Willing to learn Azure? Thinking about taking an Azure certification?
You can reach your goal in these 5 steps:
- Start with exploring the list with certifications and learning activities.
- Go through the Microsoft trainings and read the exam reference book (where available).
- Go through the Udemy / Pluralsight online courses.
- Practice all learning in Azure* and do practice tests.
- Take the exam.
*You can create a free Azure account with 170€ credit here.
Depending on your skills, you can skip some of the steps e.g. take the exam directly 😊
Microsoft has 4 levels of certifications with several options:
| Fundamentals | Azure Fundamentals |
| Specialty | Azure for SAP Workloads Azure IoT Developer |
| Associate | Azure Administrator Azure Security Engineer Azure Developer Azure AI Engineer Azure Data Engineer Azure Data Scientist |
| Expert | Azure Solutions Architect Azure DevOps Engineer |
Here are my recommendations with learning materials for each certification.
Certification Level: Fundamentals
Azure Fundamentals
| Description | Prove that you understand cloud concepts, core Azure Services, Azure pricing and support, and the fundamentals of cloud security, privacy, compliance, and trust. |
| Certification | Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals |
| Exam | AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals |
| Microsoft Training | Azure fundamentals |
| Book |  Exam Ref AZ-900 |
| Udemy | AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam Prep In One Day AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Original Practice Tests |
| Pluralsight | Introduction to Microsoft Cloud Services Microsoft Azure Fundamentals |
Certification Level: Associate
There are 6 available associate certifications:
- Azure Administrator
- Azure Security Engineer
- Azure Developer
- Azure AI Engineer
- Azure Data Engineer
- Azure Data Scientist
Azure Administrator Associate
| Description | Azure Administrators implement, monitor, and maintain Microsoft Azure solutions, including major services related to compute, storage, network, and security. |
| Certification | Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate |
| Exam | AZ-103: Microsoft Azure Administrator |
| Microsoft Training | Secure your cloud data Administer infrastructure resources in Azure Manage resources in Azure Administer containers in Azure |
| Book |  Exam Ref AZ-103 |
| Udemy | AZ-103 Azure Administrator Exam Certification (AZ-100) |
| Pluralsight | Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-103) |
Azure Security Engineer Associate
| Description | Azure Security Engineers implement security controls and threat protection, manage identity and access, and protect data, applications, and networks in cloud and hybrid environments as part of end-to-end infrastructure. |
| Certification | Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate |
| Exam | AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies |
| Udemy | Microsoft AZ-500 Certification: Azure Security Technologies Azure AZ-500 Security Technologies Practice Test |
| Pluralsight | Microsoft Azure Security Engineer (AZ-500) |
Azure Developer Associate
| Description | Microsoft Azure Developers design, build, test, and maintain cloud solutions, such as applications and services, partnering with cloud solution architects, cloud DBAs, cloud administrators, and clients to implement these solutions. |
| Certification | Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate |
| Exam | AZ-204: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure Note: AZ-204 replaced AZ-203 For the differences see my article: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure: AZ-204 replaces AZ-203. These are the differences. |
| Microsoft Training | Create serverless applications Connect your services together Work with relational data in Azure Store data in Azure Deploy a website with Azure virtual machines Manage resources in Azure |
| Book |  Exam Ref AZ-204 (available starting September 24, 2020)  Exam Ref AZ-203 |
| Udemy | AZ-203 / AZ-204 Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure Exam Prep |
| Pluralsight | Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure (AZ-203) |
Azure AI Engineer Associate
| Description | Azure AI Engineers use Cognitive Services, Machine Learning, and Knowledge Mining to architect and implement Microsoft AI solutions involving natural language processing, speech, computer vision, bots, and agents. |
| Certification | Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate |
| Exam | AI-100: Designing and Implementing an Azure AI Solution |
