Passed Exam AZ-400: Microsoft Certified Azure DevOps Engineer Expert - CHARBEL NEMNOM - MVP | MCT | CCSP

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Updated – 21/04/2023 – The exam study guide below includes a new Free practice assessment for the AZ-400 certification.

Updated – 27/03/2022 – The training labs below were updated to reflect the new exam objectives added by Microsoft.

Updated – 31/01/2022 – The exam guide below shows the changes that will be implemented starting on November 30, 2021. This article has been updated to reflect the new exam objectives added by Microsoft.

Are you preparing for the AZ-400 Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions? This study guide will share with you how to prepare and pass the AZ-400: Microsoft Certified DevOps Engineer Expert successfully.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Microsoft is keeping evolving its learning programs to help you and your career keep pace with today’s demanding IT environments. The new role-based certifications will help your career to keep pace with today’s business requirements. They are evolving their 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. For more information about the new role-based certification, please check the following document to have a complete overview of the new Microsoft certification program.

After passing the Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert exam, as well as the Azure Developer Associate exam, the Microsoft Azure Administrator certification, the Microsoft Azure Security Engineer, and the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals exams. I decided to sit for the Microsoft Azure DevOps Solutions exam which is one of the exciting solutions to help you deliver software and deploy cloud resources.

Azure DevOps

Azure DevOps is a bundle of services to help developers and IT Pros to ship high-quality products faster. It includes CI/CD pipelines (Azure Pipelines), visual reporting tools (Azure Boards), and code repositories (Azure Repos) for code management and version control. Azure DevOps will also support and help from a project management perspective that incorporates agile methodologies like Scrum and Kanban.

Continuous Integration or CI is the process of automating the build and testing of the code every time a team member commits those changes to version control.
Continuous Delivery or CD is the process to build, testing, configuring, and deploying from a build to a production environment.

Donovan Brown, Cloud Advocate Manager at Microsoft, summarizes DevOps in one sentence:

DevOps is the union of people, process, and products to enable continuous delivery of value to the end users…

To get the Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert certification, you are required to pass only ONE prerequisite exam, the AZ-104: Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate OR the AZ-204: Microsoft Certified Azure Developer Associate.

Here is the full path to earning the Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert certification:

You can certainly book and take the AZ-400 exam even if you did not pass first the AZ-104 or the AZ-204. However, to earn the Azure DevOps Engineer Expert certification, you must pass either the AZ-104 OR the AZ-204 as a prerequisite exam. I recommend taking and passing the AZ-104 or AZ-204 as it will help you to get ready for the next level AZ-400 exam.

I am so happy and grateful now that I passed the AZ-400: Microsoft Azure DevOps Solutions to become a Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert, I figured that I would share my experience in this article to help you prepare and tackle the AZ-400 exam successfully.

For the AZ-400 exam, I got 55 questions in total divided as follows:

35 Multiple-Choice Questions.
2 X Case Studies (9 questions).
1 X hands-on lab with 11 tasks.

The total time for this exam is 180 minutes (3 hours). The questions do pretty much match the list of skills measured below.

Updated on 02/11/2022 – For the renewal assessment, I got 25 questions in total without any case study. The performance assessment is based on the following topics:

> Manage site reliability
> Monitor and report on security events in Azure AD
> Build and deploy applications to Azure by using GitHub Actions
> Automate GitHub by using GitHub Script
> Plan and manage your Azure costs
> Manage build dependencies with Azure Artifacts
> Host your own build agent in Azure Pipelines

Skills measured on this exam

Being a DevOps Engineer on the Microsoft platform is a trending role that encompasses managing development teams, managing source code, and automating builds, tests, packaging, versioning, and deployments.

Typically a DevOps engineer is concerned with two pipelines: continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD). These two pipelines encompass code planning building and testing for CI, and release, deployment, operations, and monitoring for CD. Becoming certified verifies and validates these skills, and indicates a certain level of expertise in this technology. To pass this exam many Azure capabilities and tools must be mastered. Read below to learn more about how to prepare and tackle this exam.

