Today I passed the AZ-900 certification with ease! In doing so, I thought it would be best to give back to others in sharing my resources. Before I go into what I had used over the two weeks of studying, I wanted to share a brief introduction to how I got here and what this means for my future.

Just before starting my studies for AZ-900, I was focused on some personal projects. I had plans to complete a cloud certification in 2022 (was not sure of which one) but that was not until later on in the year. I first wanted to accomplish the Network+ CompTIA certification. Mainly because I find networking to be a weakness of mine and also I feel it is a fundamental building block to where I am headed.

Long story short, I found a deal for me that is allowing me to take any Microsoft Certification exam for free! This is only until June or July so with that being said I knew I had to get after it. I sat down and came up with a game plan. By June or July I at the very least want to earn the AZ-900 (done) certification along with the AZ-104. If I have some time left over I would like to focus on a security related certification from Microsoft.

What does this mean for me and my future? Well I do not know as of yet. I am finding Azure to be super interesting. After AZ-104 I may take an even deeper dive to possibly land a job with either Microsoft or another company who is using Azure at its core.

Study Resources

Microsoft Learning

The learning path provided by Microsoft is simply amazing! I have not looked at much of the other certifications but I did find a quite in-depth training plan for both the AZ-900 and AZ-104. This is where I started my studies. If you browse around on the Microsoft Learn dashboard you will find the Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) training path (I also cover this in the video shown above).

Their are approximately 5 paths inside of the lesson and inside of each path has a few modules. The modules really cover every aspect of the exam. Inside some of the modules their are times where you are required to spin up a “Sandbox”. This sandbox environment is for you to learn, free of charge. At the end of the lesson you will clean up and delete all of the resources you had created. Also at the end of each module is a knowledge check to reinforce what you just learned.

John Savill

I love this guy! John has a rather large channel (just hit 100k!) covering all types of topics in the cloud.

After completing the training path provided by Microsoft, I watched each of John’s videos. If you view his playlists he has one specifically for AZ-900. This playlist consists of 50 lessons, hitting each of the exam topics. I really enjoyed his content, I felt his ability to describe the concepts on a whiteboard to be very helpful. In addition to his entire playlist, he provides a cramming lesson. This cram session is about three hours but briefly covers everything again. I often played this while going on a walk or washing the dishes to just keep the concepts and terms fresh.

Exam Ref AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals 2nd Edition book

Funny story, I actually purchased this book a few months ago as a plan to study it towards the end of the year. Although I was unsure about weather or not I was going to pick AWS or AZURE, I think I always knew deep down Microsoft will always be my go to.

This book was a great resource. Even though I completed the other two resources first I found this to also still have a ton of information not covered elsewhere. It also provides tutorials on how to perform certain actions in the Azure platform. This is great as you can use most of what is talked about on your own subscription to get familiar with the portal.

WhizLabs

I personally feel that practice tests are one of the best tools anyone can have. I would not use this as the only resource to study for an exam but I would definitely use it to ensure you are understanding the material. I have used Udemy for previous certifications, but this time around I found this to be a recommended option.

I am so happy I decided to go with this option (I also purchased the AZ-104 practice tests as well). If you get a question wrong the team has provided a detailed explanation as to why and also provided references directly from Microsoft. For each of the practice tests I passed the first time. I took each of them a total of two times and passed each with 90% or above. The labs are also an option but most of the material covered in lab was already done by me previously.

Joplin (Notes!)

Last resource for me was my notes. I took a ton of notes from each of the resources. I am practicing my note taking, but regardless I found it to be super useful. For one, it prevents you from just reading and not understanding what you are reading. Often times if you write it down you will remember it and if you do not understand you almost instinctively will do more research. Joplin is a great tool to use to take notes. On the day prior and day of the exam I reviewed each of my notes to keep it fresh before jumping into the exam.

Conclusion

Do it! Do not make excuses. Although for a fundamental certification (beginner level), $100 can be quite pricey I do find it to be worth it. I am taking approximately 14 days off before jumping hard into AZ-104, as I do want to work on some personal projects and get some more content out there for you all to enjoy! Until next time, Never Stop Learning!