The Ultimate Guide to Microsoft Azure Certification

Cloud platforms from Microsoft, Amazon and Google are evolving, and the rapid growth of the industry has had a parallel effect on the IT market. Software-defined data centers require a high level of design and implementation skills in order to make the most of your cloud spend, resulting in gaps in IT skill level. This skills gap is a problem for the market but a potential opportunity for you.

Why get certified?

Certification training & courses

2023 Azure Certifications by Career Path

• Azure Certifications for Everyone
• Azure Certifications for Administrators
• Azure Certifications for Data Specialists
• Azure Certifications for Engineers and Developers
• Azure Certification for Solutions Architects

IT professionals with experience and knowledge in Azure are in high demand.  While the days of the paper MCSE are long gone, Microsoft certification is a fundamental requirement, especially in something as complex as Azure. IT professionals who want to work with Azure require cutting-edge training, certifications and constant knowledge updates. Keeping pace with current technology is possible and will ensure that you have the skills you need to master the Microsoft Azure platform.

Besides some of the Pluralsight and A Cloud Guru courses that will take you on a deep dive of Azure on everything from machine learning and building global apps to designing a hybrid cloud, here are some of Microsoft’s official support resources to build your Azure skills.

The standard Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC) or Microsoft Official Courses On-Demand (MOC On-Demand) is a good place to start with Azure training basics. There is a MOC for each of the exams in the various certification tracks, and they are usually delivered in a classroom format. Microsoft also offers Microsoft Online Official Curriculum (MOOC) for learners who prefer an online setting. have released MOOC (I’ve always loved the Microsoft over use of acronyms).

Microsoft also offers some useful courses for IT pros and developers as well as eBooks through Microsoft Virtual Academy (MVA). The Microsoft Exam Readiness Zone is also a great place for test prep resources.

Microsoft has recently invested a lot of time in updating their documentation for Azure users. More importantly, the documentation now releases with the new functionality instead of weeks later. In most cases, you will find what you need with a quick search.

Azure certification has undergone some significant improvements. Microsoft currently offers 26 certifications for Azure, which we’ve broken down by role so that you can find the certifications that are right for you. The levels will give you good insight into Azure use cases and prepare you for a position in cloud computing and administration. Below you will find

• Exam names & links

• Certification level (beginner, intermediate, advanced)

• Types of support available from Microsoft

• Exam prep from A Cloud Guru or Pluralsight when available

For individuals in any business role who want to show their foundational knowledge of Azure systems.

An exam designed to test basic knowledge of cybersecurity for a range of business users, both with and without IT expertise. 

• Exam name: Exam SC-900
• Level: Beginner
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox, sample questions
• SC-900 Prep Course from Pluralsight

Tests foundational knowledge of Azure services. Good all-purpose fundamentals certification for anyone who does business in the cloud. 

• Exam name: Exam AZ-900
• Level: Beginner
• Support available: Study guide, sample questions, exam sandbox
• AZ-900 Prep Course from A Cloud Guru

Exams at all levels for administrators to demonstrate their knowledge of Azure architecture and management.

Ensures that certified individuals have strong knowledge of implementation and management of Azure environments. 

• Exam name: Exam AZ-104
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, sample questions, exam sandbox, prep videos
• AZ-104 Prep Course from A Cloud Guru

For those administrators who want to demonstrate expertise in managing Windows servers on-premise, hybrid, and IaaS platform workloads.

• Exam names: Exam AZ-800, AZ-801
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, sample questions, exam sandbox, prep videos
• AZ-800 Prep Course from A Cloud Guru

Certifies individuals for operation of the Azure Stack Hub to show they can provide IaaS and PaaS offerings to users.

• Exam name: Exam AZ-600
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox

An exam for architects and engineers who can demonstrate expertise in operating SAP solutions on Azure

• Exam name: Exam AZ-120
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox
• AZ-120 Prep Course from Pluralsight

Exam takers will demonstrate mastery of Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) in managing authentication and authorization of user accounts. 

• Exam name: Exam SC-300
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox, prep videos
• SC-300 Prep Course from Pluralsight

Covers configuration and operation of Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop, “including virtualization, networking, identity, storage, and resiliency.”

• Exam name: Exam AZ-140
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox
• AZ-140 Prep course from A Cloud Guru

Cybersecurity expertise for site architecture, from building a Zero Trust strategy, to managing cybersecurity at all levels of cloud computing, to Governance Risk Compliance strategies.

• Exam name: Exam SC-100
• Level: Advanced
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox, optional prerequisite exams

These certifications help data analysts, scientists, and database administrators prove their expertise in using Azure tools for data solutions.

Foundational data concepts and database administration on Azure and the basis for higher-level data certifications. 

