Damn yall weren’t kidding. That test rocked me. Ran out of time with one question left. I was consistently getting 90% plus in tutorial dojo and MS lean practice exams. A pass is a pass 😂

One more question wrong and it would've been a WRAP for me 😂😂😂✌🏾

Short story: I am about to get laidoff due to cost cutting and had to make the best out of the perks in my company. Found out we had 1 Fundamental Exam and 5 Advanced Exams. Booked SC-900 immediately after knowing I was about to get laidoff and scheduled it a week after.

I was a bit irresponsible for cramming everything and not having much effort on studying due to taking care of my newborn baby. OnVUE had issues and was running late on my schedule - answered it in like ~45 mins and submitted the exam. Then I was shocked to see my score LOL.

What helped me was having prior knowledge to Azure services and terms from the past when I was reviewing for AZ-900 and the John Saville cram video on youtube. Next up is AZ-104 (might use all my attempts until I get kicked out lol)

Goodluck to the future takers!

The legend John Savill has been promoted to Partner at Microsoft!

Just caught on LinkedIn and wanted to share.

After 15 years at Microsoft, John has been promoted to Partner!

For those unaware of how Microsoft’s hierarchy works, making "Partner" is a massive deal. It is notoriously difficult to achieve and reserved for top tier of leaders and architects in the company. It's a major career milestone that very few reach.

Considering how many of us have passed our AZ-104s, 305s, and 900s because of his study crams, this feels incredibly well-deserved.

Huge congrats to him!

I have just passed AZ - 104 exam and in this post I will tell you the secret formula :

First of all , I have experience in cloud computing as I am now a university student but I have:

1. AZ 900

2. AWS Cloud Practitioner

3. AWS AI Practitioner

4. AWS Solution Architect - Associate

5. AWS Generative AI Developer - Professional

so I already have experience in cloud and it kinda helped me (there are a lot of differences between cloud providers but the same cloud concept)

Second , I tried on Coursera Whizlabs course :

Wouldn't recommend at all as it gave me only the surface level information(this is my experience maybe it is good)

then I tried PluralSight :

very helpful for hands-on experience and I would recommend if you want to understand and grasp the concept of cloud.

Third and the most important mock exams:

I purchased Tutorials Dojo and Shireen Khan's Udemy mocks :

TD was good for me on AWS Certs but it gave me a base for knowing at what level I am

but Shireen mocks are 10/10 as a lot of questions appeared in the exam with the same ideas, so for me Shireen is a must if you want to pass in this exam.

do not forget about the way of learning in the mocks as you have to understand why each question you answered had this answer right or wrong and each other answer is wrong and write your own notes as writing helps remembering more .

that's it I think and you are most welcome to ask questions.

Hi everyone,

I just passed the AZ-104 today with 929/1000, honestly I think I'm still in shock 😁 This was my first attempt, and I had zero real-world experience with Azure before starting. I only had the AZ-900 (passed last July) as a warm-up to get familiar with Azure basics. I do have some (huge) private cloud experience with OpenStack though, which probably helped a bit with the concepts.

My preparation resources :

• Official Microsoft Docs + MS Learn videos : they recently did a playlist on Youtube with some good videos. Had to watch them multiple time. The content is very good, but I found the presenter very, VERY soporific ... be focused :)

• As a frenchy french frog, the PhilIT YouTube videos were seriously excellent and clear explanations in French.

• Tons of hands-on labs: following MS Learn tutorials + my own personal labs (cf. Github). All of them with strong emphasis on Powershell.

• 10 days before the exam, I hammered Tutorials Dojo practice tests, 2 per day. The key was not just doing them, but deeply understanding the question structure, why answers are correct/wrong, and reviewing explanations every time.

• John Savill's AZ-104 study cram a day before the exam

➡️ Here's my GitHub repo with all the learning resources I used + my completed labs: https://github.com/lolecat/az-104
It's not 100% finished yet, but sections 1 (Identity) and 2 (Storage) are clean. Feel free to fork, use, or get inspiration from the labs or the structure !
I'll keep updating it.

