Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure (AZ-204): Study Guide

The Azure developer associate cert. AZ-204 exam format, the five skill areas, the compute/storage/security services to know, and a focused study plan.

Practice 45 free Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure questions

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

Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure (AZ-204) is the associate certification for Azure developers. It validates that you can design, build, test and maintain cloud applications and services on Azure — from compute and storage to security and event-driven integration.

Exam at a glance

• Format: 40–60 questions (multiple choice, case studies)
• Duration: about 120 minutes
• Cost: 165 USD (varies by region)
• Passing score: 700 out of 1000
• Recommended: 1–2 years of development experience and Azure familiarity

Skill areas

1. Develop Azure compute solutions — 25–30%. App Service, Azure Functions, and Azure Container Apps/Container Instances.
2. Develop for Azure storage — 15–20%. Blob Storage and Azure Cosmos DB (APIs, consistency levels, partitioning).
3. Implement Azure security — 15–20%. Microsoft Entra ID auth, managed identities, Key Vault, SAS, the Microsoft identity platform.
4. Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize — 10–15%. Application Insights, caching with Azure Cache for Redis, CDN.
5. Connect to and consume Azure services — 15–20%. API Management, Event Grid, Event Hubs, Service Bus, Queue Storage.

Services to master

• Compute: App Service (deployment slots, configuration), Azure Functions (triggers/bindings, durable functions), Container Apps
• Data: Blob Storage SDK, Cosmos DB (partition keys, consistency, RU/s)
• Security: managed identities, Key Vault, Entra ID app registrations, MSAL
• Messaging: Service Bus vs Event Grid vs Event Hubs vs Storage Queues — know when to use each
• Observability: Application Insights, Azure Cache for Redis

A study plan

• Weeks 1–2: App Service and Azure Functions (triggers, bindings, durable).
• Week 3: Cosmos DB and Blob Storage SDK patterns.
• Week 4: Security (managed identities, Key Vault) and messaging services.
• Week 5: Monitoring/caching, then practice exams.

Exam-day tips

• Know the messaging service decision matrix cold — it is a frequent question type.
• Understand Cosmos DB consistency levels and partition key design.
• Prefer managed identities over storing secrets; know Key Vault access patterns.

Practice now

Use the free AZ-204 questions below, focusing on Functions, Cosmos DB and the messaging services.