AZ-104 Practice Test | 400+ Free Azure Administrator Questions

Microsoft AZ-104 Practice Test

An AZ-104 practice test helps you move beyond reading Azure documentation and check whether you can make the right administrative decision in a real cloud scenario. You can Browse our complete practice-test library to explore focused certification preparation, then use this page to understand the current Microsoft Azure Administrator objectives, practise important topics, and build a clear study routine before exam day.

What is the Microsoft AZ-104 exam?

AZ-104 is the required exam for the Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate certification. It measures whether you can implement, manage, secure, monitor, and maintain an organization’s Microsoft Azure environment.

The exam covers five connected areas: identity and governance, storage, compute, virtual networking, and monitoring and recovery. These areas reflect the normal responsibilities of an Azure administrator. For example, you may need to decide where to assign an Azure role, how to protect a storage account, which compute service suits a workload, how to restrict network traffic, or how to configure an alert and recovery plan.

Microsoft classifies the certification as intermediate. According to the official Azure Administrator certification page, candidates should understand operating systems, networking, servers, and virtualization. Practical experience with PowerShell, Azure CLI, the Azure portal, ARM templates or Bicep, and Microsoft Entra ID is also recommended.

This page follows the current AZ-104 skills outline that became effective on April 17, 2026.

Who should take the AZ-104 exam?

AZ-104 is designed for people who administer Azure resources rather than only describe cloud concepts. It is a suitable next step for:

• Students who have completed Azure Fundamentals and want an administrator credential
• Help-desk or systems professionals moving into cloud operations
• Network engineers learning Azure virtual networking and secure connectivity
• Junior cloud administrators managing subscriptions, resources, and access
• Infrastructure engineers working with virtual machines, containers, and App Service
• IT professionals responsible for monitoring, backup, recovery, and cost control
• Developers who need stronger knowledge of how their applications are hosted and governed
• DevOps learners who want an administration foundation before studying automation in greater depth

The exam is not limited to people with the job title “Azure Administrator.” However, it expects hands-on decision-making. If you have never created a resource group, assigned an Azure role, deployed a virtual machine, configured a virtual network, or reviewed Azure Monitor data, complete practical exercises before relying on mock tests.

If you are comparing different Microsoft credentials, Find a practice test for your exam and choose a path that matches your current role and technical experience.

Do you need AZ-900 before AZ-104?

Microsoft does not list AZ-900 as a required prerequisite for AZ-104. You can take AZ-104 without first passing Azure Fundamentals.

However, AZ-900 knowledge is helpful if cloud concepts, subscriptions, regions, availability zones, resource groups, pricing, service models, and shared responsibility are new to you. AZ-104 spends less time explaining what Azure is and more time asking how an administrator should configure it.

Students with little Azure experience can complete the Azure Fundamentals learning material without taking the AZ-900 exam. The goal is to enter AZ-104 preparation with a clear understanding of basic Azure architecture and terminology.

What should an AZ-104 practice test measure?

A strong AZ-104 practice test should measure your ability to apply Azure administration knowledge, not just recall product definitions. It should check whether you can:

1. Select the correct Azure service or configuration for a stated requirement.
2. Understand the scope and effect of an identity, governance, storage, compute, networking, or monitoring setting.
3. Compare similar options, such as an NSG and an ASG or a service endpoint and a private endpoint.
4. Read short PowerShell, Azure CLI, ARM, Bicep, JSON, or KQL examples at an administrative level.
5. Identify the safest and least disruptive troubleshooting step.
6. Recognize how a change in one area affects another area.
7. Work within cost, availability, security, recovery, and operational requirements.

For example, a question may describe a user who needs access to one resource group and ask where to assign the role. Another may describe a private application that must reach Azure Storage without using a public endpoint. These questions require you to connect the requirement to the correct scope or network feature.

Good practice questions include explanations. The explanation should show why the correct option fits and why the other options do not meet the requirement. Memorizing answer letters will not prepare you for newly worded scenarios.

