How I Passed My Microsoft AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals Exam — 2021 version
Last January, I passed my AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner ( CLF-C01 ) certification exam as part of my Multi-Cloud Goal for 2021. I plan to attain both Azure and AWS certifications this year as part of my company’s APN (AWS Partner Network) requirements, and also for the advancement of my career as well.
AZ-900 Exam Overview
This is the entry-level certification in Microsoft Azure and is the equivalent of the Certified Cloud Practitioner exam in Amazon Web Services (AWS). Aspiring IT Professionals who wants to take the Azure Fundamentals certification should have foundational knowledge of cloud services as well as how those cloud services are provisioned in Microsoft Azure.
The AZ-900 exam is intended for professionals who are just starting to work with cloud-based services and solutions or are beginners to Azure. This certification is a great opportunity to validate your knowledge of cloud concepts, Azure workloads, Azure services, security and privacy in Azure, including Azure pricing and support. You should also be familiar with the general technology cloud concepts and basic understanding of networking, storage, compute, application support, and application development.
Exam Domains ( Skills Measured in the exam )
There are 6 exam domains in the AZ-900 exam. They are:
- Describe cloud concepts
- Describe core Azure services
- Describe core solutions and management tools on Azure
- Describe general security and network security features
- Describe identity, governance, privacy, and compliance features
- Describe Azure cost management and Service Level Agreements
The good thing about this exam is that, its Exam Blueprint document already enumerates the specific Azure services that you will likely encounter in the exam. If you’re planning to take the AZ-900 soon, you can skim the specific Azure services and concepts below.
Personally, this exam blueprint really helps me to zero in on the most relevant topics that I should review, so make sure you read this part. Knowing the exam coverage is a critical factor in passing this exam:
I. Describe cloud concepts| Coverage: 20% — 25%
Identify the benefits and considerations of using cloud services
- identify the benefits of cloud computing, such as High Availability, Scalability, Elasticity, Agility, and Disaster Recovery
- identify the differences between Capital Expenditure (CapEx) and Operational Expenditure (OpEx)
- describe the consumption-based model
Describe the differences between categories of cloud services
- describe the shared responsibility model
- describe Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS),
- describe Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
- describe serverless computing
- describe Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
- identify a service type based on a use case
Describe the differences between types of cloud computing
- define cloud computing
- describe Public cloud
- describe Private cloud
- describe Hybrid cloud
- compare and contrast the three types of cloud computing
II. Describe core Azure services | Coverage: 15% — 20%
Describe the core Azure architectural components
- describe the benefits and usage of Regions and Region Pairs
- describe the benefits and usage of Availability Zones
- describe the benefits and usage of Resource Groups
- describe the benefits and usage of Subscriptions
- describe the benefits and usage of Management Groups
- describe the benefits and usage of Azure Resource Manager
- explain Azure resources
Describe core resources available in Azure
- describe the benefits and usage of Virtual Machines, Azure App Services, Azure Container Instances (ACI), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and Windows Virtual Desktop
- describe the benefits and usage of Virtual Networks, VPN Gateway, Virtual Network peering, and ExpressRoute
- describe the benefits and usage of Container (Blob) Storage, Disk Storage, File Storage, and storage tiers
- describe the benefits and usage of Cosmos DB, Azure SQL Database, Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, and SQL Managed Instance
- describe the benefits and usage of Azure Marketplace
III. Describe core solutions and management tools on Azure | Coverage: 10% — 15%
Describe core solutions available in Azure
- describe the benefits and usage of Internet of Things (IoT) Hub, IoT Central, and Azure Sphere
- describe the benefits and usage of Azure Synapse Analytics, HDInsight, and Azure Databricks
- describe the benefits and usage of Azure Machine Learning, Cognitive Services and Azure Bot Service
- describe the benefits and usage of serverless computing solutions that include Azure Functions and Logic Apps
- describe the benefits and usage of Azure DevOps, GitHub, GitHub Actions, and Azure DevTest Labs
Describe Azure management tools
- describe the functionality and usage of the Azure Portal, Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI, Cloud Shell, and Azure Mobile App
- describe the functionality and usage of Azure Advisor
