About Microsoft Azure and AZ 204 exam
Microsoft Azure cloud platform is on the rise these days. Gone are the days when Amazon Web Services(AWS) was the impeccable industry leader in terms of Cloud computing market share. Microsoft has struck several strategic partnerships with companies and because Microsoft understands the enterprise ecosystem very well (thanks to its MS Office suite and other products) it is steadily catching up with AWS. Microsoft has started to embrace Open Source technologies and this has been a game-changer for Azure as well. Making .NET framework as a Cross-platform and going Open Source route through a lightweight .NET Core has revolutionized Microsoft Azure market share. NET Core combined with Linux forms a formidable rival to other frameworks in the market. If you are a .NET developer or someone who is exploring Microsoft Cloud capabilities then it makes absolute sense to take up this certification exam. Coming to the exam itself, as mentioned in Microsoft official website, the exam is classified into five domains:
- Develop Azure compute solutions (25–30%)
- Develop for Azure storage (10–15%)
- Implement Azure security (15–20%)
- Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Azure solutions (10–15%)
- Connect to and consume Azure services and third-party services (25–30%)
Learning
I followed along an Udemy course from Alan Rodrigues titled “AZ-203/204-Developing Solutions for Azure-UPDATED 2020” in Udemy AZ-203/204 — Developing Solutions for Azure — UPDATED 2020
It is one of the most comprehensive courses out there in the market. Alan ensures that he covers all the subtopics mentioned in the exam objective. Literally, he has covered all topics with labs/hands-on. Please refer below URL to see the complete set of topics required for the exam. The course might seem overwhelming initially as it is of 22 hours of content but trust me it’s worth investing 22 hours to learn concepts required for an Azure developer and his practice tests are top-notch. There are quite a few other courses on Udemy which touch base concepts on a very high level which might not be sufficient to clear the exam.
Exam topics for AZ 204 by domain
Exam
Exam duration is of 180 minutes to answer questions ranging from 48 to 55 depending on each individual. Online exam proctoring went smoothly without any glitches and my proctor was kind enough in his approach for me. In my case, there were 48 questions that were divided into 3 sections and once you complete each section you cannot navigate to the previous section. Hence please review each section before submitting and moving on to the next section:
- The first section had 24 multiple-choice questions (MCQs).
- The second section had 2 case studies covering around 14 questions
- The third section had 10 scenario-based questions where one would be presented with different scenarios and candidate should be able to evaluate if statements meet the requirement given in the question
Please read case study requirements carefully and catch the keywords given in appropriate sections(Requirements/Issues/Architecture etc) and then try linking it with case study question. Familiarize yourself with AZ CLI and Powershell CLI commands to create/modify resources as it is important from exam point of view To pass the exam candidate has to secure 700/1000 marks and according to me time will not be a constraint for this exam and whatever duration given is self-sufficient. That’s all for now folks. Happy reading :) Finally, here it is: my exam certification 😊
All the best if you are preparing for this exam!. Please feel free to connect with me if you have any further questions