Microsoft Certifications – Explained

Hello All, education is something that I’ve always felt strongly about. I come from a family where most of the people in my family have worked / do work in education at a variety of levels. And even in my career was a college professor for a while. So that being said, a lot of people look to certifications as a great way to driving learning and validating it for your resume.

I personally like certifications as something that you can use and point to as a standard for your skills. Now that being said the certifications are complex and lots of people have questions about what they mean. So I put this together to help people navigate the different options for certification on the azure platform:

| Exam | Title | Topics |
| AZ900 | Azure Fundamentals | Understand cloud concepts (15-20%) Understand core Azure services (30-35%)

Understand security, privacy, compliance, and trust (25-30%)

Understand Azure pricing and support (25-30%) |
| AZ103 | Azure Administration | Manage Azure subscriptions and resources (15-20%)

Implement and manage storage (15-20%)

Deploy and manage virtual machines (VMs) (15-20%)

Configure and manage virtual networks (30-35%)

Manage identities (15-20%) |
| AZ203 | Developing Solutions for Azure | Develop Azure Infrastructure as a Service compute solution (10-15%)

Develop Azure Platform as a Service compute solution (20-25%)

Develop for Azure storage (15-20%) Implement Azure security (10-15%) Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize solutions (10-15%)

Connect to and consume Azure and third-party services (20-25%) |
| AZ300 | Azure Architect Technologies | Deploy and configure infrastructure (25-30%)

Implement workloads and security (20-25%)

Create and deploy apps (5-10%) Implement authentication and secure data (5-10%)

Develop for the cloud and for Azure storage (20-25%) |
| AZ301 | Azure Architect Design | Determine workload requirements (10-15%)

Design for identity and security (20-25%)

Design a data platform solution (15-20%)

Design a business continuity strategy (15-20%)

Design for deployment, migration, and integration (10-15%)

Design an infrastructure strategy (15-20%) |
| AZ400 | Azure DevOps Solutions | Design a DevOps strategy (20-25%)

Implement DevOps development processes (20-25%)

Implement continuous integration (10-15%)

Implement continuous delivery (10-15%)

Implement dependency management (5-10%)

Implement application infrastructure (15-20%)

Implement continuous feedback (10-15%) |
| AZ500 | Azure Security Technologies | Manage identity and access (20-25%)

Implement platform protection (35-40%)

Manage security operations (15-20%)

Secure data and applications (30-35%) |
| AI100 | Design and Implementing an Azure AI Solution | Analyze solution requirements (25-30%)

Design AI solutions (40-45%)

Implement and monitor AI solutions (25-30%) |
| DP100 | Design and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure | Define and prepare the development environment (15-20%)

Prepare data for modeling (25-30%)

Perform feature engineering (15-20%)

Develop models (40-45%) |
| DP200 | Implementing an azure data solution | Implement data storage solutions (40-45%)

Manage and develop data processing (25-30%)

Monitor and optimize data solutions (30-35%) |
| DP201 | Design an Azure Data Solution | Design Azure data storage solutions (40-45%)

Design data processing solutions (25-30%)

Design for data security and compliance (25-30%) |

So if you are interested in getting certifications, and in moving forward with these, the next question is usually, now I know what I have to learn, but what about the how. The good news is that their are a lot of free resources to help.

• MS Learn : This is a great site that provides a lot of structured learning paths of different sizes that can assist in your learning these skills.
• Channel 9 : A great video site on just about everything Microsoft which would help if you want to be walked through something.