The Microsoft Azure AZ-104 exam certifies you as an Azure Administrator. Ideally, this certification validates real hands-on experience; not just theoretical knowledge.
In this article, I share my journey to passing AZ-104, including the study materials I used, my personal notes, and the practice exams that helped me prepare.
Before diving into that, I want to highlight a few key remarks that I share with my students when teaching different courses.
Hands-on experience matters
Certification alone is not the goal. Without hands-on experience and the ability to confidently discuss the topic, its value is limited. If you’re aiming to get certified without real, practical experience, I encourage you to change your approach.
Create an Azure account and practice through all objectives.
Getting there is a journey (take it slowly)
Certification should never be a last-minute goal without prior knowledge. However, if you already have strong hands-on experience, two or three weeks of focused preparation can be enough to successfully pass the exam; based on my own experience.
Inside the AZ-104 Exam
In my exam, I had 52 questions and 100 minutes to complete them. The exam includes different types of questions, such as single-answer and multiple-answer questions. You can usually mark these questions for review and return to them later.
There are also scenario-based questions, where you are given company information, their current Azure configuration, planned changes, and technical requirements. Typically, you need to answer 5–6 questions based on the scenario. Once you answer them, you cannot go back.
Additionally, some scenario questions ask whether a specific change will require implementing another change, with Yes or No answers. For example, to unblock RDP on port 3389, you might need to change the VM configuration (Yes or No) or configure the NSG (Yes or No). In some cases, all answers could be correct or incorrect, depending on the scenario.
In my exam, there were many questions about storage. It seemed that Microsoft placed extra focus on this topic compared to others, so make sure you understand storage thoroughly.
What If You Fail the AZ-104 Exam?
If you fail, you can take a second attempt 24 hours later. If you fail the second attempt, you can try again 14 days after. You can attempt the exam a maximum of 5 times, and after that, you’ll need to wait 12 months to retake it.
But let’s not worry about that; aim to pass on your first attempt!
Study Material
Through my experience as an instructor and someone who holds over 20 certifications, I highly recommend focusing on multiple high-value resources. These usually include official training, official or third-party books, and practical hands-on experience before taking the exam.
Of course, this also depends on your budget—but everything I’ll share here is free and can help you prepare for the exam.
I used them myself, and they helped me successfully pass the AZ-104.
Microsoft’s Official AZ-104 Course
Microsoft has published the official AZ-104 course on YouTube, and many people are not aware of it. The content is high quality in both depth and delivery, and it is one of the best AZ-104 resources I’ve found.
The course consists of 22 videos with a total duration of 13 hours and 14 minutes. The average video length is 36 minutes and 6 seconds. The trainer speaks slowly for better understanding, so I watched it at 1.25× speed, which reduced the total time to 10 hours, 35 minutes, and 32 seconds.
The course is organized into the following topics:
- Course Introduction
- Understand Microsoft Entra ID
- Administer Governance and Compliance
- Administer Azure Resources
- Administer Virtual Networking
- Administer Intersite Connectivity
- Administer Network Traffic
- Administer Azure Storage
- Administer Azure Virtual Machines
- Administer PaaS Compute Options
- Administer Data Protection
- Administer Monitoring
Keep in mind that when you move on to demos, you’ll need additional time. I recommend watching and listening carefully (I will provide notes) and practicing in a sandbox environment. The trainer often jumps straight into demos to explain the topics.
Microsoft Learn
I remember the days when preparing for exams was completely different. You could only attend onsite training courses, purchase courses, or rely on books. If you didn’t have the money, finding the right study path was extremely difficult.
Thanks to Microsoft Learn, preparing for exams is now much easier. The platform provides a structured learning path, test environments, and quizzes at the end of each module.
The official AZ-104 course consists of six modules, with a total duration of 18 hours and 6 minutes. It includes textual content, videos, and hands-on labs. In practice, you’ll often need less time to complete it.
The course is organized into the following topics:
- AZ-104: Prerequisites for Azure administrators
- AZ-104: Manage identities and governance in Azure
- AZ-104: Configure and manage virtual networks for Azure administrators
- AZ-104: Implement and manage storage in Azure
- AZ-104: Deploy and manage Azure compute resources
- AZ-104: Monitor and back up Azure resources
Notes
While preparing for the exam, I took some notes and screenshots that I found important. They are from both the Microsoft Learn and the YouTube course I mentioned above.
Take a Practice Test
Once you are done with studying and want to challenge yourself, I recommend taking the practice test provided by Microsoft. It contains 50 questions. Furthermore, after each module there is a knowledge check to help you verify whether you are ready.
