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Azure Fundamentals Certification Complete Study Guide

Welcome to my Azure Fundamentals Certification study guide. The aim of this guide is to help you prepare and study for the Azure Fundaments exam (AZ-900) and pass! We will also give you great hints and tips based on our feedback on passing the exam and also show you how you can take the exam for free. 

The Azure Fundamentals Certification proves that you have a good understanding of core cloud concepts and different Azure services & workloads, such as; security, infrastructure as a service, pricing and support and much more…

Candidates for this certification do not need any prior knowledge of Azure or cloud services and is intended for those looking to kick start their career with Azure.

Azure Fundamentals exam information

Here is the exam description snippet from the Microsoft exam page:

Candidates for this exam should have foundational knowledge of cloud services and how those services are provided with Microsoft Azure. The exam is intended for candidates who are just beginning to work with cloud-based solutions and services or are new to Azure.

Azure Fundamentals exam is an opportunity to prove knowledge of cloud concepts, Azure services, Azure workloads, security and privacy in Azure, as well as Azure pricing and support. Candidates should be familiar with the general technology concepts, including concepts of networking, storage, compute, application support, and application development.

Azure Fundamentals can be used to prepare for other Azure role-based or specialty certifications, but it is not a prerequisite for any of them.

There is only 1 exam required to earn this certification, which is the AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certification exam. 

Is the Azure Fundamentals exam hard?

The Azure Fundamentals exam is an entry-level exam and is not considered hard. It is aimed at non-technical professionals or those who are starting to work with Azure cloud services. 

But do not let that fool you. This does not mean you can dive into the exam without any study. You need to ensure you have a good study plan and have devoted time to learning. The questions you will be delivered in the exam are in themselves, quite simple, but without a core understanding of cloud service, in particular Azure, you may find it quite difficult.

How long does it take to study for the Azure Fundamentals certification?

You should aim to complete at least 15 hours of study for this exam. By reviewing our study guide below and prioritising your areas of study, 15 hours should be a sufficient amount of time for you to pass the Azure Fundamentals certification exam.

My Azure Fundamentals exam feedback after passing

The exam was 60 minutes long and I passed in around 35 minutes. There were some exam questions I found very easy and some which were quite specific and made me think.

Overall I found the exam covered all of the topics that are outlined in the exam skills outline defined by Microsoft here.

Many of the questions were multiple-choice, however, the AZ-900 exam did include some yes/no, drag-drop, answer pairing and case study questions.

Azure Fundaments Microsoft Docs exam study guide

Describe Cloud Concepts (20-25%)

Identify the benefits and considerations of using cloud services

identify the benefits of cloud computing, such as High Availability, Scalability, Elasticity, Agility, and Disaster Recovery

identify the differences between Capital Expenditure (CapEx) and Operational Expenditure (OpEx)

describe the consumption-based model

Describe the differences between categories of cloud services

describe the shared responsibility model

describe Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

describe Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

describe serverless computing

describe Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

identify a service type based on a use case

Describe the differences between types of cloud computing

define cloud computing

describe Public cloud

describe Private cloud

describe Hybrid cloud

compare and contrast the three types of cloud computing

Describe Core Azure Services (15-20%)

Describe the core Azure architectural components

describe the benefits and usage of Regions and Region Pairs

describe the benefits and usage of Availability Zones

describe the benefits and usage of Resource Groups

describe the benefits and usage of Subscriptions

describe the benefits and usage of Management Groups

describe the benefits and usage of Azure Resource Manager

explain Azure resources

Describe core resources available in Azure

describe the benefits and usage of Virtual Machines, Azure App Services, Azure Container Instances (ACI), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), and Azure Virtual Desktop

describe the benefits and usage of Virtual Networks, VPN Gateway, Virtual Network peering, and ExpressRoute

describe the benefits and usage of Container (Blob) Storage, Disk Storage, File Storage, and storage tiers

describe the benefits and usage of Cosmos DB, Azure SQL Database, Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database for PostgreSQL, and Azure SQL Managed Instance

describe the benefits and usage of Azure Marketplace

Describe core solutions and management tools on Azure (10-15%)

Describe core solutions available in Azure

describe the benefits and usage of Internet of Things (IoT) Hub, IoT Central, and Azure Sphere

describe the benefits and usage of Azure Synapse Analytics, HDInsight, and Azure Databricks

describe the benefits and usage of Azure Machine Learning, Cognitive Services and Azure Bot Service

describe the benefits and usage of serverless computing solutions that include Azure Functions and Logic Apps

describe the benefits and usage of Azure DevOps, GitHub, GitHub Actions, and Azure DevTest Labs

Describe Azure management tools

describe the functionality and usage of the Azure Portal, Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI, Cloud Shell, and Azure Mobile App

describe the functionality and usage of Azure Advisor

describe the functionality and usage of Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates

describe the functionality and usage of Azure Monitor

describe the functionality and usage of Azure Service Health

Describe general security and network security features (10-15%)

Describe Azure security features

describe basic features of Azure Security Center, including policy compliance, security alerts, secure score, and resource hygiene

describe the functionality and usage of Azure Key Vault

describe the functionality and usage of Azure Sentinel

describe the functionality and usage of Azure Dedicated Hosts

Describe Azure network security

describe the concept of defense in depth

describe the functionality and usage of Network Security Groups (NSG)

describe the functionality and usage of Azure Firewall

describe the functionality and usage of Azure DDoS protection

Describe identity, governance, privacy, and compliance features (15-20%)

Describe core Azure identity services

explain the difference between authentication and authorization

define Azure Active Directory

describe the functionality and usage of Azure Active Directory

describe the functionality and usage of Conditional Access, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and Single Sign-On (SSO)

Describe Azure governance features

describe the functionality and usage of Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

describe the functionality and usage of resource locks

describe the functionality and usage of tags

describe the functionality and usage of Azure Policy

describe the functionality and usage of Azure Blueprints

describe the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure

Describe privacy and compliance resources

describe the Microsoft core tenets of Security, Privacy, and Compliance

describe the purpose of the Microsoft Privacy Statement, Online Services Terms (OST) and Data Protection Amendment (DPA)

describe the purpose of the Trust Center

describe the purpose of the Azure compliance documentation

describe the purpose of Azure Sovereign Regions (Azure Government cloud services and Azure China cloud services)

Describe Azure cost management and Service Level Agreements (10- 15%)

Describe methods for planning and managing costs

identify factors that can affect costs (resource types, services, locations, ingress and egress traffic)

identify factors that can reduce costs (reserved instances, reserved capacity, hybrid use benefit, spot pricing)

describe the functionality and usage of the Pricing calculator and the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator

describe the functionality and usage of Azure Cost Management

Describe Azure Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and service lifecycles

describe the purpose of an Azure Service Level Agreement (SLA)

identify actions that can impact an SLA (i.e. Availability Zones)

describe the service lifecycle in Azure (Public Preview and General Availability)

Azure Fundamentals Microsoft Learning Paths

Microsoft learning paths are your very own on-demand learning solution provided for free by Microsoft to aid with the adoption of their product and help you become certified. Check out the Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) learning path below. 

Summary

Thank you for taking the time to read my Azure Fundamentals certification exam study guide. I hope you are now well prepared and on your way to passing the AZ-900 (Azure Fundamentals) exam.

Check out our other Azure exam study guides:

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Daniel Bradley

My name is Daniel Bradley and I work with Microsoft 365 and Azure as an Engineer and Consultant. I enjoy writing technical content for you and engaging with the community. All opinions are my own.

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