Microsoft Azure Certification Path: A Step-by-Step 2024 Guide

Azure Certifications are a way to demonstrate and validate your knowledge of specialized cloud roles. Despite this, there are numerous Azure Certifications available, and you may be unsure which certification is the best fit for your needs. As a result, we’re back with another blog post covering everything about the Azure Certification Learning Path that you need to know in order to choose the best certification for your needs.

Importance of Microsoft Azure certification

Azure is the world’s most popular cloud computing platform and is the market leader in cloud computing. The demand for cloud-based solutions is increasing all the time, and most organizations and businesses, whether small or large, are moving their operations to the cloud to stay competitive. It also has a direct impact on the demand for cloud-based professionals. Microsoft awards certifications to those who, in Microsoft’s opinion, are the best candidates for a particular job role. Microsoft certifications are valuable, and most employers prefer that their employees have them on their resumes if at all possible.

Why Should You?Learn Microsoft Azure?

The worldwide cloud computing market is rapidly growing and will reach an estimated 397 billion (approx) U.S. dollars in 2024. Therefore, nobody can deny the rapid growth of cloud computing in recent years. Microsoft Azure is one of the leading cloud vendors.

Its top-level tools and service offerings, make it a worthy choice for businesses. Well-known brands such as eBay, Samsung, and BMW are some of the biggest customers of Microsoft Azure. They are evidence of Azure’s capabilities and offerings.

Microsoft Azure Certifications

Azure certifications are essential while seeking a career in the cloud computing industry. Microsoft now has?13 Azure certifications?classified into three levels:?Fundamental, Associate, and Expert. These exams are to validate your expertise in the Azure cloud. And purely focus on developing?knowledge and skills?related to current market job roles.

Microsoft now has?13 Microsoft Azure certifications?with?14 exams. This substitution was made with the engagement of the community after classifying the job requirements. Microsoft also has two fundamental level certifications, Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals Exam [AI-900]?and?Azure Data Fundamentals Exam [DP-900].

Azure Certification Levels

Microsoft has arranged its certifications into four different levels, from beginner to expert. All the certification provided by Microsoft comes under these Azure Certifications path levels.

• Fundamentals Certification?– Fundamentals Certification is for beginners who have started their journey into learning cloud concepts. Also, people with non-technical backgrounds can start their journey in the cloud with these certifications.
• Associate Certification?– If you are already familiar with Azure, you are good to go to get these certifications listed in your resume.
• Expert Certification?– With prior experience, deep understanding, and associate-level knowledge in Azure, you can get an expert certification.
• Specialty Certification?– These are currently available for a few roles like?Azure for SAP Workloads?and?Azure IOT Developer Speciality.

Azure Certification Path in 2024

Various Azure training and certification and job roles are available, but we have listed the Microsoft azure certification learning paths for some most popular job roles that most aspirants prefer to get.

Microsoft Announcements – Certification 2024 Syllabus updates

2022 Announcements:

Below are the Microsoft Azure Certifications that are expired and their corresponding Replacement Exams announced by March 31st, 2022

Microsoft Azure Certifications

We have listed the most searched Azure Certifications with a brief overview, exam details, and domain covered below based on their levels:

Fundamentals

1) AZ-900: Microsoft azure fundamentals certification

Azure Fundamentals covers all the foundational knowledge of cloud services. This certification covers all the basics of cloud services like networking, storage, computing, security, etc. It proves your knowledge of cloud concepts, services, security, workloads, and pricing in Azure. This certification is the first step towards Azure, and it is beneficial for everyone from technical and non-technical backgrounds. If you are looking for a Microsoft azure certification roadmap but don’t know much about cloud concepts, this certification is surely for you

• Certification Name:?Microsoft Azure Fundamentals Certification.
• Exam Code:?AZ-900
• Pre-requisites:?There are?no?prerequisites?for the?Microsoft Azure Fundamental (AZ-900) exam, but you should be familiar with basic cloud services and the Azure platform.
• Exam Cost:?USD 99 (based on the location)
• Exam Languages: English, French, Indonesian (Indonesia), Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian.
• Schedule Exam : Click here

2) AI-900: Microsoft AI Fundamentals

AI Fundamentals covers all the foundational knowledge in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) concepts in Azure. For this certification, general knowledge of a programming language will be beneficial but not mandatory, and everyone with technical and non-technical backgrounds can enroll in the AI-900 Azure certification roadmap.

