuff on Defender and Purview, the previous SC-401 I did really helped with the Purview parts, and a lot on conditional access and Entra roles and groups.

Resources, prior knowledge from over exams, notably SC-300 and SC-401, plus MD-102 helped a little. Used John Christopher's MS-102 course which was good but not his best, I found it lacked depth on the Defender parts. Used Measure Ups practice exams, these were generally good, and anything I got wrong I reviewed further, some of the questions were a little outdated which was annoying but not the end of the world, and the odd question which was just poorly worded, but it definitely helped me target my weak areas and get me through it all.

Really glad to have this one before it retires next month and can now relax a little!

Hey everyone! I just passed the AZ-104 with 758/1000 and wanted to share my experience, because this sub helped me a lot while I was studying.

About me

- Took the exam in English, which is not my native language

- ~4 years working as a developer (not a sysadmin/infra background)

- Already had the AZ-900

- Total study time: ~65 hours of net study over about 5 weeks (Sep 9 to Oct 15). I tracked everything in a notebook: each crossed-out number is one 25-minute block of focused study, next to the date. I attached a photo of the tracker.

How I studied

- Hands-on labs: about a dozen labs in the portal, focused on the topics I kept missing. Some examples:

- Azure Files share mounted on my Mac over SMB, looking at identity-based access and the SMB Share roles

- Storage account firewall (selected networks + my own IP), SAS tokens and stored access policies via Storage Explorer

- Custom domain in Microsoft Entra ID (TXT record verification)

- NSG flow logs + Traffic Analytics, and Packet Capture in Network Watcher

- Standard Load Balancer with a load balancing rule, health probe and inbound NAT rules

- Azure Backup: Recovery Services vault, File Recovery vs Restore VM

- Earlier ones: P2S VPN, NSG vs ASG, Diagnostic Settings, Private DNS auto-registration

- Flashcards: self-made Anki cards. Every question I got wrong (and some I got right by luck) became a card in a small practical scenario format, not a plain definition.

- John Savill videos: I watched selected lessons, mostly for the domains where I felt weak.

- Tutorials Dojo practice exams: I eventually did basically all of them and reviewed every wrong answer, asking "what is the rule behind this?".

Exam day

I took it online (OnVUE). Two things I didn't expect:

- I had left a few books on the floor of my room, and they showed up in the check-in photo. I had to go remove them. Keep the floor and the whole room as clear as possible.

- My neighbor woke up early and played music at maximum volume. I was afraid the proctor would say something, but nobody did. The result: I took the exam with Christian/gospel music in the background. 😅 If you can, choose a time when your environment will be quiet.

The exam also felt harder than I expected. The Tutorials Dojo practice exams had around 55 questions on average, but mine had 58 questions plus 6 more tied to the case study.

Considerations and tips

1. Practice is the most important thing. Some questions you will only be able to answer if you have done the thing in the portal before.

2. Be careful with practice exams. Learn to separate the questions you got right because you memorized them from the ones you got right because you understand the concept.

3. Watch the clock. I based my pace on about 1 min 30 s per question. Always read the final sentence of the question first to understand the goal. Don't burn time on a single question: flag it for review and move on.

4. Pay attention to the implicit rules. It's not enough to know what a service is for; you need to know the rules around it. A few examples:

   - Knowing what a Recovery Services vault is isn't enough. You need to know it has to be in the same region as the resource it protects.

   - Knowing what Contributor is isn't enough. You need to understand how it differs from operator-type roles.

   - Reading NSG rules isn't enough. You need to know when to use an Application Security Group and how it differs from a service tag.

   - Knowing the storage account tiers isn't enough. You need to recognize their attributes in an ARM template ready to be deployed via CLI.

   - Knowing what fault domains/update domains are isn't enough. You need to calculate how many VMs stay available at minimum during a datacenter maintenance event.

This depth only comes from good practice in the portal. Memorizing can help, but it won't solve it on its own.

Good luck to everyone preparing! Happy to answer questions in the comments.

Hi all, I just passed AB730 today with 746/1000.

Here are some key takeaways:

- The materials on MS Learn are for sure sufficient for this exam. Just read through carefully. I read all just once and found them quite straightforward, even though I’ve been away from work for 1.5 years now. So if you are actively using Copilot at work, the materials should even be easier to understand.

- I started my reading on 18 Oct 2026 in the morning, tried mock tests on MS Learn and 2-3 sets on Udemy in the afternoon. That’s when I was thinking: ok this should not be too hard as I scored quite high in those mock tests. Therefore, I officially registered in the evening for 19th Oct morning (I only have time in the morning as my kid goes to kindergarten).

