Azure Fundamentals Certification Exam Guide: Study Tips, Exam Format & Cost

Introduction

With the most easier learning curve and the ability to handle most of the traditional tasks of design, deployment, and management of cloud platforms, Microsoft Azure is quickly gaining ground with a market share of 20% in 2020 right after AWS. Moreover, MS Azure is being used by over 95% of Fortune 500 companies and over 1,000 new customers sign up to Azure daily. That’s 365,000 new companies adopting MS Azure every year!

While, it is estimated that the global end-user spending on public cloud services will grow to 18.4% for 2021, and the global IaaS, PaaS and SaaS market size is expected to reach $82.2 billion, $69 billion, and $138.3 billion by the year 2022 respectively.

So, through Azure Certification, not only you can learn to use various cloud-based services but also obtain one of the highest paying IT certifications of 2020! Yes, Exam AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certification is not just the first step on the path to Microsoft’s role-based certifications but with an average salary of $126,653 it is also one of the highest paying IT certifications according to Global Knowledge survey 2022.

Let’s now know everything about Azure Fundamentals certification, how you can become one, and where to apply for the Azure Fundamental certification? And is it the right career course for you or not? Not just that, we’ll also answer the following:

• Who is a Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals?
• What is Azure Fundamentals Certification?
• Why should you do Microsoft Azure Fundamental certification?
• What are the types of tasks that Microsoft Certified in Azure Fundamentals do, and what’s the salary?
• What is the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification cost?
• How to get Azure Fundamentals Certification?

What is Azure Fundamentals Certification: An Overview

Azure Fundamentals exam gives you an opportunity to display your understanding and expertise over cloud concepts, Azure services, Azure workloads, security and privacy in Azure, as well as Azure pricing and support. According to the Microsoft website, Microsoft Azure Fundamental Certification intends to test an individual’s “Ability for the following concepts: cloud concepts; core Azure services; core solutions and management tools on Azure; general security and network security features; identity, governance, privacy, and compliance features; and Azure cost management and Service Level Agreements.”

Here are some sample of the Azure Fundamentals Certification questions and let us know if you cracked the answer or not:

Q 1. Which of the following terms refers to making a service available with no downtime for an extended period?

• a. Agility
• b. Fault Tolerance
• c. High Availability

Answer: C

Q 2. Which of the following can be used to manage governance across multiple Azure subscriptions?

• a. Azure Initiatives
• b. Management Groups
• c. Resource Groups

Answer: B

Q 3. Which of the following is optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured data, such as videos and images?

• a. Blobs
• b. Files
• c. Queues

Answer: A

Q 4. Azure Resource Manager templates use which format?

• a. HTML
• b. JSON
• c. XML

Answer: B

Q 5. Which of the following could require both a password and a security question for full authentication?

• a. Azure Firewall
• b. Application Gateway
• c. Multi-Factor Authentication

Answer: C

What are the benefits of Azure Fundamentals Certification for You?

• 23% of Microsoft certified professionals attained up to a 20% salary boost after certification.
• Microsoft Azure Fundamentals is one of the highest paying IT certifications with an average annual salary of $126,653.
• Azure Fundamental Certifications show that you’ve taken your first step to learn everything about the Azure computing world and have the intention to further obtain skills and the knowledge to design, deploy, or manage applications on Microsoft Azure. 
• If you’re Microsoft Azure certified that means you’ve opened the doors for being employed in US and UK government services as both countries have officially accredited Microsoft Azure for their Government processes.
• Any non-technical person, even if he or she is a manager, marketer, and salesperson can benefit from learning the Azure fundamentals.

What are the benefits of Azure Fundamentals Certification for Companies?

This is why companies look for Microsoft Azure certified Employees:

• With 95% of Fortune 500 companies relying on Microsoft Azure, which company would want to stay behind.
• Being already Microsoft Azure certified makes you credible and trustworthy and easier for the organization to put you in charge of training other resources/team thus saving the company money and other sources.
• Microsoft Azure is one of the fastest-growing cloud-based solution providers worldwide for both big or small businesses. Naturally, they would want a Microsoft Azure certified who understands basic cloud concepts and security, privacy, compliance, services, pricing, and support in Azure.
• Hiring a Microsoft Azure certified professional not only gives a company a certified, experienced, and scalable asset that adds value to its organization and its goals but also gives it an edge over its competitors. 

Microsoft Azure Fundamental Certification Path: A Glimpse into Azure Fundamental Certification Cost, Course Detail & Prerequisites

• Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification Cost: $99
• Prerequisites: The candidate should be familiar with the Azure Platform and have basic knowledge of Cloud Computing.
• Exam Duration: 85 minutes
• Total Questions:   40-60 Multiple-choice Questions
• Passing score:    700/1000
• Expiration Date: None
• Exam Retake Policy: A candidate cannot give this exam any more than five times in a period of 12 months. The candidate is eligible to retake the exam 12 months from the date of their first attempt.

Course Details:

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 Windows 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 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 Appdescribe 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 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(20-25%)

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 ConditionalAccess, 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 the resource
• 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, Product Terms site, and Data Protection Addendum (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 life cycles

• 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)

Preparing for Exam AZ-900: Microsoft Azure or Microsoft Azure Fundamentals? We can guide you over the exam module and the best course fit. Ring Us Now!

