My Experience with AZ900 Certification Exam
On 9th January,2021 I earned the AZ900 certification exam. I prepared for it for about 20 days and scored 805 out of 1000. I feel I could have done better but it’s fine. Here’s how I did it.
The Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Exam or AZ900 certification exam is taken by people who are getting started with cloud computing using Microsoft Azure. The exam tests your knowledge on mainly four subject areas:
1) Understanding cloud concepts
2) Understanding core Azure services
3) Understanding Azure security, privacy, compliance and trust
4) Understanding Azure pricing and support
The exam is pretty conceptual in its approach. Questions are mainly multiple choice with some fill in the blanks and match the following types as well. The exam fee is 99$.
I started preparing sometime around mid week of December. I booked my exam for the 9th of January at around 1 AM IST. I started my learning by reading the official materials from Microsoft Learn platform. The platform is a great way to get started with the fundamentals. There are very few videos, so if you are not into reading pages upon pages of texts, you might want to check out Youtube. My personal recommendation would be the one below, but you are free to explore:
After reading the materials, I now had some idea about the different Microsoft Azure platforms and services. In order to bolster my knowledge, I went through the above mentioned video on YouTube and read a few online articles as well. You have to keep in mind that Microsoft often adds and removes certain topics from the exam, so make sure to follow the latest syllabus.
Once I was done with the Microsoft materials and YouTube videos, I started doing the practice papers. The practice tests include questions that appeared in the previous exams. It’s important that you do the practice tests, do as many tests as you can. The more you expose yourself to questions, the more you increase your chances of scoring better. In fact, in my exam almost all questions were repeated. And had I practiced some more I definitely could have scored more than 805. But I passed and that’s all that matters here. I found a course on Udemy that provided almost 300+ questions in practice papers. Just try searching on Udemy and you will get a lot of such courses.
In order to pass the test you need to score at least 70% or 700 out of 1000. The total number of questions is not constant and often vary from time to time. In my case there were 43 questions. The time limit is 90 minutes.
The exam is proctored, meaning there would be an invigilator keeping an eye on you throughout the exam via webcam. It is important that you have a webcam and microphone.
Finally on 9th January at 12:30 AM, I logged into the link that would facilitate my test. You have to check in at least 30 minutes before the test and run a diagnostic to test your internet, webcam and microphone. At around 12:50 AM, I started filling out the formalities, which include taking a photo of yourself through your webcam, taking a photo of your government approved identity proof and four photos of your room. Once those were verified, the proctor connected with me and asked me to show her a 360 degree view of the room. After all these were done, the exam started.
As said before, the questions were all from the previous tests and familiar to me. So technically, the exam was quite easy all thanks to the different test papers. I finished the test in about 30 minutes. Although I got the score immediately, the certificate came after around 24 hours.
Apart from the AZ900 certificate, Microsoft Azure has many more certificates which can add value to your career. Clearing the exam was more like a confidence booster and a motivator for me to prepare and take my next certification exam. So keep exploring the platform and acquire the certificates. And do not worry about failing, you can always go for a retest 5 times a year.