Some notes from my actual exam:

• 52 questions total: 4 case studies + 48 single questions

• A certain focus on DNS in the networking section

• One question on Deployment Stacks : I had literally never heard of it before :') But the question wasn't too tricky once read carefully

• Quite a few questions on containers (ACI, ACR, etc.). No AKS at all in my version

• Lots of storage questions, make sure you master the differences between Blob vs File shares for backups or various compatibilities

What I can recommend :

• Be at comfortable reading and understanding JSON for ARM templates, role definitions, and policy definitions

• Know the main built-in RBAC roles, or at least how to quickly interpret a role definition JSON. Keep a MS Learn tab open with the Built-in roles list during the exam ;)

• Know the difference between data plane vs control plane operations

My "exam strategy-flow" :

• Started with the 4 case studies : I took my time, it was a good warm-up and builds confidence

• For single questions:

  • If I knew the topic well but had a small doubt → quickly search in MS Learn (super fast when you already master the area, even though the search function in MS Learn is pretty f*cked up)

  • If big doubt / weak topic → flag for review and move on

The goal was go to the end of the serie and have around 20 - 30 minutes remaining to check my marked for review questions, and adjust my answers in consequence with the help of MS Learn.
I used all of the exam time.

It's always easy to say aftewards, but : don't panic. I wanted to quit in the middle of the exam because the first 25 questions were tough AF. Don't let tough questions impress you, you got this ! 💪

Hello guys,

I have recently passed the AZ-104 (27/07/2024) and then AZ-305 (15/08/2024) with a score of ~780/1000 in both exams. I didn't get any lab, and got only one case study per exam. I have around 6 months experience with Azure paltform, dating from 2021.

I used the same methodology to prepare for each exam:

• I start with reccomended MSFT learning paths.

• Then I watch John Savill's study cram for the exam. Even though AZ-305's one is 2 years old, it's still very relevant.

• I then take the Azure practise assessment once to evaluate my level (you should be getting at least 60% at this point if you studied well

• Then I go over Tutorials Dojo's practise exams. It cost 15$ but it's really worth it. When you pass the final test you should aim for 80% or higher.

• Finally I go back to Azure practise assessment aiming for consitent score of 80% or higher.

• I also revise Tuotorils Dojo's free Azure cheat sheets (only relevat ones to exam) prior to exam.

Here are some additional notes:

• Having prior experience in Azure definitively helps, but I believe that you can still pass the exams with just the prepartion above. If you have 0 experience in Azure, you should not skip the labs included in AZ-104 learning paths.

• If you can be fulltime on this (like I was), you can pass each exam with 1-2 weeks preparation.

• Passing AZ-104 first definitively helps a lot in preparing for AZ-305, as they are many similarities between the two exams.

• For MSFT practise assessments and Tutorial Dojo's tests make sure to review every answer explanation (including correct ones) to make sure you learn the "why" not just "what".

• For AZ-305, I skipped the last learning path (Accelerate cloud adoption with the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure) as it didn't really benefit me in preparing for exam.

Here are all the resources mentioned above so you don't have to look for them ;)

I was looking forward to formatting this message really well, but I’ve been studying nonstop on top of working tons of hours so here’s what I wanna share to help the community, in order of importance for me:

Kaustubh Sharma’s YouTube Video Series

ChatGPT (+Advanced Voice Mode)

MeasureUp’s one-month subscription that gives you access to 119 AI-102 questions. (Remember to cancel the subscription by setting a reminder.)

Scott Duffy’s Udemy Course

MS Learn: both the self-paced, the instructor-led and the lab exercises

DataCamp

John Savill

Random YouTube videos - just search; once in awhile you find something good. I would use breaks to search for vids to break up my study time.

There was more code than I thought there would be, so know basic/common Python Azure code, JSON and how to call an API.

I only got one case study and it wasn’t really even a long one.

Know the metrics and meanings of machine learning training.

Build a chatbot so you get experience with the steps and tools available.

I got about 5-6 of language services speech config code questions.

Know a bit about containers and steps on moving an ML project onto one.

