Passed AZ-104 Exam: Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate 1

Passed AZ-104 Exam: Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate

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Updated — 02/05/2024 — The AZ-104 exam study guide below includes Free On-demand Instructor-led video training.

Updated — 21/04/2023 — The AZ-104 exam study guide below includes a new Free practice assessment for the certification.

Updated — 29/12/2020 — The AZ-104 exam study guide below shows the changes to be implemented starting January 27, 2021. This article has been updated to reflect Microsoft’s new exam objectives.

In this article, we will share our experience and impressions to help you successfully prepare for and pass the AZ-104 — Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate exam.

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Passed AZ-104 Exam: Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate 2

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Passed AZ-104 Exam: Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate 3

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Introduction

Microsoft is keeping evolving its learning programs to help you and your career keep pace with today’s demanding IT environments. The new updated role-based certifications will help you to keep pace with today’s business requirements. Microsoft Learning is constantly evolving its learning program to better offer what you need to skill up, prove your expertise to employers and peers, and get the recognition—and opportunities—you’ve earned.

In January 2020, Microsoft announced new updates to several Azure and Data certifications, which were released in March 2020. The certifications that you earned are not changing, but the exams required to earn the certifications have changed.

Certification Old Exam New Exam Expected Release
Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate AZ-103 AZ-104 March, 2020
Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate AZ-203 AZ-204 February 20, 2020
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect AZ-300 & AZ-301 AZ-303 & AZ-304 June, 2020

A while ago, I passed the AZ-102 transition exam to earn the Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate. I decided to update my skills and take the new AZ-104 since Microsoft introduced a lot of new topics. I did the beta exam on May 28, 2020, and by the end of the exam, I received a message that the result wouldn’t be available until two weeks after the exam’s live publication date. Additionally, you should receive the printed score report by email within eight weeks after the exam’s live publication date.

To get the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification, you are required to pass only ONE exam, the AZ-104: Microsoft Certified Azure Developer Associate.

I am so happy and grateful now that I passed the AZ-104 exam – Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator. I figured that I would share my experience and impressions in this article to help you prepare and tackle this exam successfully.

In June 2020, Microsoft released the AZ-104 for the public, and today, I received the result with a Passing Score, including the performance by exam section as follows:

Passed AZ-104 Exam: Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate 4

This will give you a detailed report to know in which area you need to develop your skills further; here is Virtual Networking, and this will also reflect your strength, which is obvious that Azure Backup and Monitoring is my area of expertise ;-)

In this exam, I got around 62 questions, including 3 case studies, and the total time for this exam is 180 minutes (3 hours), so you have enough time to finish it. However, the exam is very long and not easy. Azure exams are getting tougher!!!

Updated on 17/02/2026 – For the renewal assessment, I got 25 questions in total without any case study. The performance assessment is based on the following topics:

> Host a web application with Azure App Service.
> Build a containerized web application with Docker.
> Secure your Azure Storage account.
> Secure and isolate access to Azure resources by using network security groups and service endpoints.
> Protect your virtual machines by using Azure Backup.
> Configure virtual machine availability.
> Manage users and groups in Microsoft Entra ID.

Renewal assessment results for Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate
Renewal assessment results for Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate

The questions do pretty much match the list of skills measured below.

Exam Profile Audience

The exam profile audience for this exam is to be a subject matter expert in implementing, managing, and monitoring an organization’s Microsoft Azure environment.

Responsibilities of an Azure Administrator include implementing, managing, and monitoring identity, governance, storage, compute, and virtual networks in a cloud environment, as well as provisioning, sizing, monitoring, and adjusting resources as needed.

An Azure Administrator often serves as part of a larger team dedicated to implementing your organization’s cloud infrastructure.

A candidate for this exam should have at least six months of hands-on experience administering Azure, along with a strong understanding of core Azure services, Azure workloads, security, and governance. In addition, this role should have experience using PowerShell, Azure CLI, Azure portal, and Azure Resource Manager templates.

Prerequisites study guide

If you are new to the Azure Administrator role, these references can help you understand administrator fundamentals.

Skills measured on this exam

This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical topics listed below based on the latest update from Microsoft.

