What is AZ-900 Exam: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals?

 

Az-900 Exam: An Overview

Do you desire to begin your career in Azure? Are you someone wanting to demonstrate foundational knowledge of cloud concepts in general and Microsoft Azure in particular? The AZ-900 exam is an entry-level certification exam that validates foundational knowledge of cloud services and how those services are provided with Microsoft Azure. In this Azure Tutorial, we will cover all the information regarding The AZ-900 Certification Course, AZ-900 Syllabus and Format, Pricing and Validity, Tips and Tricks,and a lot more. Learn Azure Fundamentals and concepts with our step-by-step guide through Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Training.

What is the Az-900 Exam?

Azure is Microsoft's fastest-growing cloud platform. The AZ-900 exam tests foundational knowledge of Azure concepts and services. It covers cloud concepts, Azure workloads, security, privacy, pricing, and support. The exam validates skills for those new to Azure and is a prerequisite for other Azure certifications. It tests knowledge of core technologies like storage, networking, computing, and application services.

Azure offers capabilities in computing, storage, networking, app services, AI, IoT, integration, and security across PaaS, SaaS, and IaaS models. The exam proves a basic understanding of these services and how they work together in the Azure cloud. It's useful for both technical and non-technical professionals looking to demonstrate Azure knowledge. With passing scores, candidates can continue to role-based Azure certifications.

You can appear for Microsoft certification for products like Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Office, Power Platform, SQL Server, and Windows. Azure offers various services for all kinds of organizational IT needs related to computing, storage, databases, networks, cognitive services, and many more. You can get more information about Azure fundamental certifications and role-based MicrosoftAzure certifications by visiting https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/. Fundamental certifications are suggested as a perfect beginning in innovation for people who want to excel in their careers.

Grasping the Azure Fundamentals Exam

The Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals credential is designed to provide an inclusive on-ramp to cloud skills. The AZ-900 exam tests a core understanding of cloud computing concepts and Azure fundamentals, positioning learners for greater success with more advanced Azure certifications.

While there are no formal prerequisites, some basic IT and cloud knowledge is expected. Technical background is not required, enabling participation from diverse educational backgrounds.

Benefits of AZ-900 Certification

• In a cloud-centric job market, the AZ-900 certification provides credible evidence of cloud fluency.
• This badge can boost resumes and LinkedIn profiles while underscoring knowledge breadth.
• The AZ-900 also serves as a stepping stone to Associate and Expert certifications.
• Successful exam preparation builds skills applicable to real-world cloud scenarios.

Read More: Top 50 Azure Administrator Interview Questions and Answers

Az-900 Cost & validity

The price of the AZ-900 Assessment fluctuates by region and money. It is prudent to verify the formal Microsoft portal for current pricing details. Upon passing the test, your certification persists indefinitely, removing the necessity for periodic renewal.

Unlike some Microsoft certifications, the AZ-900 does not expire. Once earned, it remains valid indefinitely without renewal requirements. This signifies your AZ-900 credentials will stay valid as long as Azure basics stay applicable.

Az-900: Syllabus and Format

• The syllabus for the AZ-900 exam mainly focuses on foundational concepts of cloud-based services with respect to Azure. It includes core Azure services like computing, storage, and networking.
• This also covers security and privacy services, the Azure support model, and pricing.

• There are generally 40-60 questions and many of them are in multiple-choice answer format. The duration to attain this exam is 1 hour.

• The passing score for this exam is 70% and the percentage-wise break up of skills measured by the module is as below:

Describe cloud concepts (15-20%)

• Understanding differences between Public, private, and hybrid cloud models. A hybrid cloud may be a sort of cloud computing that combines on-premises infrastructure or a private cloud with a public cloud and permits data and apps to move between the two.
• Cloud provides services in different categories – Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and Serverless and not just the Virtual machines. Please refer to these concepts in the figure below.
• Understanding the benefits of using Azure and terms around agility, availability, scalability, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, and Capital Expenditure (CapEx) vs Operational expenditure (OpEx)

Describe core Azure services (30-35%)