- describe the functionality and usage of Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates
- describe the functionality and usage of Azure Monitor
- describe the functionality and usage of Azure Service Health
IV. Describe general security and network security features | Coverage: 10% — 15%
Describe Azure security features
- describe basic features of Azure Security Center, including policy compliance, security alerts, secure score, and resource hygiene
- describe the functionality and usage of Key Vault
- describe the functionality and usage of Azure Sentinel
- describe the functionality and usage of Azure Dedicated Hosts
Describe Azure network security
- describe the concept of defense in depth
- describe the functionality and usage of Network Security Groups (NSG)
- describe the functionality and usage of Azure Firewall
- describe the functionality and usage of Azure DDoS protection
V. Describe identity, governance, privacy, and compliance features | Coverage: 20% — 25%
Describe core Azure identity services
- explain the difference between authentication and authorization
- define Azure Active Directory
- describe the functionality and usage of Azure Active Directory
- describe the functionality and usage of Conditional Access, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and Single Sign-On (SSO)
Describe Azure governance features
- describe the functionality and usage of Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
- describe the functionality and usage of resource locks
- describe the functionality and usage of tags
- describe the functionality and usage of Azure Policy
- describe the functionality and usage of Azure Blueprints
- describe the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
Describe privacy and compliance resources
- describe the Microsoft core tenets of Security, Privacy, and Compliance
- describe the purpose of the Microsoft Privacy Statement, Product Terms site, and Data Protection Addendum (DPA)
- describe the purpose of the Trust Center
- describe the purpose of the Azure compliance documentation
- describe the purpose of Azure Sovereign Regions (Azure Government cloud services and Azure China cloud services)
VI. Describe Azure cost management and Service Level Agreements | Coverage: 10% — 15%
Describe methods for planning and managing costs
- identify factors that can affect costs (resource types, services, locations, ingress and egress traffic)
- identify factors that can reduce costs (reserved instances, reserved capacity, hybrid use benefit, spot pricing)
- describe the functionality and usage of the Pricing calculator and the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator
- describe the functionality and usage of Azure Cost Management
Describe Azure Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and service lifecycles
- describe the purpose of an Azure Service Level Agreement (SLA)
- identify actions that can impact an SLA (i.e. Availability Zones)
- describe the service lifecycle in Azure (Public Preview and General Availability)
Exam Preparation Materials
- Microsoft Learn
- Official Exam Blueprint for AZ-900
- FreeCodeCamp — AZ-900 by Andrew Brown:
- Free Youtube AZ-900 course by Paul Browning
- Tutorials Dojo AZ-900 Practice Tests
Exam Tips
- DO NOT underestimate this exam!
- Focus on Resource Groups, Subscriptions, Virtual Machines and other core service.
- Know the difference between a Scale Set and an Availability Set
- Know the difference between RBAC and Azure policy
- Since there are free AZ-900 video courses on YouTube, I usually watch this on my sofa whenever I have time. At the last weeks of my exam, I usually play this on my Smart TV and guess what, I retain more info in doing so. I recommend Andrew Brown’s free videos on YouTube.
- Use Practice Tests. This is really helpful in cementing your understanding in different Azure services and its various use cases. I recommend taking the Tutorials Dojo practice tests as they really did a great job in crafting practice questions and a well-detailed explanations on their sets.
- The AZ-900 exam is not just a multi-select test. It has different question types where you Drag-n-Drop an answer and have HotSpot-type questions. What I like about Tutorials Dojo is their practice tests come with these customized features that really simulate the actual AZ-900 exam. What you see resembles the question types in your upcoming tests:
- Most of the exam resources that I shared here are free. I actually first used the free version of the Tutorials Dojo practice tests here but bought it as the quality is superb. I also used their reviewers on my previous AWS exam.
- Ensure that you are scoring above 90% on your practice tests before taking the exam. I probably didn’t pass this if I skipped it. Like what I said on the Point #1 — DO NOT underestimate this exam. The practice tests revealed the topics that I need to improve on.
- Don’t waste your time on ridiculous exam dumps. Azure’s exam content is always changing and these dumps always contain obsolete and outdated content.
- Don’t underestimate this exam.
Next Stop:
AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate ( SAA-C02 )!