Links to relevant reading from the official Microsoft documentation for each skill tested are listed below to help you prepare:

Manage Azure identities and governance (20-25%)

Manage Azure AD objects

Manage role-based access control (RBAC)

Manage subscriptions and governance

Implement and manage storage (15-20%)

Manage storage accounts

Manage data in Azure Storage

Configure Azure files and Azure blob storage

Deploy and manage Azure compute resources (20-25%)

Configure VMs for high availability and scalability

Automate deployment and configuration of VMs

Create and configure VMs

Create and configure containers

Create and configure Web Apps

Implement and manage virtual networking (15-20%)

Configure and manage virtual networks in Azure

Configure name resolution

Secure access to virtual networks

Configure load balancing

Monitor and troubleshoot virtual networking

Integrate an on-premises network with an Azure virtual network

Monitor and maintain Azure resources (10-15%)

Monitor resources in Azure

Implement backup and recovery

Lessons Learned

As announced by Microsoft Worldwide Learning due to the pandemic situation, it appears they have suspended performance-based lab questions given their need to reserve Azure capacity for paying customers. So you better get your exams registered as soon as possible to take advantage of this situation. The biggest subject areas that I saw on AZ-104 are networking and storage. You can expect a lot of reading and a lot of tabular analysis, so you need to prepare and be an expert on those two subjects.

The configuration-related items test whether you’ve got hands-on experience in the Azure portal. It’s one of those things where if you’ve done the work, you’ll recognize the correct answer right away. However, I would expect its content to change a bit. I sure hope Worldwide Learning cuts down some of the verbosity. Some of the case studies are way too big in my humble opinion.

I was also disappointed that I saw no JSON on the AZ-104 beta exam. Lots of Azure portal screenshots, a fair amount of Azure PowerShell, and no Azure CLI, I saw only one Kusto Query Language (KQL) question.

Overall, I think Microsoft Worldwide Learning is doing a good job of gradually shaping these exams to reflect real-world Azure practice scenarios. The AZ-104 objective domain is more logically organized now.

Exam Preparation

Practice, practice, and read… I cannot stress enough that hands-on experience and understanding all the concepts will help you to pass this exam. The key success to pass this exam is to work with Microsoft Azure on daily basis. You can create your free Azure account today and start practicing the new features.

To prepare for this exam, I use the official Microsoft Azure documentation which is a great resource to learn.

I also use Microsoft Learn the new learning approach to explore more advanced Azure Administrator topics in a structured way, I highly recommend checking the following modules:

If you wish to validate your skills before taking the real exam, I highly encourage you to purchase the following practice tests:

  • AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator Microsoft Official Practice Test. The MeasureUp AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator practice test from mind hub is designed to help you prepare for and pass the Microsoft AZ-104 exam. This exam is aimed at Microsoft Azure Administrators who want to test their knowledge of implementing, managing, and monitoring identity, governance, storage, compute, and virtual networks in a cloud environment, plus provision, size, monitor, and adjust resources when needed.

AZ-104 Free Practice Assessment

Are you preparing for the AZ-104 certification exam? Microsoft just announced Practice Assessments on Microsoft Learn, the newest free exam preparation resource that allows you to assess your knowledge and fill knowledge gaps to better prepare you for the AZ-104 certification exam.

The following assessment provides an overview of the style, wording, and difficulty of the questions you’re likely to experience on the exam. Through this assessment, you can assess your readiness, determine where additional preparation is needed, and fill knowledge gaps, bringing you one step closer to the likelihood of passing your AZ-104 exam.

> Take now the Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator Practice Assessment (50 questions).

Prepare for your certification exam by assessing your knowledge through Practice Assessments. These assessments are free and can be attempted multiple times. The same team that develops the official certification exams creates and regularly updates them.

You can access practice assessments on Microsoft Learn by signing in or creating an account. The score report for each question includes the answer, rationale, and links to additional information.

AZ-104 Free Instructor-led Video Training

Microsoft Learning recently published a FREE special 31-module on-demand video training course, “AZ-104 Azure Administrator.” Instructors were video-recorded for all modules.

This course teaches IT Professionals how to manage their Azure subscriptions, secure identities, administer the infrastructure, configure virtual networking, connect Azure and on-premises sites, manage network traffic, implement storage solutions, create and scale virtual machines, implement web apps and containers, back up and share data, and monitor your solution.

