Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) exam vs material

Yesterday I passed the Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) exam – hurray!

Pleased though I was to pass it, I was surprised by what felt like a mismatch between the learning materials and the exam contents.

A lot of what I studied using Microsoft Learn simply did not come up – though, admittedly, this could be down to the pool of questions I was given on the day.

Conversely, certain questions I was asked were not covered in the training material – though Microsoft always encourages you to read around the subjects.

My tips:

• Cover all the topics. As a developer I am drawn towards the core Azure services: Compute, Storage and Networking – but a lot of the exam focuses on pricing, compliance and service lifecycle, so make sure you know about these.
• Gain some hands-on experience. Complete the practical exercises and walkthroughs
• Follow the links to resources such as the Pricing Calculator and Trust Center
• Take a practice test – the one that I took was much closer to the actual exam than the Knowledge Check questions at the end of each Learn module.

Ultimately, the exam is fairly brief (31 questions in 60 minutes) and it’s optional – you don’t need it to qualify for Azure Associate or Expert exams – but it’s great to be able to prove your skills and I’m glad I did it.

Happy learning!