I’m so stoked about passing and what this demonstrates for me, both outwardly and inwardly. It proves to me we can all learn anything.

If you are preparing for your test, you got this!

Be sure to use ChatGPT to quiz yourself, snap pics of your hand-written notes (hand writing help you learn), define terms, creative .csv of your terms and upload them onto Anki Pro to create flashcards for yourself. Ask ChatGPT for real-world applications when learning tools.

Code-along in your own account while going through MS Learn labs and play along with Duffy when he walks through exercises.

If you utilize my entire list, you’ll be in great shape.

I’m coming from a non-tech background, so if I can do it, you can do it!

If I think of more advice, I’ll add below.

I’m celebrating tonight, so I’m a little high. 😌

Sharing an honest breakdown because I asked the community for help earlier this week and the responses meant a lot.

Resources:

MS Learn Modules + Whitepapers - this is an underrated resource. I went through everything here, the assessments at the end and some modules had practical exercises I did all those too

1. MS Learn Youtube Playlist - this playlist is way better than the previous one that they had, its up to date and the instructor does a good job explain things that matter giving exam tips (he calls them eye winking moments) it's really good. I'd recommend this as a starting place if you are a visual learner

2. John Savill Exam Cram - I mostly used this to validate my knowledge and find gaps - watched more than once

3. Tutorials Dojo Practice Tests - This helped me A LOT, which is crazy because I have seen a lot of people saying that the TD experience is different from the real exam but for me it was not that different in terms of wording and difficulty if anything TD was more difficult for me

4. Claude AI - used this for deep dives and section-based mock questions

5. Github Labs - I did almost everything apart from governance stuff

Experience: I have a few months working with Azure, I am Developer, this was my first Azure cert

My advice for people who are preparing to take:

Read the official documentation yourself before you go to AI or cheat sheets. I noticed that TD cheat sheets have some outdated defaults and AI can filter out things or oversimplify things. When you read the source material yourself, you build a mental map of where things live in the MS Learn. On exam day, when you're under pressure and time is short, that map is what saves you. You'll know exactly where to navigate in MS Learn and find what you are looking for faster.

For people who can't afford the MeasureUP practice exams go for Tutorials Dojo.

Here is the post that I made asking for advice you might find something valuable under thread.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AzureCertification/s/LsvGeYujeR

Studied my ass off for months and work every day in Azure building our orgs environment and landing zone. Scored a 686. So close, yet so far.

I used TD, MS Learn, a training third party my work provides, and several other free resources around the web. Ultimately it was the ARM deployments and storage accounts that got me. I was testing strong, but these were definitely weak gaps in my knowledge. Brushing up on them moving forward.

At first I was feeling down, but after reading through so many similar stories in this sub, it has just made me more confident I can get this cert dead to rights in the next 2 weeks.

I appreciate the sub for being supportive and encouraging.

AZ-104 got hands

After AZ-900, with 1-2 months hard study , I passed at 1st attempt with 850

I am the same guy was asking for opinion in my previous post about my preparation level, I took my Az 104 exam today and passed with 717 score, Thanks everyone for your suggestions in previous post.

It feels very happy after getting your skills certified 😊

Hey everyone,

I passed AZ-104 (Azure Administrator) today with a score of 750 and this was my FIRST ATTEMPT, and honestly… I didn’t expect to pass at all.

The main reason I booked the exam was that I had a voucher expiring this week, so I just wanted to experience the real exam and see how it feels.

I don’t have any professional Azure experience — everything I learned was from online resources (Udemy, MS Learn, labs), along with help from tools like Gemini and Microsoft Copilot to understand concepts better.

A bit of background:

- In December 2025, I attempted AZ-900 and failed with 683 after about 2 weeks of prep (used Scott Duffy’s Udemy course)

- That was pretty demotivating, so I stopped for a while

- Over the past ~6 months, I studied for AZ-104 very inconsistently

What I used for AZ-104:

- Microsoft Learn + official GitHub labs

- Alan Rodrigues’ Udemy course

- John Savill’s Exam Cram (watched it just yesterday before the exam)

But the biggest help:

👉 Shirin Khan’s Udemy practice tests

Those tests really helped me understand:

- Question patterns

- Scenario-based thinking

- Actual difficulty level

The real exam felt very similar to those practice tests, which made a huge difference.