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

Develop an instrumentation strategy (5-10%)

Design and implement logging

Assess and configure a logging framework
Design a log aggregation and storage strategy (e.g., Azure storage)
Design a log aggregation and query strategy (e.g., Azure Monitor, Splunk, Exabeam, LogRhythm)
Interrogate Log Analytics logs using basic Kusto (KQL) queries
Manage access control to logs (workspace-centric/resource-centric)
Integrate crash analytics (App Center Crashes, Crashlytics)

Design and implement telemetry

Design and implement distributed tracing
Inspect application performance indicators
Inspect infrastructure performance indicators
Define and measure key metrics (CPU, memory, disk, network)
Implement alerts on key metrics (email, SMS, webhooks, Teams/Slack)
Integrate user analytics (e.g., Application Insights funnels, Visual Studio App Center, TestFlight, Google Analytics)

Integrate logging and monitoring solutions

Configure and integrate container monitoring (Azure Monitor, Prometheus, etc.)
Configure and integrate with monitoring tools (Azure Monitor Application Insights, Dynatrace, New Relic, Naggios, Zabbix)
Create feedback loop from platform monitoring tools (e.g., Azure Diagnostics extension, Log Analytics agent, Azure Platform Logs, Event Grid)
Manage Access control to the monitoring platform

Develop a Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) strategy (5-10%)

Develop an actionable alerting strategy

Identify and recommend metrics on which to base alerts
Implement alerts using appropriate metrics
Implement alerts based on appropriate log messages
Implement alerts based on application health checks
Analyze combinations of metrics
Develop communication mechanism to notify users of degraded systems
Implement alerts for self-healing activities (e.g., scaling, failovers)

Design a failure prediction strategy

Analyze the behavior of a system with regards to load and failure conditions
Calculate when a system will fail under various conditions
Measure baseline metrics for the system
Leverage Application Insights Smart Detection and Dynamic thresholds in Azure Monitor

Design and implement a health check

Analyze system dependencies to determine which dependency should be included in the health check
Calculate healthy response timeouts based on SLO for the service
The design approach for partial health situations
The design approach for piecemeal recovery (e.g., to improve recovery time objective strategies)
Integrate health check with compute environment
Implement different types of health checks (container liveness, startup, shutdown)

Develop a security and compliance plan (10-15%)

Design an authentication and authorization strategy

Design an access solution (Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM), Azure AD Conditional Access, MFA, Azure AD B2B, etc.)
Implement Service Principals and Managed Identity
Design an application access solution using Azure AD B2C
Configure service connections

Design a sensitive information management strategy

Evaluate and configure vault solution (Azure Key Vault, Hashicorp Vault)
Manage security certificates
Design a secrets storage and retrieval strategy (KeyVault secrets, GitHub secrets, Azure Pipelines secrets)
Formulate a plan for deploying secret files as part of a release

Develop security and compliance

Automate dependencies scanning for security (container scanning, OWASP)
Automate dependencies scanning for compliance (licenses: MIT, GPL)
Assess and report risks
Design a source code compliance solution (e.g., GitHub Code scanning, GitHub Secret scanning, pipeline-based scans, Git hooks, SonarQube, Dependabot, etc.)

Design governance enforcement mechanisms

Implement Azure policies to enforce organizational requirements
Implement container scanning (e.g., static scanning, malware, crypto mining)
Design and implement Azure Container Registry Tasks
Design a break-the-glass strategy for responding to security incidents

Manage source control (10-15%)

Develop a modern source control strategy

Integrate/migrate disparate source control systems (e.g., GitHub, Azure Repos)
Design authentication strategies
The design approach for managing large binary files (e.g., Git LFS)
The design approach for cross-repository sharing (e.g., Git sub-modules, packages)
Implement workflow hooks
The design approach for efficient code reviews (e.g., GitHub code review assignments, schedule reminders, Pull Analytics)

Plan and implement branching strategies for the source code

Define Pull Requests (PR) guidelines to enforce work item correlation
Implement branch merging restrictions (e.g., branch policies, branch protections, manual, etc.)
Define branch strategy (e.g., trunk-based, feature branch, release branch, GitHub flow)
Design and implement a PR workflow (code reviews, approvals)
Enforce static code analysis for code-quality consistency on PR

Configure repositories

Configure permissions in the source control repository
Organize the repository with git-tags
Plan for handling oversized repositories
Plan for content recovery in all repository states
Purge data from the source control

Integrate source control with tools

Integrate GitHub with DevOps pipelines
Integrate GitHub with identity management solutions (Azure AD)
Design for GitOps
Design for ChatOps
Integrate source control artifacts for human consumption (e.g., Git changelog)
Integrate GitHub Codespaces

Facilitate communication and collaboration (10-15%)

Communicate deployment and release information with business stakeholders

Create dashboards combining boards, and pipelines (custom dashboards on Azure DevOps)
Design a cost management communication strategy
Integrate release pipeline with work item tracking (e.g., AZ DevOps, Jira, ServiceNow)
Integrate GitHub as a repository with Azure Boards
Communicate user analytics

Generate DevOps process documentation

The design onboarding process for new employees
Assess and document external dependencies (e.g., integrations, packages)
Assess and document artifacts (version, release notes)