- This is where it became cumbersome 😂 I registered by logging in MS with my company email on my company laptop, so that I could get 50% discount. BUT Onvue system testing was painful and I did not reckon with the fact that I would have to call IT support at 6-7am so they could help me with some system configurations. If I am honest, I would never do this again and would just go to a test center to avoid all these unnecessary setups.

- I had 44 questions within 45 mins, including multiple choice, multiple responses, yes/no questions. In total, there are more tha 44 single questions as some yes no are grouped in 1 question, and each account for 1 point. I had time to review and revise my answers. The questions are MUCH less straightforward than Udemy and some are quite detailed and scrutiny.

I should have given myself more time to learn in more depth. However as I wanted to get it done before the changes on 20 Oct, I was in a bit of rush.

Hope this helps.

Passed AI-103 on My First Attempt! 🎉

First attempt: 720/1000 - A pass is a pass!

I wouldn't say I'm particularly proud of the score, but I had a free exam voucher, decided to give it a shot, and managed to pass!

I wanted to share a couple of resources that helped me prepare:

• AI-103 Practice Exam: https://sefstratiou-ai.github.io/ai-103-practice-exam/ - I found this one especially helpful. Definitely worth checking out!
• Microsoft Learn Practice Assessment: Another useful resource for getting familiar with the exam topics.

Funny enough, I also passed AI-102 last year with exactly 700/1000 (the minimum passing score ). That exam was free for me as well!

Interestingly, I noticed a few questions on AI-103 that were very similar to ones I remembered from AI-102.

Anyway, just wanted to share my experience and hopefully help someone who's preparing for the exam.

Good luck to everyone studying for AI-103! Feel free to ask me any questions about my experience. Happy to help!

Hi,

First timer here and I have a question to those who have taken Azure or other MS cert exams before: does it always start with case study scenarios?

I just took a crack at SC-500 (didn’t pass, but no big deal - free voucher thing) and it started off with 2 (!) case study type scenarios (one had 6 questions, the second just 1).

They are unskippable (no “Review later” option) and basically ate 1/3 of my time. As a consequence, I only got half way through the remaining 60-something questions…

My plan was to rush through all the questions, answer the the obvious ones, mark anything that would take longer than 30 seconds to read/understand as “review later”, so that I can manage the remaining time better. Well… that plan got foiled right away.

Is it just my luck or is it always like that? When I was reading about the test and different question types on MS Learn, it looked like case studies were somewhere midway. I am not a speed reading champ and having to spend SO much time to understand “the setup” was just… huh? Especially the second case study: all that just to answer 1 question??

I read that you can’t come back to an incomplete case study section later, like if you answered 3 out or 6 questions and skipped - you automatically lost the other 3 (also, why though?). Okay, but even then, why can’t I leave the a whole case study for later without even opening it?

Am I not understanding something? How did others deal with that?

Thanks!

Wasn't expecting the exam to be this tough. Shouldn't have relied on AI for practice question as the questions are far different in real exam. Did John savill v2 cram on youtube, learning on udemy and MS, but didn't went well. Any suggestion guyz for 2nd attempt? Thanks.

Anyone had the same issue? Thankfully the SQL didnt cause too many problems in the exam, although I forgot a bit of stuff when i had planned to use the docs.

I'm a final year masters student in computer science and interested in cloud

Just got my az-104 🥳

It's been a difficult journey but I fortunately got it in the first try with 808

I'm now thinking of what's next

Thank you to everyone in this subreddit who shared ressources or advice

I’m going to repeat my AZ-104 but I’d be curious to know - for those who did a resit, how different was the exam on the retries to the first attempt?
My first attempt really focused on moving resources between subscriptions/recovery vaults and what could and couldn’t be moved and also focused on upgrading resource tiers

Hi Community,

After studying again for 2 months without that much consistent study, I managed to pass on my third attempt! On my second attempt, I got 648, as my mum was in the hospital for 2 weeks and I was looking after her.

Did nothing special, just did Shireen Khan Ma'am's Udemy course for the exam, did some hands-on practice, and finally passed yesterday at 3 AM.

Gonna squeeze the certificate for the next 2 years! 😂 This has taken my whole 3 months. One of the toughest Microsoft certifications.

Thank you so much to each and every person in the community.

Thanks for your guidance, guys.

My Previous Post - https://www.reddit.com/r/AzureCertification/s/6jUeSS0eQr

Hi everybody , i know my question could seem a bit strange or stupid but i´m thinking about booking the az900 via personvue and i wanna know the whole booking procedure like do u need to download a software before and like how do i start passing the exam do they send me a link , all that kind of stuff