Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104): Complete Study Guide

The core Azure admin certification. AZ-104 exam format, the five skill areas with weights, the services you must operate, and a structured study plan.

Practice 74 free Microsoft Azure Administrator questions

Official exam page: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/certifications/azure-administrator/

The Microsoft Azure Administrator (AZ-104) is the core associate certification for Azure professionals. It validates that you can implement, manage and monitor an organization's Azure environment — identity, governance, storage, compute and virtual networking.

Exam at a glance

• Format: 40–60 questions (multiple choice, case studies, drag-and-drop)
• Duration: about 120 minutes
• Cost: 165 USD (varies by region)
• Passing score: 700 out of 1000
• Recommended: AZ-900 knowledge and hands-on Azure experience

Skill areas

1. Manage Azure identities and governance — 20–25%. Microsoft Entra ID, users/groups, RBAC, subscriptions, Azure Policy, resource locks and tags.
2. Implement and manage storage — 15–20%. Storage accounts, blob/file, access keys and SAS, lifecycle, Azure Files and File Sync.
3. Deploy and manage Azure compute resources — 20–25%. VMs, availability sets/zones, scale sets, ARM/Bicep templates, containers and App Service.
4. Implement and manage virtual networking — 15–20%. VNets, subnets, NSGs, peering, VPN Gateway, DNS, load balancing.
5. Monitor and maintain Azure resources — 10–15%. Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, alerts, Network Watcher, backup and recovery.

Services to master

• Identity & governance: Microsoft Entra ID, RBAC, Azure Policy, management groups
• Storage: storage accounts, SAS tokens, redundancy (LRS/ZRS/GRS), Azure Files
• Compute: VMs, VM scale sets, availability zones, App Service, ARM/Bicep
• Networking: VNet, NSG, peering, VPN Gateway, Azure Load Balancer, Application Gateway
• Monitoring: Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, Azure Backup, Site Recovery

A study plan

• Week 1: Identity and governance — Entra ID, RBAC, Policy.
• Week 2: Storage and compute, including ARM/Bicep templates.
• Week 3: Virtual networking in depth.
• Week 4: Monitoring, backup, then practice exams. Use a free Azure account throughout.

Exam-day tips

• Expect case-study questions — read all requirements before answering.
• Be precise on RBAC vs Azure Policy (permissions vs rules) and NSG rule evaluation.
• Know storage redundancy options and SAS token scope.

Practice now

Drill the free AZ-104 questions below, with extra focus on networking and identity.