Current AZ-104 exam domains and percentages

The official AZ-104 study guide lists five domains as of April 17, 2026:

Domain 1: Manage Azure identities and governance — 20–25%

This domain covers Microsoft Entra users and groups, Azure role-based access control, subscriptions, resource organization, policy, locks, tags, costs, and management groups.

Microsoft Entra users and groups

You should know how to create and manage users and groups, update properties, assign licenses, invite external users, and configure self-service password reset.

Groups make access and license management easier when many users have the same requirements. An external or guest user is useful when someone outside the organization needs controlled access. SSPR lets eligible users reset or change their passwords without always contacting support, subject to the organization’s configuration.

Questions may describe an identity requirement and ask for the simplest administrative solution. Pay attention to whether the subject is an internal user, external collaborator, group, service principal, or managed identity.

Azure RBAC and scope

Azure role-based access control determines who can perform which actions at a particular scope. A role assignment combines:

• A security principal, such as a user, group, service principal, or managed identity
• A role definition, which contains allowed permissions
• A scope, which identifies where the permissions apply

The main scope levels are management group, subscription, resource group, and individual resource. Permissions assigned at a parent scope normally flow down to child resources. Apply least privilege and use the smallest scope that meets the requirement. Microsoft’s Azure RBAC overview is useful for reviewing this relationship.

Know the broad purpose of common built-in roles. The owner can manage resources and access. A contributor can manage resources but cannot grant access through Azure RBAC. The reader can view resources. More specific roles, such as Storage Blob Data Contributor or Virtual Machine Contributor, limit access to a particular service or data operation.

Do not confuse control-plane permissions with data-plane permissions. Permission to manage a storage account does not automatically mean permission to read every blob stored inside it.

Subscriptions and governance

Resource groups are logical containers for Azure resources. Tags add searchable key-value metadata, such as department, owner, environment, or cost center. Tags help organization and reporting but do not act as security boundaries.

Azure Policy evaluates resources against organizational rules. It can audit noncompliance, deny disallowed configurations, add or modify selected settings, or deploy related configuration when properly defined. Azure RBAC controls who can act; Azure Policy controls which resource states are allowed or reported.

Resource locks help protect important resources from accidental deletion or modification. A CanNotDelete lock allows authorized changes but blocks deletion. A ReadOnly lock prevents updates and deletion. Locks apply to users with normal control-plane permissions, including owners, but do not replace backups or data protection.

Management groups organize subscriptions so governance and access can be applied across them. Cost-management tasks include budgets, alerts, and Azure Advisor recommendations. A budget warns about planned or actual spending; it does not automatically stop Azure resources.

Domain 2: Implement and manage storage — 15–20%

This domain covers storage security, access methods, redundancy, encryption, data tools, Azure Files, Blob Storage, recovery settings, and lifecycle management.

Storage access and network security

Storage accounts can be protected with firewalls and virtual-network rules. Shared access signatures, or SAS tokens, provide delegated and time-limited access to selected storage services or resources. A stored access policy can give administrators more control over a service SAS, including the ability to change or revoke associated access.

Account access keys provide broad access and should be protected and rotated. Where supported, identity-based access using Microsoft Entra ID and Azure RBAC is generally easier to control than distributing long-lived secrets. Azure Files can also use identity-based authorization in supported configurations.

Read every question for the required scope and duration. A user who needs temporary read access to one blob should not receive an account key that grants much broader access.

Storage redundancy and encryption

Azure Storage redundancy options protect data by keeping multiple copies. At a simple level:

• LRS copies data within one datacenter in the primary region.
• ZRS copies data across availability zones in the primary region.
• GRS adds asynchronous replication to a secondary region.
• RA-GRS adds read access to the secondary copy.
• GZRS combines zone redundancy in the primary region with geo-replication.
• RA-GZRS adds read access to the secondary region.

Choose according to availability, regional recovery, read access, compatibility, and cost requirements. More replication is not automatically the correct answer if the service, budget, or recovery need does not justify it.

Azure Storage encrypts data, and administrators may need to distinguish Microsoft-managed keys from customer-managed keys in scenarios that require additional key control.

Azure Files and Blob Storage

Azure Files provides managed file shares. Blob Storage is designed for object data such as documents, media, logs, backups, and application content. Know how to create shares and containers and apply suitable access and recovery settings.

