AZ-900 · Microsoft
Preparing AZ-900? Start with the part that weighs the most
One of the three skill areas of AZ-900 weighs more than the others. Which one, how the exam is scored, and the objectives that are easy to mix up.
Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) is the entry point to Azure certification. It checks that you can describe cloud concepts in general and Azure in particular: the architectural components, the core compute, networking and storage services, and the tools used to secure, govern and administer them.
Microsoft pitches it at people who already work in some area of IT, such as infrastructure, databases or software development. It is a broad exam, not a deep one: the verb in almost every objective is "describe", not "configure".
What the exam measures
The study guide splits the exam into three skill areas, each with a percentage range of the exam:
| Skill area | Weight |
|---|---|
| Describe cloud concepts | 25 to 30% |
| Describe Azure architecture and services | 35 to 40% |
| Describe Azure management and governance | 30 to 35% |
Architecture and services is the largest block, but no area is small. Skipping one to focus on the other two leaves a quarter of the exam or more uncovered.
Which version you will sit
The study guide lists the objectives as "Skills measured as of July 20, 2026". We last checked the guide on 19 September 2026. Check the study guide for later updates before booking.
Microsoft updates the English exam first. Localised versions usually follow about eight weeks later, and Microsoft warns that they sometimes take longer. If the exam is not available in your language, you can request an extra 30 minutes.
The guide's change log compares this version with the previous one. It marks three listed groups as "minor" changes (compute and networking services, tools for managing and deploying resources, and monitoring tools) and three listed entries as "no change". It does not detail wording changes or moves.
How the exam is scored and delivered
- Time: 45 minutes.
- Scoring: Microsoft requires a score of 700 or greater.
- Delivery: proctored, and the exam may include interactive components as well as standard questions.
- Languages: English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean, Spanish, German, French, Indonesian, Arabic, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil) and Russian.
- Retakes: a second attempt can be taken 24 hours after the first; the wait before later attempts varies.
- Features: most questions cover features that are generally available, but commonly used preview features can appear.
Where the objectives are easy to mix up
The objectives are short, and several of them ask you to tell close ideas apart. These are the pairs worth slowing down on:
- Service types versus cloud models. IaaS, PaaS and SaaS are service types; public, private and hybrid are cloud models. The guide asks for use cases of the first and definitions of the second. Keep the two lists separate in your notes.
- The resource hierarchy. You need to describe how resource groups, subscriptions and management groups nest, and what that means for applying policy and access from the top down.
- Compute choices. The guide asks you to compare containers, virtual machines and functions, and to describe application hosting options such as web apps. Practice comparing those compute types and explain when each option fits.
- Moving files versus migration options. AzCopy, Azure Storage Explorer and Azure File Sync appear under moving files; Azure Migrate and Azure Data Box appear under migration options. They sit in neighbouring objectives and are easy to swap.
- Identity, access and governance. Microsoft Entra ID and its authentication methods (single sign-on, multifactor, passwordless) answer who you are. Conditional Access and Azure role-based access control answer what you can do. Azure Policy, resource locks and Microsoft Purview belong to governance and compliance. The guide files them under different headings for a reason.
- Monitoring tools. Azure Advisor, Azure Service Health and Azure Monitor (with Log Analytics, alerts and Application Insights) all "watch" something. Know which one answers a question about your region's health and which one answers a question about your application.
A study plan that follows the guide
Turn the study guide into a checklist, one line per objective, and spend time in proportion to the weights.
- Azure architecture and services (35 to 40%). Regions, region pairs, sovereign regions, availability zones and datacenters; compute and hosting; virtual networking (subnets, peering, Azure DNS, VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute); storage accounts, tiers, redundancy and the data movement tools; identity and security, including Zero Trust and defence in depth.
- Azure management and governance (30 to 35%). Factors that affect costs and the pricing calculator; tags; Azure Policy, resource locks and Purview; the Azure portal, Cloud Shell, Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell and Azure Arc; infrastructure as code with Azure Resource Manager and ARM templates; and the monitoring tools above.
- Cloud concepts (25 to 30%). The shared responsibility model, the consumption-based model, the cloud models and service types, and the benefits the guide names: high availability, scalability, reliability, predictability, security, governance and manageability.
The cloud concepts block is the most definitional, which makes it a good place to finish: by then most of its terms will have come up in the other two.
Every date we track for this and the other exams we cover is in the exam calendar.