All video-recorded modules for “AZ-104 Azure Administrator” are available below:

Last but certainly not least, Microsoft released the AZ-104T00-A course. This course teaches IT Professionals how to manage their Azure subscriptions, secure identities, administer the infrastructure, configure virtual networking, connect Azure and on-premises sites, manage network traffic, implement storage solutions, create and scale virtual machines, implement web apps and containers, back up and share data, and monitor your solution.

If you prefer to prepare for the AZ-104 exam with Microsoft MCT instructor-led training, a written, non-video recorded version of this course, you can contact me here.

AZ-104 Lab-Training

Practice is the key to success and passing this exam. I highly recommend going through the following labs developed by Microsoft. You can download the required lab files for the AZ-104 exam from the following repository.

Module Lab
Administer Identity Lab 01: Manage Microsoft Entra ID Identities
Administer Governance and Compliance Lab 02a: Manage Subscriptions and RBAC
Administer Governance and Compliance Lab 02b: Manage Governance via Azure Policy
Administer Azure Resources Lab 03: Manage Azure resources by using Azure Resource Manager Templates
Implement Virtual Networking Lab 04: Implement Virtual Networking
Administer Intersite Connectivity Lab 05: Implement Intersite Connectivity
Administer Network Traffic Management Lab 06: Implement Traffic Management
Administer Azure Storage Lab 07: Manage Azure storage
Administer Virtual Machines Lab 08: Manage Virtual Machines
Administer PaaS Compute Options Lab 09a: Implement Web Apps
Administer PaaS Compute Options Lab 09b: Implement Azure Container Instances
Administer PaaS Compute Options Lab 09c: Implement Azure Container Apps
Administer Data Protection Lab 10: Implement Data Protection
Administer Monitoring Lab 11: Implement Monitoring

You can find below the demonstrations for each module covered in the above labs:

Module Demonstration
All Demonstration Instructions
Administer Identity Demonstration 01: Administer Identity
Administer Governance and Compliance Demonstration 02: Administer Governance and Compliance
Administer Administer Azure Resources Demonstration 03: Administer Azure Resources
Administer Virtual Networking Demonstration 04: Administer Virtual Networking
Administer Intersite Connectivity Demonstration 05: Administer Intersite Connectivity
Administer Network Traffic Management Demonstration 06: Administer Network Traffic Management
Administer Azure Storage Demonstration 07: Administer Azure Storage
Administer Azure Virtual Machines Demonstration 08: Administer Azure Virtual Machines
Administer PaaS Compute Options Demonstration 09: Administer PaaS Compute Options
Administer Data Protection Demonstration 10: Administer Data Protection
Administer Monitoring Demonstration 11: Administer Monitoring

AZ-104 Certification

Bypassing the AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator, you will earn the Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate certificate. The certification is valid only for one year.

Passed AZ-104 Exam: Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate 5

I hope you enjoyed my AZ-104 certification experience and exam preparation. Did I miss any links, or do you have any recommended AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification Exam Study resources? Please let me know in the comments section below.

If you are planning to take this exam… I wish you all the best and Happy Studying!!!

__
Thank you for reading my blog.

If you have any questions or feedback, please leave a comment.

-Charbel Nemnom-

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6 thoughts on “Passed AZ-104 Exam: Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate”

Leave a comment...

  1. Hello,

    For a mid-level Microsoft Developer with about 1 year of Azure experience, what is average preparation time needed to pass this test?

    Regards,
    Ngoc

  2. Hello Ngoc,
    Thanks for your comment.
    If you dedicate 2 months with 1.5 hours study on daily basis.
    I believe that you can pass the exam in the first attempt.
    Good Luck!

  3. Thank you so much for this blog. I have been using the Microsoft Learn to read but then I see videos online that seem to have simplified the entire course. Do you advise that I still use Microsoft Learn…? Thank you.

  4. Thank you Emmanuel for your kind feedback!
    Yes, I still recommend using Microsoft Learn because they are kept updated on the latest exam objectives. This is trustable study material.
    However, you can mix between videos and Microsoft Learn, but not only one source.
    Hope this helps and good luck!

  6. Hello Alberto, at the time when I passed this exam it did not have lab questions.
    Good luck!

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