Blob access tiers help balance access frequency and cost. Lifecycle-management rules can move blobs to a cooler tier or delete them when conditions are met. Versioning, soft delete, and snapshots support different recovery needs:

• Blob versioning preserves earlier blob versions after changes.
• Soft delete retains deleted blobs or containers for a configured period.
• File-share snapshots preserve point-in-time share data.
• Azure Files soft delete helps recover deleted shares.

Azure Storage Explorer provides a graphical tool for working with storage data. AzCopy is a command-line utility designed for data transfer to, from, or between Azure Storage locations.

Domain 3: Deploy and manage Azure compute resources — 20–25%

Compute is one of the two largest domains. It covers infrastructure as code, virtual machines, scale sets, containers, and Azure App Service.

ARM templates and Bicep

Azure Resource Manager templates are declarative JSON files. Bicep provides a more concise declarative language for deploying Azure resources. In both cases, you describe the desired resources and properties rather than writing a manual sequence of portal clicks.

The exam expects you to interpret and modify existing templates, deploy resources, export deployments as ARM templates, and convert ARM JSON to Bicep. Focus on parameters, variables, resources, outputs, dependencies, names, locations, and references.

You do not need to become an advanced software developer, but you should recognize what a template will create and identify a simple configuration error.

Azure virtual machines

Know how to choose and manage VM size, operating system, disks, networking, identity, and availability. Resizing changes the compute capacity and price and may require a restart. Managed disks separate persistent storage from the VM compute resource.

The current outline includes encryption at the host and moving a VM to another resource group, subscription, or region. Moves have service-specific requirements and dependencies, so a scenario may ask whether the proposed move is supported or what must move together.

Availability sets distribute VMs across fault and update domains within a datacenter-based design. Availability zones are physically separate locations within an Azure region and provide stronger protection against a datacenter-level failure. Virtual Machine Scale Sets manage a group of VM instances and can scale capacity based on rules or schedules. The Microsoft VM availability overview explains these choices and their different resilience levels.

Containers

Azure Container Registry stores and manages private container images. Azure Container Instances runs containers without requiring you to manage VMs or a full orchestrator. Azure Container Apps provides a managed application environment with features for scaling and application revisions.

The current exam outline includes provisioning containers through the Azure portal and managing sizing and scaling for Container Instances and Container Apps. Learn when a lightweight container deployment fits better than a VM and how image, registry, networking, environment variables, compute, and scaling settings affect deployment.

Azure App Service

App Service hosts web applications and APIs on a managed platform. The App Service plan determines the region, operating-system type, compute resources, pricing tier, and available scaling features for associated apps.

Study how to:

• Create an App Service plan and web app
• Scale up by changing the plan size or tier
• Scale out by adding instances
• Configure TLS certificates and HTTPS
• Map a custom DNS name
• Configure backup and networking
• Use deployment slots

A deployment slot is a separate live environment that can host another version of the app. Teams can validate changes in a staging slot and then swap it with production. Check the pricing tier and settings because not every feature is available in every tier.

Domain 4: Implement and manage virtual networking — 15–20%

This domain covers virtual networks, subnets, peering, IP addressing, routes, security controls, private connectivity, DNS, load balancing, and troubleshooting.

Virtual networks, subnets, and peering

An Azure virtual network, or VNet, provides a private network boundary for Azure resources. Subnets divide an address space into smaller networks. Plan address ranges carefully so connected networks do not overlap.

VNet peering connects virtual networks through the Azure backbone. Peering is not automatically transitive. If VNet A is peered with VNet B and VNet B is peered with VNet C, A does not automatically reach C through B without additional design and configuration.

User-defined routes change where subnet traffic is sent. They may direct traffic to a virtual appliance, the internet, a virtual-network gateway, or another supported next hop. When troubleshooting, check effective routes, name resolution, network security rules, peering configuration, and the workload’s own operating-system firewall.

NSGs and ASGs

A network security group, or NSG, contains inbound and outbound security rules. It can be associated with a subnet or network interface. Rules use priority, protocol, source, source port, destination, destination port, and action. Lower priority numbers are evaluated before higher numbers.

