SC-300 Exam Completed with Feedback and Notes

I recently completed the SC-300 Exam and this article will discuss my experience, what you should expect from the SC-300 Exam and my guidance on preparing yourself to pass the SC300 Exam. This exam is the only exam required to earn the Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator Associate certification.

SC-300 Exam Info

Exam description snippet from: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/sc-300

The Microsoft identity and access administrator designs, implements, and operates an organization’s identity and access management systems by using Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). They manage tasks such as providing secure authentication and authorization access to enterprise applications. The administrator provides seamless experiences and self-service management capabilities for all users. Adaptive access and governance are core elements to the role. This role is also responsible for troubleshooting, monitoring, and reporting for the identity and access environment.

sc300 exam info

There are 4 key areas of the exam:

  • Implement an identity management solution
  • Implement an authentication and access management solution
  • Implement access management for apps
  • Plan and implement an identity governance strategy

My SC-300 Exam Feedback

I started my exam very early in the day, around 5 am, so it did not disrupt my day to day activities. I am slowly learning now by doing that, it makes it significantly harder to concentrate unless I am awake for an hour prior and sinking a cup of coffee. 

My exam was a little shorter than other exams I have completed. I was given 120 minutes to complete a little over 40 questions. My recently Azure exams have been about 60 questions over 150 minutes, but I guess it is luck of the draw. 

The exam its self was in the usual Microsoft format, this is something you can learn to expect with Microsoft exams. It really helps you mentally prepare prior and will help you build confidence before starting. If you have not taken an exam yet, make sure you take the plunge!

My question set focused on the following areas: (items plucked from the skills outline)

  • Configuring and managing Azure Active Directory, directory Roles
  • Creating and managing custom domains in your M365 tenant
  • The use of Administrative units
  • Managing users, groups and licensing from the Azure Active Directory Portal
  • Managing external collaboration and external users in Azure Active Directory
  • Setting up and managing hybrid identity with Azure AD Connect, including password-hash sync, passthrough authentication and single sign-on
  • Planning and deploying Azure MFA
  • Managing different MFA authentication methods
  • Creating and troubleshooting conditional access policies
  • All about Azure Active Directory Identity Protection
  • Access and sign-on management for enterprise applications
  • Implementing Azure AD Application Proxy for on-premise applications
  • A lot of identity governance including; catalogs, creating access reviews, automating access reviews, managing terms of use
  • Configuring and managing Privileged Identity Management
  • Analysing Azure AD Diagnostic Logs with Azure Sentinal
Overall it was a well-structured exam that covered nearly all of the topics outlined in the skills outline one way or another. 

SC-300 Exam Study Guide

This was the first Microsoft security certification I have taken. I prepared myself in the same way I do with most exams. I download the skills outline, create a table in Excel to paste in the content and mark each section when I feel confident in the area (or am at least able to make an educated guess about it), you can view the skills out-line here.

Some other areas where you should focus your time are:

Also if you are fairly new to Azure in total, but are keen to start with the security certifications I suggest you begin with the SC-900 exam. This exam will be easier to study for and give you a core foundation on security components in Azure.

Summary

Overall I really enjoyed this exam, it covered a lot of what I do in my day to day activities, meaning I was able to relate some questions to tasks I have actually completed in production. The questions were clear and accurate, without grammatical errors and I thank Microsoft for this.

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.

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Dan

    well done and congrats for passing the test

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