• Exam name: Exam DP-900
• Role: Database Administrator
• Level: Beginner
• Support available: Study guide, sample questions, exam sandbox
• DP-900 Prep Course from A Cloud Guru

Certified individuals demonstrate enterprise-level knowledge of data analytics solutions on Azure platforms. 

• Exam name: Exam DP-500
• Role: Data Analyst
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox
• DP-500 Prep Course from Pluralsight (multiple courses available)

For those who want to run machine learning workloads in Azure and demonstrate their expertise in using Azure platforms for data science. 

• Exam name: Exam DP-100
• Role: Data Scientist
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox
• DP-100 Prep Course from A Cloud Guru (note that there are 3 levels of exam support)

An exam for data engineers to prove their knowledge of transforming “various structured and unstructured data systems into structures that are suitable for building analytics solutions.” 

• Exam name: Exam DP-203
• Role: Data Engineer
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox
• DP-203 Prep Course from A Cloud Guru

This certification acknowledges specialists that use data analytics to measure and improve the customer experience. 

Exam name: Exam MB-260

Role: Data Engineer

Level: Intermediate

Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox

Tests administrative skills for both cloud-native and hybrid deployments of data analytics solutions on Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Azure Data Services. 

• Exam name: Exam DP-300
• Role: Database Administrator
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox, prep videos
• DP-300 Course Prep from A Cloud Guru

Certifications for experts who want to create, manage, and deploy software solutions in Azure as well as network and security engineers.

Azure’s basic AI exam, which covers essential AI and machine learning concepts and forms the foundation for higher-level exams. 

• Exam name: Exam AI-900
• Role: AI Engineer
• Level: Beginner
• Support available: Study guide, sample questions, exam sandbox
• AI-900 Course Prep from A Cloud Guru

Cosmos DB is Azure’s solution for app data management. Those who pass this exam will have demonstrated their expert knowledge of creating and monitoring cloud-native apps.

• Exam name: Exam DP-420
• Role: Developer
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox
• DP-420 Course Prep from A Cloud Guru

Demonstrates a developer’s expertise in creating and maintaining the cloud and edge portions of physical devices configured for the cloud. 

• Exam name: Exam AZ-220
• Role: Developer
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox
• AZ-220 Prep Course from A Cloud Guru

Certifies cloud developers and signifies their knowledge of “Azure SDKs, data storage options, data connections, APIs, app authentication and authorization, compute, and container deployment, debugging, performance tuning, and monitoring.”

• Exam name: Exam AZ-204
• Role: Developer
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox, prep videos
• Azure Developer Path from A Cloud Guru

Azure Certified Support Engineers with a connectivity speciality can troubleshoot and resolve networking issues within Azure. 

• Exam name: Exam AZ-720
• Role: Support Engineer
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox

Second-level AI Engineer exam that tests proficiency in Azure Cognitive Services and Azure Applied AI services. 

• Exam name: Exam AI-102
• Role: AI Engineer
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox
• AI-102 Prep Course from Pluralsight

Azure Network Engineers must display proficiency in network services on Azure, “including hybrid networking, connectivity, routing, security, and private access to Azure services.”

• Exam name: Exam AZ-700
• Role: Network Engineer
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox
• AZ-700 Prep Course from A Cloud Guru

Certificate demonstrates an engineer’s expert knowledge of enterprise security solutions in the cloud environment, including attack response, threat reporting and prevention, and making improvements to organizational security. 

• Exam name: Exam SC-200
• Role: Security Engineer
• Level: Intermediate
  Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox
• SC-200 Prep Course from Pluralsight

Azure Security Engineers are proficient in cloud-native and hybrid network access, identity management, data protection, and app security. 

• Exam name: Exam AZ-500
• Role: Security Engineer
• Level: Intermediate
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox, prep videos
• AZ-500 Prep Course from A Cloud Guru

Tests expertise in managing cloud development environments in order to optimize software delivery. 

• Exam name: Exam AZ-400
• Role: DevOps Engineer
• Level: Advanced
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox, prep videos, optional prerequisite exams
• AZ-400 Prep Course from A Cloud Guru

Certifications for Solutions Architects to demonstrate their advanced knowledge of using the cloud to develop and improve solutions to business problems.

Azure Solutions Architects have broad-ranging knowledge of cloud computing, networking, security, storage, and monitoring in order to design viable cloud solutions.

• Exam name: Exam AZ-305
• Role: Solution Architect
• Level: Advanced
• Support available: Study guide, exam sandbox, prep videos, optional prerequisite exams
• AZ-305 Course Prep from A Cloud Guru

Azure is big. It’s complex. It’s powerful. As you navigate the complexity of Azure and other cloud computing tools, don’t shy away from certification—you’ll be better-suited for an ever-changing digital landscape that needs technology professionals like you.