Preparing For Your Azure Fundamentals Certification (AZ-900)

Skylines Academy Approach 

Who should take the exam? 

This exam is designed for anyone looking to start out with Azure to demonstrate fundamental level knowledge of cloud services and how these services are provided with Microsoft Azure. The designated audience for this exam varies from those with non-technical backgrounds to those with a technical background who are new to the azure platform: 

• Those with a non-technical background can use this exam to begin their cloud journey and build a foundation of knowledge for Microsoft Azure.  

• This exam is also intended for those involved in selling or purchasing cloud-based solutions and services. 

• This exam serves as a great refresher for Microsoft Azure prior to taking more involved Azure exams.  

• Technical IT experience is not required however some general IT knowledge or experience would be beneficial. 

Below is a roadmap for the certification paths:

Once you’ve studied and earned a passing score on the exam, you’ll now be Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals

How to Prepare:

1.   Review the Microsoft Exam Blueprint: This should be your first stop during exam preparation. Microsoft uses the blueprint to break down topics and assign a weight (% of questions) to the exam so you’ll have an idea how much to study for each section.

2.   Invest in an online course to help walk you through what’s going to be on the Exam. Throughout the Skylines Academy Microsoft AZ 900 Certification Course, Master Instructor, Nick Colyer, will walk you through objectives and lay down the foundation of what cloud computing really is through a variety of demos and lectures. Make sure to be hands-on and spin up your own Azure environment to follow along. This is a great opportunity for you to view the way we prepare students for exams and to determine if you’d like to use our courses to prepare for more involved certification exams.

3.    Set up your own Azure subscription to familiarize yourself with Azure services which are covered in the exam. Check out the free Azure Trial Account Creation demo to help you get set up.  

4.    Taking notes while working through the course. Taking notes serves as a great method to help retain information and a perfect study guide before the test.

5.   Take practice tests. We’ve put together ~60 practice questions based on our experience taking the exam and feedback from students. These questions are separated based on the content in each section and will serve as a quiz at the end of each section. You also have the option of purchasing these questions separately for studying purposes.

4.   Ask your peers! There thousands of like-minded individuals who are studying for or have already taken the AZ-900 exam. Check out the Azure Study Group and feel free to join, post, and see what your fellow Azure students are up to. 

Other Useful Resources  

1. Microsoft Learning Paths: There are also Microsoft learning paths online available for different topics.   

2. GitHub Repo: Here you can find a very informational study guide that touches upon all topics covered for this exam.

3. Microsoft Foundational Resources: Here are a few beneficial resources that Microsoft has released regarding the various fundamental topics that will be covered on the exam.

   1. Get Started With Azure: This informational link provides a brief overview of the key Azure topics that are necessary to know when starting out with Azure. Microsoft provides their definition of what each of these are used for along with step-by-step tutorials.

   2. Azure Fundamentals Learning Path: This resource provided by Microsoft is a great place to reinforce your knowledge about the core cloud concepts. Modules are provided for each of these concepts to strengthen your knowledge.

What’s Next?

Once you have studied, taken the exam, and earned that passing score, you will receive your Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals badge. If you enjoyed the course and feel like you are ready to take the next step, consider studying for the AZ-103 exam. If you'd like to learn more, check out our blog post: Preparing for Your Azure Administrator Certification (AZ-103). The blog post will give you an idea of who should take the exam, where to start, and how to prepare for success. 

Let us know about your success! We love to empower our students and promote them. You can reach us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook

AZ-900 pre-requisites and objectives defined by Microsoft as follows: 

 Cloud Concepts (15-20%)

• Describe the benefits and considerations of using cloud services

• Describe the differences between Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS

• Describe the differences between Public, Private and Hybrid cloud models

 Understand core Azure services (30-35%) 

• Understand the core Azure architectural components

• Describe some of the core products available in Azure

• Describe some of the solutions available on Azure

• Understand Azure management tools

Understand security, privacy, compliance, and trust (25-30%)

• Understand security network connectivity in Azure

• Describe core Azure Identity Services

• Describe security tools and features of Azure

• Describe Azure governance technologies

• Understand monitoring and reporting options in Azure

• Understand privacy, compliance and data protection standards in Azure

Understand Azure pricing and support (25-30%)

• Understand Azure subscriptions

• Understand planning and management costs

• Understand the support options available with Azure

• Describe Azure Service Level Agreements also known as SLA

• Understand service lifecycle in Azure

• For the up to date requirements, please go directly to Microsoft's exam page https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/exam-AZ-900.aspx