• Certification Name:?Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals
• Exam Code:?AI-900
• Pre-requisites:?There are?no?prerequisites?for this exam, but you should have a basic awareness of common ML and AI concepts and their relation with Azure.
• Exam Cost:?USD 99 (based on the location)
• Exam Languages:?English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Indonesian (Indonesia), Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Chinese (Traditional), Italian
• Schedule Exam: Click Here

3) DP-900: Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals

Azure Data Fundamentals covers all the foundational knowledge of core data concepts. This certification covers all the basics of data concepts and how to work with Microsoft data services. It proves your knowledge of cloud concepts, services, security, workloads, and pricing in Azure. This certification is the first step towards Azure, and it is beneficial for everyone from technical and non-technical backgrounds. If you are looking for an azure certification path but don’t know much about cloud concepts, this certification is surely for you.

• Certification Name:?Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Fundamentals
• Exam Code:?DP-900
• Pre-requisites:?There are?no?prerequisites?for this?exam.
• Exam Cost:?USD 99 (based on the location)
• Exam Languages:?English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Indonesian (Indonesia), Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Chinese (Traditional), Italian
• Schedule Exam:?Click Here

Associate- Azure Certifications

4) AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate

Azure Administrator implements and manages the storage, compute, identity, governance, and virtual networks in a cloud. Also, administrators provision and monitor the resources in the cloud. The candidates need to be experienced using Azure Portal, Power Shell, Azure CLI, and ARM Templates.

• Certification Name:?Microsoft Azure Administrator
• Exam Code:?AZ-104
• Pre-requisites:?There are?no prerequisites?for taking this exam. But it would be better if you go for?AZ-900?(optional) first. The candidate?should have at least?six months?of hands-on experience administering Azure.
• Exam Cost:?USD 165 (based on the location)
• Exam Languages:?English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Japanese
• Schedule Exam:?Click Here

5) AZ-204: Microsoft Azure Developer Associate

Azure Developer deals with designing, building, testing, and maintaining cloud applications and services. For this role, Microsoft will look in you for the ability to program in a language supported by Azure and working proficiency in Azure PowerShell, Azure SDKs, Azure CLI, data storage options, data connections, APIs, app authentication, and authorization. The developer goes through various phases as follows.

• Cloud development requirements, definition, and design.
• Development, deployment, and maintenance.
• Performance tuning and monitoring.

• Certification Name:?Microsoft Certified Azure Developer Associate
• Exam Code:?AZ-204
• Pre-requisites:?There are?no prerequisites?for taking this exam. But it would be better if you go for?AZ-900?(optional) first. The candidate should have?1-2 years?of professional development, Microsoft Azure experience, and programming expertise in at least one high-level language supported by Azure.
• Exam Cost:?USD165 (based on the location)
• Exam Language:?English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean.
• Schedule Exam:?Click Here

6) DP-100: Microsoft Azure Data Scientist Associate

Data Scientists deal with data science and implement machine learning workloads on Azure. An Azure Data Scientist should have knowledge of data science and experience in using Azure Machine Learning and Azure Databricks. The key job role includes managing, optimizing, and deploying machine learning models into production.

• Certification Name:?Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate.
• Exam Code:?DP-100
• Pre-requisites:?There are no such prerequisites for taking this certification. But it would be better if you go for??AZ-900?(optional)/?AI-900?(optional) first. The candidate should have knowledge and experience in data science and using Azure Machine Learning and Azure Databricks.
• Exam Cost:?USD 165 (based on the location)
• Exam Language:?English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean
• Schedule Exam:?Click Here

7) DP-203: Microsoft Azure Data Engineer Associate

Data engineering deals with integrating, transforming, and consolidating data from various data systems for building analytics solutions. A data engineer designs, implements, optimizes, and monitors data platforms to meet the data pipeline needs. Also, they help stakeholders understand the data through exploration and maintaining secure and compliant data processing pipelines by using different tools and techniques.

• Certification Name:?Data Engineering on Microsoft Azure
• Exam Code:?DP-203
• Pre-requisites:?There are?no prerequisites?for taking this exam. But it would be better if you go for?DP-900 (optional) first. The Candidates must have a good knowledge of data processing languages such as SQL, Python, and Scala.
• Exam Cost:?USD 165 (based on the location)
• Exam Languages: English, Chinese (Simplified), French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Japanese, Korean, German, Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Russian, Chinese (Traditional), Italian, Indonesian (Indonesia)
• Schedule Exam:?Click Here

8) DP-300: Azure Database Administrator Associate

Azure Database Administrator implements and manages the platform solutions with Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Azure Data Services. The day-to-day task involves various methods and tools for daily operations, including the management of T-SQL.

