AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals — Exam Prep & Tips

“Welcome to the certification prep section. Today we focus on AZ-900 — Azure Fundamentals — the entry-level Azure certification that proves foundational cloud and Azure knowledge. AZ-900 is the right starting point whether you're a developer, administrator, architect, or business professional who wants to validate Azure knowledge. By the end of this video you'll know exactly what to study, how to study it, and what to expect on exam day.”

“AZ-900 is a non-technical fundamentals exam — it tests conceptual understanding, not hands-on skills. You have 60 minutes for 40 to 60 questions. The passing score is 700 out of 1000, which is roughly 70%. Questions are multiple choice, multi-select where multiple answers are correct, and drag-and-drop matching. There are no prerequisites and no minimum experience required. Most candidates with this series under their belt can pass with 2-3 weeks of additional focused study.”

“AZ-900 covers three domains with updated content for 2025-2026. Cloud Concepts: cloud computing fundamentals, IaaS/PaaS/SaaS, consumption-based pricing. Azure Architecture and Services: compute, networking, storage, databases, identity, monitoring — AND now includes Azure AI services overview, covering what Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Foundry, and Microsoft Copilot for Azure are. Management and Governance: pricing, SLAs, Azure governance tools — now includes Microsoft Purview for data governance and Azure sustainability tools. The services section has the highest weight.”

“For cloud concepts, these are the must-know terms. High Availability means near-continuous operation with minimal downtime. Scalability means the ability to handle increased load — vertical scaling adds resources to existing VMs, horizontal scaling adds more instances. Elasticity is automatically scaling with demand. The CapEx vs OpEx distinction is a favourite question topic — cloud converts the capital expense of hardware into operational expense on a subscription model. Know the Shared Responsibility Model cold — it comes up multiple times on the exam.”

“For Azure services, know the key services in each category. Compute: VMs are IaaS, App Service is PaaS, Functions are serverless. For containers: both Container Instances (simple) and Container Apps (advanced serverless containers) now appear. For identity: Microsoft Entra ID — know RBAC and the principle of least privilege. NEW for 2025-2026: Azure AI services appear in AZ-900 at a conceptual level — know what Azure OpenAI is, what AI Foundry is, and understand pre-built AI APIs vs custom models. Microsoft Copilot for Azure is also covered — the AI assistant built into the Azure portal.”

“Governance questions trip up many candidates. Know Azure Policy — it enforces rules at resource creation time, like requiring tags or restricting VM sizes. Management Groups sit above subscriptions for applying policies at scale. Resource Locks prevent accidental deletion or modification — ReadOnly and CanNotDelete. Microsoft Purview handles data governance and compliance. For compliance questions, remember that Microsoft maintains hundreds of certifications — GDPR, HIPAA, SOC2, ISO27001 — and the Microsoft Trust Center is where you find compliance documentation.”

“Pricing and SLA questions are very common on AZ-900. Know how to use both the Pricing Calculator for new Azure deployments and the TCO Calculator for comparing existing on-premises infrastructure costs with Azure. SLA maths is important — understand what 99.9% versus 99.99% means in actual downtime per year. Composite SLAs multiply individual SLAs — two services at 99.9% gives a composite SLA of 99.8%. Services in preview do not have an SLA — this distinction comes up in questions.”

“For practice, use the free Microsoft Learn practice assessments first — they align exactly to the actual exam objectives. For deeper practice, MeasureUp is the official provider. Study by understanding concepts, not memorizing answers — Microsoft regularly updates question banks. On exam day, use the elimination strategy for uncertain questions — even if you don't know the right answer, you can often identify the obviously wrong ones. Mark questions for review and always answer every question — no penalty for guessing. You got this.”

“AZ-900 is very achievable with focused study. Use this series as your foundation, do the Microsoft Learn modules, and take several practice tests. If you're scoring above 80% consistently on practice tests, you're ready. Next video we prep for AZ-104 — the Azure Administrator certification, which is the main role-based cert for IT professionals managing Azure environments. Much deeper and more hands-on than AZ-900.”