Who can Apply for Microsoft Azure Fundamentals or Exam AZ-900

The Microsoft Azure Fundamentals examination is a beginner’s level course and is intended for candidates who are just beginning to work with cloud-based solutions and services or are new to Azure. The Azure Fundamentals certification is for you if:

• You are involved in the purchasing and selling of cloud services, then this exam is very beneficial for you even though you are from a non-technical background.
• You want to validate your basic knowledge of cloud services or solutions.
• You’re looking to obtain proficiency in Azure fundamental concepts to make yourself competent enough to take future Azure certification exams.

How to Prepare for Azure Fundamentals Certification Exam?

You already know Azure Fundamentals Certification is a beginner’s level certification from Microsoft and the overview of the course’s skills you need to hone. Now let us tell you how you can be Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certified of your choice through these effective exam preparation tips:

 

1. Get to Know the Azure Fundamentals Certification Course & Exam Pattern

• Microsoft offers enough study material to learn about Microsoft SQL certification. But the vast syllabus might overwhelm you and make it easy to feel lost wondering where to start and what to study. 
• So study the eczema pattern and follow the study guide provided by Microsoft itself or prepare one by yourself following your positives & negatives.

2. Focus on Azure Fundamentals Certification Key Components

• In order to ace the exam you need to know the core cloud concepts, Azure Services, master security, privacy compliance, and trust and also be acquainted with Azure Pricing and Support. 
• This should be your first stop before exploring any other study material or resources. Microsoft provides detailed insight into various core concepts and skills for Azure Fundamentals certification along with the percentage of exam questions. 
• We recommend you go through them thoroughly as this will give you an idea about the course’s background and knowledge.

3. Establish a Study Routine for Microsoft Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 Certification

• You can be a night owl or a morning person. You could be a working professional or a college student. Whoever you are and whatever you do, make sure you're following a consistent study timetable.
•  The following routine helps you cover all topics on time, revise them as well as take proper rest in-between. Giving your study time some structure is a must because if you don’t, it’ll be way too easy to procrastinate, get distracted or ignore what you need to do.

4. Find your Study Mode: Self Study or Online Course platforms

• Self-study is good, but why not cement your chances of better grasping Azure concepts by reaching out to professionals who have real-time knowledge. 
• Enroll in a certified Microsoft Azure Certification Training platform, wherein industry experts impart knowledge and you get the best resources to study. 
• Moreover, the study guide or materials that you get from e-learning platforms can be used at your convenience with the additional benefit of having someone identify and fill the gaps in your knowledge and skills.

5. Use Online/Offline Study Materials

• There are several ways you can prepare for your Azure fundamental exam both through online and offline study material, do a good google search. 
• It can be a YouTube tutorial, PDFs, Documents, or Microsoft’s own learning path to clear your basic knowledge about Azure.
• You can also join Azure online forum/community whether on Reddit, Quora, Twitter, and Microsoft’s own Azure community. These communities are usually filled with people who’ve cleared the exam or with Azure professionals who are ready to resolve your query or doubt. 

6. Practice Using the Exam Dumps 

• Just knowing the theoretical concepts is not enough if you don't know how to employ what you know in real-time exams. That’s where exam dumps come in handy.  
• There are various websites for Microsoft Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 certification exam preparation to provide Microsoft certified Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 dumps. These mock-up exams help you improve your competence and skills in a particular domain and tell you to know where are the gaps in your preparation. 

7. Revise. Rest. Revise

• Revision is a must for any exam preparation. Do not just keep on cramming up core components or concepts. 
• Give a scheduled timing to remember concepts that you have been covering, or else you’ll forget everything. Do not neglect proper rest if you want to study efficiently. You can’t retain any information if your brain is tired and you feel exhausted due to lack of sleep or rest.

8. Take Proper Gap if Appearing for Multiple Certifications

• You should avoid giving exams at one go and instead appear for them every 3-6 months so that when you sit for recertification, you're not burdened with back-to-back exams and can prepare well. 
• Notably, Microsoft allows the candidate to retake the exam 5 times in 12 months from the date of their first attempt, so take your time and prepare well.

How to Schedule Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification Online Exam In-person or Online?

Since now you know, how to prepare for azure fundamentals certification, let us help you in scheduling the Azure Fundamentals exam with easy quick steps. You can take Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification online exam with Pearson VUE in person at an Authorized Test Center, or online in the comfort of your home or even office! Let us show you how you can apply for the exam:

1. Click at https://home.pearsonvue.com/Clients/Microsoft.aspx to schedule your exam
2. Sign in to Certification Dashboard using the personnel email account
3. On your Microsoft Certification profile make sure that all the required fields marked with an asterisk* are correctly filled. Save the Profile and continue
4. Check your eligibility by entering the email account you used to register for the event
5. Click Schedule exam
6. Select How do you want to take your exam (Local test center, home/office)
7. Select exam date and time and Proceed to Checkout with the payment.

Conclusion

Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification has the easiest learning path and that is the reason it’s getting popular. A career in Cloud computing with Microsoft Azure certifications will surely not get you up the ladder of an IT career, however, it sets you right on the path of becoming a part of the Microsoft Azure ecosystem. We hope this blog has cleared your doubts regarding Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certification. With the guide and insightful information that the blog has provided, you’ll surely choose one of the most in-demand and highest-paying IT certifications: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification.

This is an investment you made yourself and for uplifting your Cloud computing career. After all, Microsoft Azure Fundamentals certification will not only validate and demonstrate your technical expertise to your potential employees but it will also ensure that you stay ahead of the curve with certified badges along with a lucrative salary. 

If you still feel you need additional help, online courses or e-learning platforms are your allies! Several e-learning platforms can assist you with our 24/7 teaching assistance, applied projects, and online videos by industry-expert trainers. 

All the best!

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