An application security group, or ASG, lets you group network interfaces by application role and reference those groups in NSG rules. An ASG does not filter traffic by itself; the NSG contains the allow or deny rule.

Effective security rules show the combined rules affecting a network interface. They are helpful when a configured rule appears correct but traffic is still blocked.

Bastion, service endpoints, and private endpoints

Azure Bastion provides managed RDP and SSH connectivity to VMs through the Azure portal or supported clients without requiring each VM to have a public IP address.

A virtual-network service endpoint extends a subnet’s identity to a supported Azure service while the service still uses its public endpoint. A private endpoint places a network interface with a private IP address in the VNet for a specific service resource. Private endpoints commonly require private DNS planning. Microsoft’s Private Link documentation also warns that creating a private endpoint does not automatically block the service’s public endpoint; public network access must be controlled separately when required.

DNS and load balancing

Azure DNS hosts DNS zones and records. Understand common record types and how name resolution supports public and private resources.

Azure Load Balancer distributes layer-4 TCP or UDP traffic across healthy backend instances. It can be public or internal. Health probes determine which backend instances should receive new flows. Load-balancing rules connect a frontend IP and port to a backend pool and port.

When traffic fails, check the frontend configuration, backend pool, health probe, load-balancing rule, NSG, route, guest firewall, and whether the application is listening on the expected port.

Domain 5: Monitor and maintain Azure resources — 10–15%

This domain covers Azure Monitor, logs, alerts, insights, Network Watcher, backup, restore, and disaster recovery.

Azure Monitor

Metrics are numeric time-series measurements, such as CPU percentage or request count. Logs contain richer records that can be queried and correlated. Diagnostic settings can send supported resource logs and metrics to destinations such as a Log Analytics workspace, storage account, or event hub.

Kusto Query Language, or KQL, is used to query log data. For AZ-104, practise reading and adapting simple queries that filter by time, select records, summarize values, and order results.

An alert rule defines the resource, signal, condition, and evaluation behavior. An action group defines what happens when the alert fires, such as sending a notification or invoking an automated action. Alert processing rules can change how fired alerts are handled during maintenance or other planned conditions.

Azure Monitor Insights provides prepared monitoring views for supported resources, including virtual machines, storage accounts, and networks. Network Watcher supplies network diagnostic tools. Connection Monitor checks connectivity over time and helps identify where communication fails.

Backup and recovery

Azure Backup protects supported workloads according to policies for schedule and retention. The current outline includes Recovery Services vaults and Backup vaults, so know that the required vault depends on the workload and backup service being configured.

You should be able to create and apply a backup policy, run or monitor backups, restore data, and interpret backup reports and alerts.

Azure Site Recovery supports business continuity by replicating supported workloads and coordinating failover. Understand the broad differences:

• Backup creates recoverable copies of data or workloads.
• Site Recovery replicates workloads and supports failover for disaster recovery.

A scenario may require recovery of an accidentally deleted file, restoration of a VM, or failover of an application to another region. Match the requirement to the appropriate service rather than choosing the tool with the broadest-sounding name.

High-value AZ-104 comparisons to remember

Your AZ-104 Practice Toolkit for Steady Improvement

AZ-104 preparation works best when every question produces a useful next step. Our approach helps you connect the five exam domains instead of studying Azure services as isolated definitions.

When you prepare with us, you can use:

• Current objective coverage: Practice reflects the April 17, 2026 AZ-104 outline.
• Domain-focused quizzes: Study identity, storage, compute, networking, or monitoring separately before mixing them.
• Clear answer reasoning: Explanations show why a configuration meets the requirement and why similar options do not.
• Administrative scenarios: Questions focus on access, availability, cost, security, deployment, monitoring, and recovery decisions.
• Progress tracking: Results make it easier to decide what to review next.
• Timed mock attempts: Later practice builds calm pacing for the 100-minute assessment.
• Student-friendly wording: Technical concepts are introduced clearly without removing the important Azure terminology.
• Readiness checks: Consistent results across all domains provide a better signal than one unusually high score.

