Preparing for Your Azure Administrator Certification (AZ-104)

Skylines Academy Approach

About the AZ-104 exam:

The AZ-104 exam (beta) is the updated replacement exam for the AZ-103 exam. It is expected to be released by Microsoft at the end of March 2020. Once the beta is launched for the new exams, there will be 90 days that the AZ-103 exam is still active while content is updated. If you are currently studying for the AZ-103 exam, continue to do so as you still have time to take the AZ-103 exam (before July 2020). The Azure Administrator certification will not change, only the exam number; it is Microsoft's policy that if more than 30% of the objective domain changes, then they will make it a new exam number.

Who should take the exam?

The AZ-104 exam is intended to validate skills and expertise of Azure Administrators. It is recommended that individuals have previous knowledge on deploying, configuring and managing cloud or data center components such as storage, compute and networking. The Skylines Academy team has seen success stories from students with a variety of experience in cloud, data center, and IT technologies.

Microsoft recommends candidates have a minimum of six months of experience in Azure as well as knowledge of Azure services, workloads, security, and governance. You should also be somewhat familiar with PowerShell and CLI.

Once you’ve studied and sat the exam and get that passing score, you’ll now be a rightfully proud Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate.

If you are just starting out, we recommend you look at the AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals for core Azure cloud concepts but this is not a pre-requisite.

Why take the exam:

Whether it's an employer requirement or you are looking to validate your skills, these tests certify your Azure knowledge and are a great addition to your resume. Ops engineers are in high demand for cloud and this certification can jumpstart your career and journey with Azure.

How to Prepare:

1. Review the Microsoft Skills Outline: 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. It will also tell you what not to focus on from the previous AZ-103 exam, for example; Implement Backup and Recovery NOT SQL or HANA

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-104 Certification Course, Master Instructor Nick Colyer will walk you through objectives and demo with the portal and PowerShell knowledge you will need to take and pass the exam. Make sure to be hands-on and spin up your own Azure environment to follow along.

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. Brush up on PowerShell commands by downloading the FREE PowerShell Reference Guide. You can complete the exam with the GUI or PowerShell, Microsoft doesn’t score differently, as long as you complete the task correctly. A command line option may come up as the only way to solve an issue, so it is good to familiarize yourselves with PowerShell commands.

5. Gain more detail with Microsoft Documentation. We’ve put together some handy Study Guides which reference the most-relevant links for studying for the exam. We understand that everyone has different learning styles. Some people require additional post-course reading and Microsoft makes it easy to read up on any Azure topic imaginable though docs.

6. Take practice tests. We’ve put together ~130 practice questions based on our experience taking the exam and feedback from students.

7. Ask your peers! There thousands of like-minded individuals who are studying for the AZ-104 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 labs to deploy code in your own environment.

3. Blogs: Here’s a list of blogs we found useful in studying for the AZ-104:

   1. Skylines Academy Blog: Our team has put together several AZ-104 relevant blogs that follow along with Microsoft’s curriculum.

   2. Build Azure: Chris Pietschmann provides comprehensive Azure updates and Microsoft certification paths. We highly recommend this blog to keep up-to-date and find your path to learning Azure.

   3. Azure Greg: Gregor Suttie has a ton of passion and knowledge about all things Azure. H also has some great posts on best practices and study links/resources.

   4. Captain Hyper-scaler: Dwayne Natwick is a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) who has a lot of great info around Azure as well as his cloud journey.

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

Download the Skills Measured document from Microsoft here.