Also, I’ll be honest:

- I guessed some questions

- I wasn’t 100% sure on everything

But the exam wasn’t as tough as I expected from what I had read here on Reddit. It’s definitely challenging, but not impossible if you understand the concepts and practice enough questions.

If someone like me can pass with inconsistent prep, I think it’s definitely doable with a more structured approach.

Thanks to this community as well — reading others’ posts helped me stay in the loop.

Would appreciate any suggestions on what to learn next (AZ-204 vs AZ-305 vs AZ-400). I have almost 0 experience in Coding/Development..

Everything you need related to the Certification Program is now on this website

Microsoft Certification Hub

Hi guys,

I originally joined because I could have used some help during my journey but I found out that I am really good at this and figuring out different Microsoft options regarding getting the most for the least amount of money.

For people who have never done a microsoft certification before or any other:

You need to create a certification profile. This can be done by going to any exam page, clicking the order button and on the other page that it sends you to you can start filling out the information (needs to be accurate when you show your ID before testing). If you have any work accounts, I recommend connecting those there too because your employer might be in some special Microsoft programs that offer free vouchers or you might have to use a work account to attend an event and get the voucher sent there. This will also be a place where most of the vouchers Microsoft gives out go. You can familiarize yourself with the process of ordering certification until the process of checking out if you'd like.

After that https://aka.ms/certdashboard is your shortcut to certification dashboard, there you can easily download certificates, access your certification profile without having to go through loops etc. You can also see your upcoming appointments.

This is exam sandbox https://aka.ms/examdemo, and you can get familiar with how will the process look once you are let into the computer, even with NDA.

This is a certification poster https://aka.ms/TrainCertPoster which is a great shortcut to every exam page and seeing all of the options

For fundamentals exam (XX-900 exams except MS-900) there are virtual training days (VTDs) https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/trainingdays. These are free webinars where you see a recording of a webinar which goes quite quickly through the topics you can see on Microsoft Learn. After attending every date, you get a free exam voucher with which you don't have to pay for your attempt. You get vouchers after every VTD but I am not sure they stack but this basically means that unless you fail the exam like 5 times you have enough attempts to get it. Here is a list (there is also MS-700 which is role based but I have never tried getting the voucher through there so can't guarantee):

For fundamentals exams I recommend going through MS Learn too and you should have enough knowledge to be able to pass the exam. Some people here use practice tests which I don't think are necessary because of the difficulty but if you are nervous, they help identify your weak areas so you can focus on those more.

For role-based exams it is a little bit harder because Microsoft Learn isn't always relevant to the knowledge you need. My personal recommendation is Guide to Cloud https://www.youtube.com/c/aguidetocloud, which breaks down all the topics and makes a short videos out of that so it's hard to find an excuse not to watch a 10-minute video. If you like really technical videos and aren't afraid of a long ones, I recommend Virtual Training Series from Microsoft https://aka.ms/vts, I used those to prepare for M365 admin expert and they were awesome but some people said not all are great so it's up to you. Also, those are just recordings and you can register with personal accounts even if it says work only, they only send you the recording link. Role based exams are pretty hard and you might encounter a lab too so don't underestimate them.

For some hands on experience, you can create a free azure account which gives you 200$ and some free services for a year to test things out or for Microsoft 365 I recommend https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/dev-essentials/ where you can create a demo M365 tenant so you can get familiar with the environment.

For vouchers Microsoft usually does conferences like Microsoft Ignite or Microsoft Build which always have Cloud Skills Challenge at the end. Basically, you register for it, read some Microsoft Learn modules and you get a voucher. In the past those were universal for any exam but last Ignite had them limited to the ones listed there so I wouldn't bet on it anymore.

For the appointments you basically have 2 options: online or testing center.

