Azure Certification
Azure Administrator
(AZ-104)
How I passed the Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104) certification on my first attempt. Below I will outline why I took the certification, my approach and the knowledge gained.
Why I Pursued This Certification
After passing the AZ-900, I wanted to go beyond the foundations and understand how Azure is actually used. Since we also use Azure in my role, I felt it would be useful to learn more about managing cloud resources. The AZ-104 certification covered areas such as networking, storage, compute and identity management. It gave me a better understanding of Azure in way more detail than AZ-900.
Key Topics Covered
Azure Identity
Microsoft Entra ID, authentication, RBAC and access control.
Azure Networking
Virtual Networks, DNS, Load Balancers, VPNs and connectivity.
Azure Storage
Storage accounts, Blob Storage, Azure Files and redundancy options.
Azure Compute
Virtual Machines, App Services, Containers and scaling.
Monitoring & Backup
Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Recovery Services and alerts.
Governance
Resource Groups, subscriptions, tags, policies and cost management.
How I Studied & Passed
Microsoft Learn Modules
Microsoft Learn was my primary study resource. I completed the learning paths and made handwritten notes as I progressed. Learn covered all areas of AZ-104 and provided the foundation for the rest of my study.
Microsoft Learn Practice Exams
The Microsoft Learn practice exams helped identify weaker areas and guide my revision. I mainly used them as a rough indicator, as the real exam felt much harder than the Learn exams.
ChatGPT for Clarification
I used ChatGPT to simplify topics I found confusing and to generate Microsoft-style questions on my weaker areas. This improved my understanding and I'd say I completed around 20-30 questions on each area of weakness.
Azure Portal
I spent a lot of time using the Azure Portal alongside Microsoft Learn. Building resources and navigating the platform helped the concepts click far more than simply reading about them. Microsoft provides a free $200/£150 in credits for a month to play around in Azure.
Tutorials Dojo
Tutorials Dojo practice exams were my highest ROI study resource. For around £12, they provided questions closest to the real exam, detailed explanations and highlighted gaps in my knowledge.
In short: The Microsoft Learn exams are useful as an initial start to prepare for this exam. The best strategy I would recommend is using Azure Portal to provision resources, configure networking and manage access supplemented with Tutorials Dojo practice exams. With this approach, I achieved a score of 782/1000.
Exam Score
782/1000
Practice Exam Average
81%
Attempts
1
Mock Exams Visualised
The Power BI line graph tracks my exam results over time. The graph helped visualise progress and determine when I was ready to sit the exam.
Practice exam performance compared against the 70% passing threshold.
What I struggled with
I found networking to be the most challenging part of AZ-104. Many Azure networking services seemed to do similar things, so understanding when to use each one took time and practice. Services such as Azure Load Balancer, Application Gateway, Traffic Manager and Front Door appeared similar at first. Understanding when each service should be used took a few reps to remember.
I also found AZ-104 much broader than AZ-900. There was a lot more content to learn and experience in the Azure Portal was essential. ARM templates and explaining each part of the code took some time to learn.
Closing Remarks
AZ-104 built in-depth on the foundations of the AZ-900.The certification provided a better understanding of concepts I encounter in my role. It also helped me to rapidily improve my Azure skills.
For anyone pursuing AZ-104, building and configuring resources is where most of my learning took place. From here, I plan to combine my data analytics skills with the Azure knowledge to build ETL and analytics projects.