• In this section, you need to prepare basic building blocks of Azure core architectural concepts like regions, resource groups, availability zones, etc. Azure services are offered in regions throughout the world. The azure region consists of one or more data centers, also referred to as availability zones. Azure is available in 60+ regions globally. New regions and data centers get added every year. Each Azure region consists of one or more data centers, also referred to as availability zones.
• Azure has computed services like App services, Virtual machines, containers, Kubernetes, etc. Azure also provides various resource management tools like PowerShell, Cloud Shell, Azure CLI, and Azure Advisor.
• Azure Storage services have blob, queue, and table storage, Disk storage, file storage, and Database (SQL/NoSQL) storage like Azure SQL server, MySQL database, Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL, and Azure DB migration services.
• Virtual networks, application gateway, and load balancer, firewalls are part of Azure networking services. Some of the questions will be included in the exam around the on-premises network to Azure virtual network integration, Virtual networks, Subnets, Traffic filtering, etc.
• Azure services like function app, logic apps, and event grid fall into Serverless computing and also supports other solutions such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial intelligence, Dev test labs, Big data, analytics, etc.

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

• Network security groups (NSG), firewalls, key vaults, and Azure security centers are considered security building blocks in Azure and help to arrange network traffic to and from Azure resources.
• Access management for all Azure resources can be managed by using Role-based access control (RBAC), Azure active directory, and multi-factor authentication (MFA).
• Azure monitor and service health make a difference when it comes to the execution and accessibility of your applications and proactively distinguishing issues in seconds.
• You need to understand services like Trust Center, compliance manager, and terms like ISO, GDPR, Identity Protection policies, Azure data security, etc. to achieve the compliance goal of your organization.
• Azure has a service known as Azure Government which is a physically separated instance of Azure to meet the compliance and security standards for US government workloads. Similarly, Azure launched ‘Azure Germany’ in 2018 to meet German data privacy regulations and rules.

Describe Azure pricing Service Level Agreements, and Lifecycles (20-25%)

• In this section, most of the questions will be asked about Azure cost management, zone-wise billing concepts, and Azure cost management. You may visit https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/cost-management-billing/cost-management-billing-overviewdocumentation to understand important billing concepts like subscriptions and billing accounts. You can track and analyze the organizational costs of various Azure services with the help of Azure Cost Analysis.
• You also need to read about services available in the free Azure account, various offerings to purchase Azure products and services, and service level agreements (SLA).
• You need to understand the Lifecycle of features, preview features, and monitor features are also important sections to focus on.
• Azure Provides a Pay-as-you-go as well as reserved instances pricing model with different pricing units for each service. Azure has a wider range of support plans like Basic, Developer, Standard, and Professional Direct. You can choose any plan support plan as per your need. You may get more information about it by visiting https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/support/plans/

How to prepare for this exam?

You can prepare for this exam from learning resources like Microsoft Learn, Azure Documentation, Instructor-led Training, Forum, etc.

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Prerequisites

As already mentioned in the beginning this exam is great to start for beginners in cloud solutions, there are no prerequisites for this exam and no prior technical experience is required.

Learning Path

To study for this exam, you can follow the below simple path:

• Understand the basics of cloud computing.
• Take an overview of core Azure services computing, storage, and networking.
• The practice below 3 hands-on labs:
• Create virtual machines, virtual private networks, and their peering, and try to integrate load balancers and application gateways.
• Create app services, and check available app service plans and their pricing.
• Play around with storage options available blobs, queues, cosmos DB, etc.
• Take an overview of security and pricing model concepts.
• For remaining topics, you can refer to short courses or glance at Microsoft Docs just before the exam.

Tips and tricks

• You can implement a few POCs for basic features of Azure services and practical knowledge of those Azure services will help you to understand questions faster.
• Take a look at all answer choices available before making a final choice.

AZ 900 Exam Pricing and Scheduling Information

The exam charge is subject to change with the country from where you're taking this exam. Let’s say in case you're living within India then the exam fee is ~3700 INR.