Welcome to my MS-102: Microsoft 365 Administrator exam study guide. This guide collates all of the best free learning resources from Microsoft documents, community blog posts and videos, which directly relate to each skill listed in the exam requirements. The goal is to assist you with your study and help you easily pass the MS-102 exam.
By following this guide for the MS-102 exam, you will be giving yourself the best possible chance at finishing the exam with a pass!
About the MS-102 exam
The MS-102 exam is the single exam required to earn you the Microsoft 365 Certified: Administrator Expert certification. It is aimed at Microsoft 365 experts who have experience in deploying, maintaining and managing Microsoft 365 environments including workloads that reach infrastructure outside of Microsoft 365.
Full exam description
Candidates for this exam are Microsoft 365 administrators who deploy and manage Microsoft 365. They perform Microsoft 365 tenant-level implementation and administration of cloud and hybrid environments.
Microsoft 365 administrators function as the integrating hub for all Microsoft 365 workloads. They coordinate across multiple Microsoft 365 workloads. They work with architects and other administrators responsible for workloads, infrastructure, identity, security, compliance, endpoints, and applications.
Candidates for this exam have functional experience with all Microsoft 365 workloads and Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), part of Microsoft Entra, and have administered at least one of these. They also have a working knowledge of networking, server administration, DNS, and PowerShell.
Although only 1 exam is required to earn the certification (where-as there was previously 2, the MS-100 and MS-101), there is still a pre-requisite certification needed, see the certification path below.
My MS-102 exam feedback
I completed the MS-102 in May 2023 while it was still in the beta phase, although my experience will still be almost the same as those taking the full exam after July 2023, so bear that in mind.
Overall I found the exam covered a wide range of services in M365, however, it did focus quite heavily on Microsoft Defender. I highly suggest during your study you consistently practice with your Microsoft Defender technologies across all areas including Defender for Cloud, Defender for identity, Defender for endpoint and so on.
Unfortunately during the exam, I was still plagued by some of the same poorly worded questions and spelling mistakes that I found in the MS-101 prior exam.
The questions we in the usual Microsoft exam format, which consisted of scenario-based questions, drag and drop, fill out the blank, yes or no and standard single-answer questions.
Deploy and manage a Microsoft 365 tenant (25–30%)
Implement and manage a Microsoft 365 tenant
- Create a tenant
- Implement and manage domains
- Configure organizational settings, including security, privacy, and profile
- Identify and respond to service health issues
- Configure notifications in service health
- Monitor adoption and usage
Manage users and groups
- Create and manage users
- Create and manage guest users
- Create and manage contacts
- Create and manage groups, including Microsoft 365 groups
- Manage and monitor Microsoft 365 license allocations
- Perform bulk user management, including PowerShell
Manage roles in Microsoft 365
- Manage roles in Microsoft 365 and Azure AD
- Manage role groups for Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Purview, and Microsoft 365 workloads
- Manage delegation by using administrative units
- Implement privileged identity management for Azure AD roles
Implement and manage identity and access in Azure AD (25–30%)
Implement and manage identity synchronization with Azure AD
- Prepare for identity synchronization by using IdFix
- Implement and manage directory synchronization by using Azure AD Connect cloud sync
- Implement and manage directory synchronization by using Azure AD Connect
- Monitor synchronization by using Azure AD Connect Health
- Troubleshoot synchronization, including Azure AD Connect and Azure AD Connect cloud sync
Implement and manage authentication
- Implement and manage authentication methods, including Windows Hello for Business, passwordless, tokens, and the Microsoft Authenticator app
- Windows Hello for Business Overview (Ms doc)
- Password-less strategy (Ms doc)
- Password-less authentication options for Azure Active Directory (Ms doc)
- Authentication methods in Azure Active Directory – OATH tokens (MS doc)
- Authentication methods in Azure Active Directory – Microsoft Authenticator app (Ms doc)
- Implement and manage self-service password reset (SSPR)
- Implement and manage Azure AD Password Protection
- Implement and manage multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Investigate and resolve authentication issues
Implement and manage secure access
- Plan for identity protection
- Implement and manage Azure AD Identity Protection
- Plan Conditional Access policies
- Implement and manage Conditional Access policies
Manage security and threats by using Microsoft 365 Defender (25–30%)
Manage security reports and alerts by using the Microsoft 365 Defender portal
- Review and take actions to improve the Microsoft Secure Score in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal
- Review and respond to security incidents and alerts in Microsoft 365 Defender
- Review and respond to issues identified in security and compliance reports in Microsoft 365 Defender
- Review and respond to threats identified in threat analytics
Implement and manage email and collaboration protection by using Microsoft Defender for Office 365
- Implement policies and rules in Defender for Office 365
- Review and respond to threats identified in Defender for Office 365, including threats and investigations
- Create and run campaigns, such as attack simulation
- Unblock users
Implement and manage endpoint protection by using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
- Onboard devices to Defender for Endpoint
- Configure Defender for Endpoint settings
- Review and respond to endpoint vulnerabilities
- Review and respond to risks identified in the Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management dashboard
Manage compliance by using Microsoft Purview (15–20%)
Implement Microsoft Purview information protection and data lifecycle management
- Implement and manage sensitive info types by using keywords, keyword lists, or regular expressions
- Implement retention labels, retention label policies, and retention policies
- Implement sensitivity labels and sensitivity label policies
Implement Microsoft Purview data loss prevention (DLP)
- Implement DLP for workloads
- Implement Endpoint DLP
- Review and respond to DLP alerts, events, and reports
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