How I Passed The Microsoft AZ-104 Certification Exam In 4 Weeks

Have you ever considered taking any Microsoft Certification?  The Microsoft Certified Azure Administrator Associate certification is one of the most well-known IT certifications. Passing the Microsoft AZ-104 exam is required to earn this certification.

In the past, Microsoft had a certification known as MCSE, which was the entry-level IT for new aspiring system administrators that wanted to start a career in IT.  Nowadays Microsoft has switched its certification to role-based and has introduced Cloud features. Active Directory can be in the cloud. Azure is a general term for Microsoft Cloud, the same way AWS is amazon cloud services. Microsoft Cloud is called Azure. 

Prerequisite for the Microsoft Azure Administrator AZ-104 Certification

While there are no prerequisites for taking the AZ-104 exam, it would be pretty challenging to take this exam without any prior knowledge.  You need to have some basic knowledge of the Windows operating system, networking, and some experience with active directory.

If you don’t have any prior experience at all you might consider starting with Microsoft entry level exam: AZ -900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals 

In general,  Microsoft AZ 104 helps students learn the the following topics:

• Learn what are Azure identities and governance (Active Directory and More) and how to manage users in Azure-based organizations.
• learn and implement various Azure storage solutions
• Deploy & manage Azure compute resources and learn how to manage them
• Configure & manage compute virtual networks and learn how to manage them as an Azure administrator.
• Learn about Azure backup solutions

Study Tips for The Azure AZ-104 Exam

After learning and grasping the basic topics of the AZ-104 certification, your next step is starting your practice for the exam itself. In this article, we will detail all the information you need in order to help you pass your exam. Here are more tips for passing the exam:

1. Visit and review AZ-104 Official Website

first things first!

 Microsoft az-104 official website offers exam information and has some free resources and study materials. 

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/certifications/exams/az-104

On this page, you can learn about the general topics of the exam. How to enroll and register for the exam, pricing, and other information. keep in mind that studying from Microsoft resources alone might not be sufficient to pass the exam. you must also practice exam questions.

2. Microsoft instructor-led training – The AZ-104T00 Course

Microsoft has paid training which is an instructor-led virtual course. These courses are approximately four days and cover all the major topics in the exam. Keep in mind pricing is around 1600$ so it might not be suitable for all students.

3. Go over an AZ-104 Practice Test

This part is a must and you should not skip it if you want to pass your exam on the first try. No matter what you managed to study you should allocate at least 2-3 days to doing an AZ-104 Practice Test and practicing as many questions as possible. Here is a full practice test for the az 104 exam

https://www.examgo.com/exams/microsoft/az-104/

Identify any weak spots and study accordingly. practice exam questions is a key step in dealing with exam pressure.  The more question you learn the more prepared you are for the exam day.

5. Microsoft Official Documentation

As mentioned previously going through the documentation is an important step for grasping the general topics of the exam. also, it’s important in case they change topics. In addition, they mention how many percentages each module of the topics is being presented in the exam. So it’s important to put your studying weight on topics that matter the most.

Why should you take the Microsoft AZ-104 Certification Exam?

If you are not sure about taking this certification here is some information that might help you. The key benefit of obtaining the azure administrator is pretty obvious. It’s a major advantage to your resume and a salary boost. The average salary of a system administrator is around 100K$. If you don’t have any prior experience, adding the Microsoft Azure administrator AZ-104 to your resume increases your chances of getting hired, compared to other candidates who don’t have this certification.

Big tech companies put a value on employees that strive to enrich their knowledge, and having a certification is a kind of approval stamp that shows that you are invested and updated with the most up-to-date technologies and best practices.

Conclusion

For any aspiring system administrator, there are two certifications you must consider doing. The first one is the AZ-104 as mentioned elaborately in this article. The second one is Cisco CCNA certification which gives you vast knowledge in networking and is also important. As we also mentioned here before if you feel like the AZ-104 is too much for you, take a look at the more basic AZ-900 certification. The azure fundamentals exam can be done in one week if you put in the effort.

The AZ-104 certification will give you a pretty solid base for handling any entry-level IT role.  So, I hope this guide gave you some insights and a better understanding of the learning process for this certification. Don’t forget to allocate a day or two and take the practice exam on the final days before the exam. That is all. if you find this article useful I would appreciate a like, share, or comment on my article. Good Luck!