The Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) is the credential that proves you can build, secure, and keep an Azure environment running. This is the no-fluff guide: what's actually tested, whether it fits your career, and how to study it hands-on.
For most people moving into cloud operations, yes, but it depends on where you are. The AZ-104 is an associate-level certification, not an entry point. It assumes you already understand operating systems, networking, servers, and virtualization, and that you have spent real time inside the Azure portal. If you have never touched a cloud console, you will struggle, and starting with the AZ-900 (Azure Fundamentals) first is the honest recommendation.
Who it actually fits: IT generalists and sysadmins shifting workloads to the cloud, support engineers who want to move into infrastructure, and developers who keep getting pulled into "why is the VM down" conversations and want to own that domain. It is the most common Azure certification on job postings for cloud administrator, cloud operations, and Azure infrastructure roles, which is the practical reason it carries weight.
The honest caveats: there are no formal prerequisites, so nobody stops you from registering, but the exam is built around tasks you would do on the job, including possible labs and case-study style questions. Memorizing definitions is not enough. And the credential expires annually, renewed for free through an online assessment on Microsoft Learn, so treat it as a skill you maintain rather than a trophy you hang once.
Microsoft groups the exam into five skill areas. The percentage next to each is the official weighting from the skills-measured outline effective April 17, 2026, and it tells you exactly where to spend your study hours. Identity/governance and compute together make up roughly half the exam, so they are where you cannot afford gaps.
| Manage Azure identities and governance | 20–25% · Microsoft Entra users and groups, Azure RBAC role assignments, subscriptions, Azure Policy, resource locks, tags, management groups, and cost controls. |
| Implement and manage storage | 15–20% · Storage accounts and redundancy, SAS tokens and access keys, Azure Files and Blob Storage, storage tiers, lifecycle management, and soft delete. |
| Deploy and manage Azure compute resources | 20–25% · ARM templates and Bicep, virtual machines, disks, availability zones and scale sets, containers (ACI, Container Apps, ACR), and Azure App Service. |
| Implement and manage virtual networking | 15–20% · Virtual networks and subnets, peering, public IPs, user-defined routes, NSGs, Azure Bastion, private endpoints, Azure DNS, and load balancers. |
| Monitor and maintain Azure resources | 10–15% · Azure Monitor metrics, logs and alerts, Network Watcher, Recovery Services vaults, Azure Backup, and Azure Site Recovery failover. |
A note on format: Microsoft does not publish a fixed question count, but candidates typically report somewhere in the range of 40 to 60 items, mixing multiple choice, case studies, drag-and-drop, and sometimes hands-on labs. You get 100 minutes for the questions themselves, with a longer seat time to cover instructions and the non-disclosure agreement. A score of 700 or greater on a 1000-point scale passes, and a 700 does not mean 70% correct, since Microsoft scales scores across question difficulty.
| Exam Code | AZ-104 |
| Certification | Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate |
| Exam Cost | $165 USD (Microsoft now prices by country/region; confirm your local fee at registration) |
| Number of Questions | Not officially published; candidates typically report around 40–60 |
| Exam Time | 100 minutes (longer seat time for instructions and NDA) |
| Passing Score | 700 out of 1000 |
| Format | Proctored; multiple choice, case studies, and possible hands-on labs |
| Renewal | Expires annually; renew free via online assessment on Microsoft Learn |
| Vendor | Microsoft |
The single highest-leverage thing you can do is open the Azure portal and actually build the things on the exam. The AZ-104 rewards muscle memory, not flashcards. Microsoft gives you a free Azure account with credits, and most of the core tasks (creating a VM, configuring an NSG, setting up a storage account) cost little or nothing if you delete resources when you finish.
Spin up a resource group and actually create VMs, virtual networks, NSGs, storage accounts, and a Recovery Services vault. Then break them and fix them. Doing each task once beats reading about it five times.
Microsoft expects familiarity with the Azure portal, Azure CLI, PowerShell, and ARM/Bicep templates. Do the same task two ways: once clicking through the portal, once from the command line.
Identity/governance and compute are each 20–25% of the exam. Put your heaviest study time there, then storage and networking, and treat monitoring (10–15%) as a focused final push.
Take the free official Microsoft practice assessment, then drill timed practice questions until you can read a scenario and spot the correct action quickly. Speed and judgment are what 100 minutes demands.
Reading documentation tells you a feature exists. A practice question forces you to decide which feature solves a specific problem, which is exactly what the real exam tests. The AZ-104 leans on scenario phrasing: it describes a situation and asks for the best action, not the definition of a term. You only build that decision reflex by answering questions and seeing where you were wrong.
Good practice questions do three things. They surface your blind spots before the exam does, so you find out you misunderstand SAS tokens or NSG rule precedence while it still costs nothing. They train recognition of distractor patterns, the plausible-but-wrong options Microsoft uses. And with a written explanation for every answer, they turn each miss into a concrete lesson instead of a guess you got lucky on.
That is the gap GetMyCert is built to fill. Every practice item comes with an explanation of why the right answer is right and why each distractor is wrong, mapped to the AZ-104 skill areas, so you can study weak domains directly instead of grinding random sets.
Go straight to the source for the authoritative exam objectives and registration:
You need a score of 700 or greater on a scale of 1 to 1,000. Because Microsoft scales scores by question difficulty, 700 does not mean answering 70% of questions correctly.
Microsoft does not publish an exact number. Candidates typically report somewhere in the range of 40 to 60 questions, including multiple choice, case studies, and sometimes hands-on labs.
You get 100 minutes to answer the exam questions. Your total seat time is longer because it also covers the instructions and the non-disclosure agreement.
The standard US price is $165 USD. Microsoft now prices exams by country or region, so confirm your exact local fee when you schedule the exam.
Five areas: managing Azure identities and governance, implementing and managing storage, deploying and managing compute resources, implementing and managing virtual networking, and monitoring and maintaining Azure resources.
There are no required prerequisite exams, but Microsoft expects experience with operating systems, networking, virtualization, the Azure portal, Azure CLI or PowerShell, ARM/Bicep, and Microsoft Entra ID. Newcomers often take AZ-900 first.
Yes. The Azure Administrator Associate certification expires annually, and you renew it for free by passing an online assessment on Microsoft Learn.
It is challenging if you study only theory. Because it tests real administrative tasks and may include labs, hands-on practice in the Azure portal plus scenario-based practice questions are the most reliable way to be ready.
Work through AZ-104 practice questions with a written explanation on every answer, mapped to the real exam domains. Free to start, no signup wall to try it.
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