Automate communication with team members

Integrate monitoring tools with communication platforms (e.g., Teams, Slack, dashboards)
Notify stakeholders about key metrics, alerts, and severity using communication and project management platforms (e.g., Email, SMS, Slack, Teams, ServiceNow, etc.)
Integrate a build and release with communication platforms (e.g., the build fails, the release fails)
Integrate GitHub pull request approvals via mobile apps

Define and implement continuous integration (20-25%)

Design-build automation

Integrate the build pipeline with external tools (e.g., Dependency and security scanning, Code coverage)
Implement quality gates (e.g., code coverage, internationalization, peer review)
Design a testing strategy (e.g., integration, load, fuzz, API, chaos)
Integrate multiple tools (e.g., GitHub Actions, Azure Pipeline, Jenkins)

Design a package management strategy

Recommend package management tools (e.g. GitHub Packages, Azure Artifacts, Azure Automation Runbooks Gallery, Nuget, Jfrog, Artifactory)
Design an Azure Artifacts implementation including linked feeds
Design versioning strategy for code assets (e.g., SemVer, date-based)
Plan for assessing, updating, and reporting package dependencies (GitHub

Automated Security Updates, NuKeeper, GreenKeeper)

Design a versioning strategy for packages (e.g., SemVer, date-based)
Design a versioning strategy for deployment artifacts

Design an application infrastructure management strategy

Assess a configuration management mechanism for application infrastructure
Define and enforce desired state configuration for environments

Implement a build strategy

Design and implement build agent infrastructure (including cost, tool selection, licenses, and maintainability)
Develop and implement build trigger rules
Develop build pipelines
Design-build orchestration (products that are composed of multiple builds)
Integrate configuration into the build process
Develop complex build scenarios (e.g., containerized agents, hybrid, GPU)

Maintain build strategy

Monitor pipeline health (failure rate, duration, flaky tests)
Optimize build (cost, time, performance, reliability)
Analyze CI load to determine to build agent configuration and capacity

Design a process for standardizing builds across the organization

Manage self-hosted build agents (VM templates, containerization, etc.)
Create reusable build subsystems (YAML templates, Task Groups, Variable Groups, etc.)

Define and implement continuous delivery and release management strategy (10-15%)

Develop deployment scripts and templates

Recommend a deployment solution (e.g., GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines, Jenkins, CircleCI, etc.)
Design and implement Infrastructure as code (ARM, Terraform, PowerShell, CLI)
Develop application deployment process (container, binary, scripts)
Develop database deployment process (migrations, data movement, ETL)
Integrate configuration management as part of the release process
Develop complex deployments (IoT, Azure IoT Edge, mobile, App Center, DR, multi-region, CDN, sovereign cloud, Azure Stack, etc.)

Implement an orchestration automation solution

Combine release targets depending on release deliverables (e.g., Infrastructure, code, assets, etc.)
Design the release pipeline to ensure reliable order of dependency deployments
Organize shared release configurations and processes (YAML templates, variable groups, Azure App Configuration)
Design and implement release gates and approval processes

Plan the deployment environment strategy

Design a release strategy (blue/green, canary, ring)
Implement the release strategy (using deployment slots, load balancer configurations, Azure Traffic Manager, feature toggle, etc.)
Select the appropriate desired state solution for a deployment environment (PowerShell DSC, Chef, Puppet, etc.)
Plan for minimizing downtime during deployments (VIP Swap, Load balancer, rolling deployments, etc.)
Design a hotfix path plan for responding to high-priority code fixes

Exam Target Audience

Candidates for this exam are DevOps professionals who combine people, processes, and technologies to continuously deliver valuable products and services that meet end-user needs and business objectives. DevOps professionals streamline delivery by optimizing practices, improving communications and collaboration, and creating automation. They design and implement strategies for application code and infrastructure that allow for continuous integration, testing, delivery, monitoring, and feedback.

This exam is designed for candidates who are proficient with Agile practices. They must be familiar with both Azure administration and Azure development and experts in at least one of these areas. Azure DevOps professionals must be able to design and implement DevOps practices for version control, compliance, infrastructure as code, configuration management, build, release, and testing by using Azure technologies.

DevOps Engineers combine people, processes, and technologies to continuously deliver valuable products and services that meet end-user needs and business objectives. DevOps Engineers streamline delivery by optimizing practices, improving communications and collaboration, and creating automation. They design and implement strategies for application code and infrastructure that allow for continuous integration, continuous testing, continuous delivery, and continuous monitoring and feedback.

DevOps Engineers must be proficient with Agile practices. They must be familiar with both Azure administration and Azure development and experts in at least one of these areas. Azure DevOps professionals must be able to design and implement DevOps practices for version control, compliance, infrastructure as code, configuration management, build, release, and testing by using Azure technologies.