• Certification Name: Administering Relational Databases on Microsoft Azure
• Exam Code:?DP-300
• Pre-requisites:?There are?no prerequisites?for taking this exam. But it would be better if you go for?DP-900?(optional) first.
• Exam Cost:?USD 165 (based on the location)
• Languages: English, Chinese (Simplified), Japanese, Korean, French, German, Portuguese (Brazil), Italian, Chinese (Traditional), Spanish
• Schedule Exam:?Click Here

9) PL-300: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst Associate

Data Analyst deals with loading, transforming, and analysis of data. The goal and motive of a data analyst are to generate meaningful insights using the huge collection of raw data. The Data Analyst is responsible for analyzing the data and creating easy-to-comprehend data visualizations. In the process, they create data models, graphs, and charts and use DAX expressions and machine learning models. This Azure certification path is for everyone interested in analyzing data and learning to perform data operations for their business and organization.

• Certification Name: Power BI Data Analyst Associate
• Exam Code: PL-300
• Pre-requisites:?There are?no prerequisites?for taking this exam. But it would be better if you go for?DP-900?(optional) first. The Candidates must have a fundamental understanding of data repositories and data processing (on-premises and in the cloud).
• Exam Cost:?USD 165 (based on the location)
• Exam Languages:? English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Russian, Chinese (Traditional), Italian, Indonesian (Indonesia)
• Schedule Exam:?Click Here

10) AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Engineer Associate

Azure Security Engineer manages identity and access, implements security controls and threat protection, and protects data, applications, and networks in the cloud. The Azure Security Engineer knows networking, virtualization, and cloud N-tier architecture to propose various security solutions to overcome any vulnerability or threat.

• Certification Name:?Microsoft Azure Security Technologies
• Exam Code:?AZ-500
• Exam Cost:?USD 165?(based on the location)
• Pre-requisites: Microsoft?doesn’t have any mandatory prerequisites?for the AZ-500 exam. It is advised that you take the?AZ-900??(optional) ?exam if you are just starting your career in the cloud.
• Exam Languages:?English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean
• Schedule Exam:?Click Here

Expert

11) Microsoft Certified Solutions Architect? [AZ-305]

It is initiated for designing and implementing solutions that run on Microsoft Azure. Including aspects like compute, network, storage, and security.

It is geared towards advising stakeholders and translating business requirements into secure, scalable, and reliable solutions. In addition, candidates should have expert-level skills in Azure administration and experience in Azure development and DevOps processes.

• Certification Name:?Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies
• Exam Code:?AZ-305
• Pre-requisite:?There are not any prerequisites for taking this course. Microsoft recommends candidates possess a minimum of six months of hands-on experience administering Azure.
• Exam Cost:?USD 165 (based on the location)
• Exam Languages:?English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean
• Schedule Exam:?Click Here

12) AZ-400: Microsoft DevOps Engineer Expert

The DevOps Engineer designs and implements strategies for collaboration, code, infrastructure, source control, security, compliance, continuous integration, testing, delivery, monitoring, and feedback. They create software automation pipelines for a complete development and deployment lifecycle in the cloud. The candidates applying for this certification should know Azure administration and development and have already cleared one exam, either the?AZ-104?or?AZ-204?exam.

• Certification Name:?Microsoft Azure DevOps Engineer Expert
• Exam Code:?AZ-400
• Pre-requisite:?There is as such no pre-requisite for giving the?Azure DevOps Certification Exam. However, if you want to earn the Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert Badge, you must clear the?AZ-104 exam.
• Exam Cost:?USD 165 (based on the location)
• Exam Languages: English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Russian, Chinese (Traditional), Italian, Indonesian (Indonesia)
• Schedule Exam:?Click Here

FAQs

Q1. Which Azure certification is best?

The best Azure certification for you depends on your role and goals. Here are a few of the most popular Azure certifications:

• Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
• Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104)
• Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204)
• Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305)
• Azure DevOps Engineer Expert(AZ400)

Here are some popular Azure data certifications:

• Azure Data Fundamentals(DP900)
• Data Engineering on Microsoft Azure(DP203)
• Administering Microsoft Azure SQL Solutions(DP300)
• Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst(PL300)

Q2. What is an Azure certification?

An Azure certification is a credential that validates your skills and knowledge in Microsoft Azure, a cloud computing platform. Azure certifications are available for a variety of roles and skill levels, from beginner to expert. Here are some of the benefits of getting an Azure certification:

• Increase your earning potential
• Advance your career
• Gain access to new opportunities

Q3. What is the salary of Microsoft Azure Certified?

The Average salary of Microsoft Azure Certified is based on the experience level the person is having, but the average of salary is increased then a non certified professional. Moreover the opportunity to get selected for any role also gets increased.

Q4. Is Azure in demand?

Azure is in high demand. According to a report by Indeed, the demand for Azure skills is growing by 200% year-over-year. This is because more and more businesses are moving to the cloud, and Azure is one of the leading cloud platforms