The latest articles on DEV Community by K (@brooklynsmasher). https://dev.to/brooklynsmasher https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F4002790%2F196e573b-103d-477c-aca8-2eb4f073b920.png https://dev.to/brooklynsmasher en K Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:20:16 +0000 https://dev.to/brooklynsmasher/i-stopped-watching-azure-tutorials-and-passed-az-900-heres-what-i-changed-4l5h https://dev.to/brooklynsmasher/i-stopped-watching-azure-tutorials-and-passed-az-900-heres-what-i-changed-4l5h <p>I had bookmarked every AZ-900 resource on the internet. Savill. <br> Microsoft Learn. FreeCodeCamp. Andrew Brown. I'd watched probably <br> 50 hours of content and still felt like I couldn't book the exam.</p> <p>The fix was embarrassingly simple: I stopped watching and started doing.</p> <h2> The passive learning trap </h2> <p>Videos are great for understanding <em>what</em> something is. But the AZ-900 <br> exam doesn't ask "did you watch a video about VNets?" It asks you to <br> pick the right answer between four options that all sound plausible.</p> <p>That recognition only comes from having actually clicked through the <br> thing at least once.</p> <p>I'd watched Savill explain NSGs three times and still froze on a <br> scenario question about inbound rules. Five minutes in the portal <br> fixed what three rewatches couldn't.</p> <h2> What "hands-on" actually means </h2> <p>Not a 4-hour guided lab. Not another sandbox course.</p> <p>Just: open Cloud Shell, run the command from the video, delete the <br> resource group. 15 minutes. Done.</p> <p>The daily habit that changed everything: one Azure service per day. <br> Create it, poke around, delete it. That's it.</p> <h2> What the AZ-900 exam is actually testing </h2> <p>The exam is broad, not deep. It doesn't ask you to architect anything. <br> It asks whether you can recognize what App Service is vs Container <br> Instances in a one-paragraph scenario.</p> <p>If you've deployed both even once, the answer is obvious. If you <br> haven't, you're guessing between two things that both "host apps."</p> <h2> A free reference if you're mid-prep </h2> <p>I put together a cheat sheet covering all three exam domains — <br> key terms, service comparisons, when to use what:</p> <p>👉 azure.keepstreaking.com/az-900-cheat-sheet</p> <p>No signup, completely free.</p> <h2> If you want the structured version </h2> <p>I eventually packaged the daily habit approach into a 30-day <br> challenge — one hands-on task per day, each mapped to an AZ-900 <br> topic, with streak accountability so you actually finish it.</p> <p>Days 1–5 are free: azure.keepstreaking.com</p> <p>It's not a replacement for Savill or Microsoft Learn. It's the <br> hands-on layer that sits on top of them.</p> <p>Good luck with the exam. It's very passable — you just need to <br> have touched the things, not memorized them.</p> azure az900 cloud beginners