Lessons Learned and Exam Preparation

Practice, practice, and read… I cannot stress enough that hands-on experience and understanding of all the concepts will help you to pass this exam. The key success to in passing this exam is to work with Microsoft Azure daily and especially with Azure DevOps and ARM Templates. You can create your free Azure account today and then start practicing the latest and greatest Azure DevOps services (you can sign up for free now).

Based on my experience taking this exam, you should be familiar with the following topics:

Role-based access and least privilege principles.
Testing procedures.
Branch policies and security.
Build and release pipelines.
Security procedures.
Package management.
Self-hosted agents.
Azure DevOps integrations with GitHub, Jenkins, Subversion, BitBucket, GitLab, etc.
- You don’t need to configure these integrations, but you need to identify when you would use them.
Infrastructure as Code (IaC), ARM Templates, Terraform, Chef, Puppet, Ansible.
- You can expect to see lots and lots of JSON, and a fair amount of AzureRm (!) PowerShell and most Azure CLI commands.
PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC) with Azure Automation.
Azure Web App (App Services), Application Insights, Azure Functions, Azure DevTest Labs.
And a little bit of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Docker, Azure Container Registry (ACR), Network Security Group (NSG), and Azure Monitor.

Note: If you are taking this exam during the pandemic (COVID-19) period, Microsoft worldwide learning is suspending all the performance-based lab items and saving on usage uptick.

To prepare for this exam, there are a lot of materials you can go through. In this article, I will list all the free and paid resources so you can choose based on your preferred option.

AZ-400 Free

Starting with the free option, I highly recommend you to go through the following free Microsoft Azure DevOps courses developed by Microsoft so you get prepared for this exam:

I also use Microsoft Learn the new learning approach to explore more advanced Azure DevOps topics, I highly recommend checking the following three learning paths:

Evolve your DevOps practices (3 modules)
Build applications with Azure DevOps (7 modules)
Deploy applications with Azure DevOps (6 modules)

If you work for a Microsoft partner, you could also take the Azure DevOps Free Assessment which is part of the university partner program. The assessment consists of 32 questions to validate your knowledge before taking the real exam. The course code is 18473 (Azure DevOps Assessment).

If you are not a Microsoft partner, you can take the free DevOps Self-Assessment here.

You can also watch the Exam Prep session that was presented at Ignite 2019 to help you learn more about the AZ-400: Microsoft Azure DevOps Solutions exam that is part of the new Microsoft Azure Expert level certification. You will learn about how to approach studying for this new job role and being successful in your exam endeavors.

Last but not least, I also recommend you do all the hands-on labs for free here => (Azure DevOps Labs).

AZ-400 Paid

If you wish to go through training videos instead of reading, I highly encourage you to check the following courses to help you pass this exam successfully:

AZ-400 Practice Test

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

AZ-400: Microsoft Azure DevOps Solutions Microsoft Official Practice Test. The MeasureUp AZ-400: Microsoft Azure DevOps Solutions practice test by mind hub is officially designed to help you prepare for and pass the Microsoft AZ-400 exam.
AZ-400: The complete practice test, Azure DevOps Solutions by Udemy.
I can recommend Whizlabs for quality AZ-400 practice exams. Their tests were quite close to the live exam content.

AZ-400 Free Practice Assessment

Are you preparing for the AZ-400 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 so that you are better prepared the take the AZ-400 certification exam.

The following assessment provides you with an overview of the style, wording, and difficulty of the questions you’re likely to experience on the exam. Through this assessment, you’re able to 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-400 exam.

> Take now the Exam AZ-400: Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions Practice Assessment (50 questions).

Prepare for your certification exam by assessing your knowledge through Practice Assessments, which are free and can be attempted multiple times. These assessments are created and regularly updated by the same team that develops the official certification exams.

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.

Training Labs

AZ-400 has been using Azure Demo Generator for a long time, and now it’s time to replace it with a new application. eShopOnWeb is an ASP.NET Core 6.0 reference application powered by Microsoft that demonstrates a layered application architecture with a monolithic deployment model.

Check the following step-by-step hands-on labs that will help you to gain more practical experience and tackle the Azure DevOps AZ-400 exam:

Lab Setup

Validate Lab Environment

Module 01

Agile Planning and Portfolio Management with Azure Boards.

Module 02

Version Controlling with Git in Azure Repos.

Module 03

Module 04

Controlling Deployments using Classic Release Gates.

Module 05

Module 06

Deployments using Azure Bicep templates.

Module 07

Module 08

Package Management with Azure Artifacts.

Module 09

Instructor-Led Training

Finally, If you prefer an instructor-led training course, you can find a learning Microsoft partner below:

If you are planning to take the AZ-400 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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