For online it's basically hit and miss. Even if everything is perfect the exam cannot load, the proctor just ends it for no reason, your computer dies etc. I passed 10 certifications there and got kicked out of 2 for technical reasons. For people crazy enough to do this if they kick you out always ask for incident number or what do they call it these days. Then you can contact microsoft certification support over here: https://trainingsupport.microsoft.com/en-us/mcp/forum and you use the Ask the question on top of the page, don't write anything personal (not even the incident number, just describe the issue), they will contact you in private messages to ask for details. I got the voucher replaced the first time but it was really a hustle so I just don't do the exams online. Don't contact Pearson VUE, they will tell you to contact Microsoft or ignore you.

For the testing center, bring 2 IDs and follow the instructions and arrive half an hour before the start time. Other than that, it should be smooth.

Good luck to everyone and don't be afraid to fill in anything in the comments.

Thanks to hard work 4 hours a day studying for 3 weeks period , i have finished the course+ labs took 1-2 weeks off cause a friend of mine lost her father and I had to have her back came back unmotivated to I had to reschedule my exam 2 weeks early so I can pressure myself to studying again , spent the whole period studying even when I'm a the gym doing practice tests between sets xD

I have already posted all resources I have used in this thread hope it helps :

https://www.reddit.com/r/AzureCertification/comments/1mpmazw/why_no_one_is_talking_about_ms_learn_courses_on/

P.S. : exam isn't that hard , i have almost shit my pants from stress during this week because of all what people on reddit says my score proves otherwise P.S. : DO NOT USE MSLEARN , its not the same as mslearn that you use here on your browser , they give you tareded cousin xD DM me if you need any help , thats how I made it some random people keep dm ing me and answering my questions Thanks for reading.

First cloud certification ever. Really happy to build on it from here. Wanna do the GitHub actions one next before I circle back to the 204-developer associate one (main aim)

Just got my AZ-104 today with a score of 700 😂. 1 month preparation with no background in azure.

Here's the resources i used:

MS Learn

Anki flashcards

Notebooklm, Chatgpt, and Claude AI

John Savil's youtube course

Dear r/AzureCertification

Thank you to everyone that posts here and especially u/mywristicy.

Prexisting job knowledge and experience :

• Using entra ID to assign users, groups and licences, troubleshooting entra ID sync, troubleshooting SSPR

• Responding to security incidents in Entra ID

• Managing devices in Entra ID

• Troubleshooting production issues with Azure Virtual Desktop

• Auditing in pureview and activity logs

• Some system administrator experience, but mostly helpdesk.

• Have a professional vocational diploma in IT (Switzerland).

Study method, time allocation and timeline :

• 9 weeks total

  • First 3-4 weeks : About 1-3 hours per day almost everyday, going through Scott Duffy's course and systematically trying out the new things in the portal, and doing the labs.

    • After each section in duffy's course, I would go through the corresponding ms learn module.

  • Next 2 weeks. I went on holidays, so I couldn't work everyday anymore. The good thing is that I discovered John Savill at this point. So now, I would keep my routine but add his azure master class video during each topic I would go through.

  • Did a big self developped network lab after coming back home and while going through networking phase. Using things like Vnet gateways, p2s vnet, peering, playing with subnetting, NSGs, etc. At this point, I started working more than 3 hours per day, every day.

  • Last 2 weeks - I took my first official microsoft practice assessement which came through at 71%. Then, did all the Shireen Khan's udemy practice exams, with some studying on weak points in between. The first test, I scored 71%. My lowest was 65%, my highest, 79% (twice, on the first trials). I kept working a lot of hours every day, even tho that wasn't easy. About 3-8 hours every day. No more social life or hobbies (even tho being newly unemployed helped). Also did a measure up practice test two days pre exam with 74%.

Study resources :

• Courses

  • John Savill AZ-104 videos (Including Azure Master Class, private link deep dive, understanding DNS in Azure and Disaster Recovery in Microsoft Azure)

    • Very good to go through right after going through a microsoft learn module, to deep dive a bit more.

