I recently completed Microsoft’s AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals certification and in this article, I will be sharing my overall experience.
Understanding the Exam Structure
The exam course is divided into 4 sections. More information can be found on the official Exam skills outline guide:
- Describe Cloud Concepts (15-20%)
- Describe Core Azure Services (30-35%)
- Describe Security, Privacy, Compliance, and Trust (25-30%)
- Describe Azure Pricing, Service Level Agreements, and Lifecycles (20-25%)
The idea behind this certification is to make an individual familiar with the fundamentals of Cloud computing and Microsoft Azure tools/services.
The total number of questions that are asked in the exam ranges from between 40 and 60 and the total exam time is 60 minutes. You can get more info on this from the FAQ page. But I only had 31 questions in my exam. It was quite a nice surprise!
The passing mark for the exam is 700 (Out of 1000), which in my opinion is a bit high, but the questions that are asked in the exam have a medium to low difficulty level so that this number can be achieved easily. And lastly, you have to pay a fee of 99 USD to register for this exam.
Resources I used for studying
1. Udemy – AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam Prep By Scott Duffy. This is a paid course and was one of the highest-rated courses on Udemy for the AZ-900 exam, at the time of my purchase. The best thing I liked about this course is that it makes you understand the Cloud concepts and Azure Fundamentals very easily. This was very helpful for me as I had no previous experience with cloud computing.
2. Microsoft: Azure Fundamentals Learning Path. This is Microsoft’s official AZ-900 preparation guide. It’s a 10-hour course containing 12 modules:
- Cloud Concepts – Principles of cloud computing
- Create an Azure account
- Core Cloud Services – Introduction to Azure
- Core Cloud Services – Azure architecture and service guarantees
- Core Cloud Services – Manage services with the Azure portal
- Core Cloud Services – Azure compute options
- Core Cloud Services – Azure data storage options
- Core Cloud Services – Azure networking options
- Security, responsibility, and trust in Azure
- Apply and monitor infrastructure standards with Azure Policy
- Control and organize Azure resources with Azure Resource Manager
- Predict costs and optimize spending for Azure
This course helped me to broaden the horizon of my understanding of Azure features and services.
3. Azure Portal: I created a free account with Azure and played around with its features and services. This helped me to understand and implement practically a lot of theoretical concepts. I also used Azure Quickstart templates to further deep dive.
4. Practice Exams: This was the last part of the preparation where I took practice exams and revised the parts I was lacking on. There are a lot of free practice papers available on the internet and I completed some of them, at least what I could find in the 1st Page of Google’s search. Don’t forget to check out Microsoft’s official free practice test as well.
Scheduling your Exam
You can schedule your exam from the Microsoft Azure Certification Page. I chose the online proctored home exam option(which is highly recommended). And if you are also planning to choose the same, please take care of the following things –
- Keep your Govt government-issued documents (Passport or Driving License) close to you when you’re giving the exam.
- The room you are seating in should be quiet and empty as the proctor will ask you to click pictures of the entire room to make sure of this.
- Keep all your phones and electronics away from you during the entire duration of the exam.
- Start at least 30 minutes before the scheduled time.
- During the whole exam, your session will be monitored by a proctor through your webcam to make sure the integrity of the exam is not compromised. Also, your whole session would be recorded as well.
After Exam Completion
Once your exam is completed, you will get your mark sheet then there only. And if you have achieved the necessary passing marks, you will get your certificate from the Microsoft Dashboard and your badge from Youracclaim.
Please let me know in the comments in case I have missed something or you have any questions. And if you’re planning to take this exam, I wish you all the best!
