Recently, I took a basic certification exam from Microsoft and I passed it. Getting a Microsoft certification was my dream and finally, I got a chance to start with one. AZ-900 is an exam that talks about Microsoft Azure services and capabilities. It is also called Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals.
In this article, I am going to talk about how did I do it. What are the best practices you can follow if you are looking to pass the exam and at last, the next steps as well? I hope this will help you and upon following these 5 simple steps, I am sure you will get certified.
Step 1: Official Material from Microsoft learn
Link: Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals — Learn | Microsoft Docs
In this step, you will be learning through 6 parts of the syllabus covered to complete the exam. AZ-900 is a very basic exam to learn about the fundamentals of Microsoft Azure. Before going in to take an exam please follow the steps with these preparation materials.
The first step is always to read even if you don’t like reading blogs or documentation. Because reading will set your mind for better things to come next up. In this documentation, you will find the collection of videos along with written materials to help you understand step by step starting from Cloud computing. The good thing here is, they have a sandbox environment to help you understand how these services work in a learn by doing method. There are 6 parts each one of them covers each topic that is related to the AZ-900 exam. It is easy and you can spend 15 mins a day studying this material to understand.
Step 2: YouTube Video
Link: AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals Hints and Tips — YouTube
Next up you can do this parallelly with step 1. This is an hour video to give you a complete overview of Azure and how it is created. It starts from Azure tenant and its management groups which is the starting point of Azure. It extends up again to the cloud service models and what are the Azure services belongs to which models (SaaS, PaaS). There are several videos on YouTube but this one I felt better and you too can understand about basic terms of Azure and its services. You can also watch this video more than once to understand it better.
Step 3: LinkedIn Learning (Microlearning)
Link: Azure certification for advancement (linkedin.com)
To go through this course you may need a LinkedIn premium subscription unless this course is available to you for free or even if you are in a 30-day trial already. This is a very nice overview course out there and is been recommended by 1000s of individuals. In this, Sharon explained each of the 6 categorized that is covered in the exam. No need for hands-on. Just sit and listen to what she says and I am sure you will understand the exam topics.
Topics include Overview, Cloud Concepts, Azure Core Services, Core Solutions and Management Tools, General & Network Security, Identity, Governance, Privacy and Compliance, Cost Management, and Service SLAs. Take some time to understand each of them and the best thing to do is sit back and relax then listen. Observe and relate concepts with the experience you have in life.
Step 4: Practice Questions
Link: Ace Microsoft AZ-900 Certification with Actual Questions | ExamTopics
Unless you have contributor’s access you cannot view all 204 questions in this portal but still, you can go up to 100 to 120 questions. Which I feel is more than enough to crack the exam. Keep this in mind, you need more than 700 points to pass the exam. These questions include all the topics that are covered along with answers with good explanations.
Step 5: Take the exam and get certified
Final and the most important step is to schedule the exam and pass it. Questions will vary from 30 to 50 depending on factors that Microsoft decides. Proctor will be seeing you throughout the exam and there will not be vocal communication. All things will be communicated through live chat. Once you pass the exam within 2 hours you will receive the acclaim badge and the certificate can be downloaded from the dashboard.
Next Steps:
Completing the certificate is simply not enough if you are a lover of learning skills or if you want to move up your career. You got to follow the next steps of becoming an Azure Developer Associate or Administrator Associate. It is good to keep learning and face new challenges that is what makes life interesting, isn’t it?
Stay tuned for more updates from my side and I am happy to listen to your story as well. Thanks for reading and I hope you will get certified. Let’s use technology for good and getting a basic certification can be a good start. Not to get a job or show off the skills but to help others build better software.