| Microsoft Training | Publish ML Experiment with ML Studio Evaluate text with Azure Cognitive Language Services Translate speech with Azure Cognitive Speech Services Create Intelligent Bots with the Azure Bot Service Classify images with the Azure Cognitive Vision Services |
| Udemy | Machine Learning and AI using Microsoft Cognitive Services AI-100 Designing and Implementing an Azure AI Exam Q&A |
| Pluralsight | Microsoft Azure AI Engineer (AI-100) |
Azure Data Engineer Associate
| Description | Azure Data Engineers design and implement the management, monitoring, security, and privacy of data using the full stack of Azure data services to satisfy business needs. |
| Certification | Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate |
| Exams | DP-200: Implementing an Azure Data Solution and DP-201: Designing an Azure Data Solution |
| Microsoft Training | Azure for the Data Engineer Store data in Azure Work with relational data in Azure Work with NoSQL data in Azure Cosmos DB Large-Scale Data Processing with Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 |
| Udemy | Azure Data Factory: Hands on practical course (DP 200) |
| Pluralsight | Microsoft Azure Data Engineer (DP-200) Azure Data Solution (DP-201) |
Azure Data Scientist Associate
| Description | Azure Data Scientists apply Azure’s machine learning techniques to train, evaluate, and deploy models that solve business problems. |
| Certification | Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate |
| Exam | DP-100: Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure |
| Microsoft Training | Explore AI solution development with data science services in Azure Build AI solutions with Azure Machine Learning service Get started with ML with an Azure Data Science Virtual Machine Perform data engineering with Azure Databricks Extract knowledge and insights from your data with Azure Databricks |
| Pluralsight | Microsoft Azure Data Scientist (DP-100) |
Certification Level: Expert
There are 2 available expert certifications:
- Azure Solutions Architect
- Azure DevOps Engineer
Azure Solutions Architect Expert
| Description | Microsoft Azure Solutions Architects must have expertise in compute, network, storage, and security so that they can design solutions that run on Azure. |
| Certification | Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert |
| Exams | AZ-303: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies and AZ-304: Microsoft Azure Architect Design Note: AZ-303 replaced AZ-300; AZ-304 replaced AZ-301 |
| Microsoft Training | Architect great solutions in Azure Architect network infrastructure in Azure Architect storage infrastructure in Azure Architect compute infrastructure in Azure Architect infrastructure operations in Azure |
| Book |  Exam Ref AZ-300 |
| Udemy | AZ-300 Azure Architecture Technologies Certification Exam AZ-300 Azure Architecture Technologies Practice Test |
| Pluralsight | Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies (AZ-300) Microsoft Azure Architect Design (AZ-301) |
Azure DevOps Engineer Expert
| Description | Azure DevOps professionals combine people, process, and technologies to continuously deliver valuable products and services that meet end user needs and business objectives. |
| Certification | Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert |
| Exams | AZ-400: Microsoft Azure DevOps Solutions and Azure Administrator Associate or Azure Developer Associate |
| Microsoft Training | Evolve your DevOps practices Build applications with Azure DevOps Deploy applications with Azure DevOps Automate your deployments with Azure DevOps |
| Udemy | AZ-400: The complete practice test, Azure DevOps Solutions |
| Pluralsight | Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer (AZ-400) |
Certification Level: Specialty
There are several types of certifications available:
- Azure for SAP Workloads
- Azure IoT Developer
Azure for SAP Workloads
| Description | Architects of Azure for SAP Workloads have extensive experience and knowledge of the SAP Landscape Certification process and industry standards that are specific to the long-term operation of an SAP solution. |
| Certification | Microsoft Certified: Azure for SAP Workloads Specialty |
| Exam | AZ-120: Planning and Administering Microsoft Azure for SAP Workloads (beta) |
Azure IoT Developer
| Description | Azure IoT Developers implement the Azure services that form an IoT solution. |
| Certification | Microsoft Certified: Azure IoT Developer Specialty |
| Exam | AZ-220: Microsoft Azure IoT Developer |
Radu Narita 