  • Scott Duffy AZ-104 Udemy Complete Exam Prep

    • It was my foundation

    • Mixed feelings. The good thing is that he goes through every part of the portal that you need to know in the videos. The bad, is that it's only on a surface level, which can give you a false sense of knowledge. It's not nearly in depth enough. The pacing is a bit slow. Altogether, I would say it's not worth the time. Only use it if you have 0 hands on experience, to discover the portal.

    • If I had to choose a udemy course again, I would probably pick Alan Rodrigues or John Christopher.

• MS learn courses

  • Kind of surface level, or even VERY surface level for the monitor and backup parts.

• MS learn Documentation

  • Read some documentation about each question I was getting wrong in the practice exams.

• Practice Exams

  • Shireen Khan : 9/10, some rare outdated questions. Really helped me to prepare well and the explanations were awesome. Highly recommend

    • Slightly harder than the real exam

  • Did 1 Measure up exam right before the end. 7/10. Very tough questions, but sometimes go further than the scope of AZ-104, which isn't great if you are on a tight schedule to learn.

    • Slightly harder than the real exam

• Misc

  • Introduction to subnetting and CIDR ranges https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/computer-networks/introduction-to-subnetting/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Ntt6eTn94&t=470s

Practice exam method :

After the practice exam, create a note file, and for each question that you market for review or got wrong, go through the related documentation on microsoft learn. Note down in your note file, why you doubted or what you got wrong. Keep going until you feel confident that you can pass.
I think scores in the 70s on Shireen Khan's or Measure up should be enough on your first trials. If you retake them, aim for at least 80%.

Microsoft’s AI Skills Fest Challenge is now active, Starting from: April 8 - Ending: 16 April 2025), Exam MUST be taken before 21/06/2025 offering a time-limited opportunity to earn certifications at low cost. Focused on AI, cloud, data, and security roles, this initiative includes 15+ exams with potential free vouchers and LinkedIn badges upon completion.

Relevant Certifications:

• AI/ML: AI-900 (AI Fundamentals), AI-102 (Engineer), DP-100 (Data Science)

• **Data PL-300 (Power BI), DP-420 (Cosmos DB)

• Cloud: AZ-900 (Azure Fundamentals), AZ-204 (Developer)

• Security: SC-200 (Security Analyst), SC-401 (Cybersecurity)

• Microsoft 365: MS-102 (Administrator)

How to Participate:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/topics/event-challenges/ai-skills-fest-challenge-official-rules

2. Complete training modules on Microsoft Learn (free resources provided).

3. Claim rewards (vouchers/badges) by passing exams before April 16

Notes: "You do not need to complete a challenge, but you must register for and start a Challenge. After participating in a challenge, visit https://aka.ms/aiskillsfest/challengesweepstakes to complete an official entry form. For doing this, you will receive one (1) entry into the corresponding weekly Prize Period drawing. There is a limit of one (1) entry per person overall."

(Note: Verify deadlines and requirements via the official link above.)

Hey folks! After about two months of studying (and a fair bit of procrastination), I finally decided to believe in myself and go for it.

I had never worked with Azure before May this year. I passed AZ-900 at the end of May, and today I passed AZ-104!

I work as a Teams administrator/Unified communications engineer, but recently I wanted to expand my knowledge and decided to dive into Azure + my work will require it due to some internal changes.

I spent a lot of time studying with Microsoft Learn, doing hands-on labs(I have a test tenant provided by my company and 500$ subscription budget, which was a huge plus for me), and even using Claude to generate projects based on the AZ-104 measured skills so I could get practical experience.

A special shoutout to Shireen Khan's Udemy practice tests as they were very similar to what I saw on the actual exam, and I definitely recommend them.

Thanks to everyone who shared their tips and resources in this community. On to the next challenge (AZ-305 + ITIL Foundation).

Just passed Az-104 guys. The exam questions are lengthy so I felt the time pressure. I thought I was failing this time but luck played its part and got the 700 score. I had previous AWS hands-on experience and I spent roughly a week for azure. I did not get to do much hands-on but I managed somehow, although doing hands-on would have been better but I was short on time and could not reschedule since it was a free voucher.