AZ-900 Exam Facts
Questions |
40-60 (multiple choice, multi-select, drag-and-drop, yes/no) |
Time |
45 minutes of exam time (about 65 minutes seat time) |
Passing score |
700 out of 1000 (scaled) |
Cost |
US$99 (varies by country) |
Prerequisites |
None - suitable for non-technical roles |
Validity |
Fundamentals certifications do not expire |
Domains |
Cloud concepts 25-30%; Azure architecture and services 35-40%; Azure management and governance 30-35% |
Microsoft updates the skills outline regularly - check the current study guide before you book.
Cloud Concepts (25-30%)
IaaS |
You manage OS, runtime, apps and data; Azure manages hardware (e.g. Azure Virtual Machines) |
PaaS |
You manage apps and data only (e.g. App Service, Azure SQL Database) |
SaaS |
Provider manages everything; you use the software (e.g. Microsoft 365) |
Shared responsibility |
Customer is ALWAYS responsible for data, devices, accounts and identities |
CapEx vs OpEx |
Cloud swaps upfront capital spend for pay-as-you-go operational spend |
Public / private / hybrid |
Hybrid = on-premises or private cloud connected to public cloud |
Scalability vs elasticity |
Scalability = add resources to meet demand; elasticity = do it automatically |
High availability |
Uptime guaranteed by an SLA, e.g. 99.9% or 99.99% |
Serverless |
No server management; pay per execution (e.g. Azure Functions) |
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Azure Architecture and Services (35-40%)
Region / region pair |
Geographic area of datacenters; pairs give disaster recovery across regions |
Availability zone |
Physically separate datacenters inside one region |
Hierarchy |
Management group > subscription > resource group > resource |
Compute |
VMs, VM Scale Sets, Availability Sets, App Service, Container Instances, AKS, Functions, Azure Virtual Desktop |
Networking |
Virtual Network, peering, VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute (private, not over internet), Azure DNS |
Storage services |
Blob, Files, Queue, Table, Disk |
Access tiers |
Hot, Cool, Cold, Archive (archive = cheapest storage, hours to rehydrate) |
Redundancy |
LRS, ZRS, GRS, GZRS (plus RA- read-access variants) |
Identity |
Microsoft Entra ID, SSO, MFA, Conditional Access, passwordless, Zero Trust, defence in depth |
Migration |
Azure Migrate; Azure Data Box for offline bulk transfer |
Management and Governance (30-35%)
Cost tools |
Pricing calculator (estimate new), TCO calculator (compare with on-prem), Cost Management (track and budget) |
Tags |
Name/value metadata for billing and organisation |
Azure Policy |
Enforce or audit rules on resources (e.g. allowed regions) |
Resource locks |
CanNotDelete or ReadOnly protection |
Microsoft Purview |
Data governance, classification and compliance |
Deploy and manage |
Portal, Cloud Shell, CLI, PowerShell, ARM templates and Bicep, Azure Arc |
Monitoring |
Azure Advisor (recommendations), Service Health, Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Application Insights |
Study Tips and Free Practice
Plan |
1-3 weeks: work through the free Microsoft Learn AZ-900 path, then drill practice questions |
Focus |
Shared responsibility, service models, cost tools and governance tools are frequent question themes |
Practise |
Take timed sets and read every explanation, right or wrong |
AZ-900 guide |
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Free practice test |
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