Do not use practice tests only to collect scores. Write down the reason for every mistake, complete a small Azure task, and then try a fresh scenario. When you want additional structured preparation, Browse professional certification resources and turn each result into a focused review session.

How to use an AZ-104 practice test effectively

1. Take a diagnostic quiz

Begin with a short mixed test before intensive study. Record your result for each domain. This gives you a baseline and prevents you from spending equal time on topics you already know.

2. Study by domain

Use Microsoft Learn, Azure documentation, and a safe Azure environment. Study a concept, configure it, remove it when finished, and then answer related questions.

3. Build a comparison notebook

AZ-104 includes many similar tools. Create one-page comparisons for RBAC versus Policy, LRS versus ZRS, availability sets versus zones, service endpoints versus private endpoints, and Backup versus Site Recovery.

4. Review every answer

For an incorrect or guessed answer, note the tested requirement, correct feature, reason it fits, and reason your choice failed. Correct guesses should be treated as incomplete learning.

5. Retest after a delay

Wait before using another set. Delayed practice shows whether you retained the concept rather than remembering the previous option order.

6. Complete full-time mock tests

Use fresh mixed questions near exam day. The real exam time is 100 minutes, while the exact question count can change. Practise maintaining steady progress without rushing.

Four-week AZ-104 study plan

Week 1: Identity, access, and governance

Review Entra users, groups, external identities, licenses, and SSPR. Practise RBAC roles and scope. Create a resource group, add tags, test a policy in a safe scope, review locks, configure a small budget, and understand management group inheritance.

Weekly goal: Choose the smallest correct RBAC scope and distinguish roles, policies, locks, and tags in scenarios.

Week 2: Storage and compute

Create a storage account, file share, and blob container. Compare access keys, SAS, identity-based access, redundancy, encryption, tiers, versioning, soft delete, snapshots, and lifecycle rules. Review ARM and Bicep structure. Deploy a VM, examine disks and availability, and compare ACI, Container Apps, and App Service.

Weekly goal: Select storage protection and compute options from requirements involving access, resilience, cost, scaling, and management effort.

Week 3: Virtual networking

Build a small VNet with subnets. Review peering, public IPs, UDRs, NSGs, ASGs, Bastion, service endpoints, private endpoints, Azure DNS, and Load Balancer. Use effective routes and effective security rules to troubleshoot a blocked connection.

Weekly goal: Trace a packet through DNS, route, NSG, load balancer, and guest operating-system controls.

Week 4: Monitoring, recovery, and timed practice

Review Azure Monitor metrics, logs, diagnostic settings, KQL, alerts, action groups, processing rules, Insights, Network Watcher, and Connection Monitor. Compare vaults, backup policies, restore operations, and Site Recovery failover. Complete two or more fresh timed mock tests on separate days.

Weekly goal: Achieve stable results across all five domains and explain every answer in your own words.

Hands-on tasks that make AZ-104 easier to understand

Complete these activities in a safe lab subscription and remove resources when finished to avoid unnecessary charges:

1. Create a resource group and apply owner, environment, and cost-center tags.
2. Assign Reader to a test user at the resource group scope.
3. Create a simple Azure Policy assignment and inspect compliance.
4. Add and remove a resource lock safely.
5. Configure a small cost budget and alert.
6. Create a storage account with suitable redundancy.
7. Generate a limited SAS and examine its permissions and expiry.
8. Enable blob versioning and soft delete, then recover a test object.
9. Transfer a sample file with Storage Explorer or AzCopy.
10. Read and deploy a simple Bicep file.
11. Deploy a VM and inspect its size, disk, identity, availability, and network interface.
12. Compare a container deployment with an App Service deployment.
13. Create two subnets and apply an NSG rule.
14. Review effective routes and effective security rules.
15. Configure a test load balancer or study its frontend, backend, probe, and rule relationship.
16. Create an Azure Monitor alert and action group.
17. Run a simple KQL query against available log data.
18. Explore Network Watcher and Connection Monitor.
19. Review the correct vault and policy for a supported backup workload.
20. Delete all paid lab resources after completing the exercises.

Common AZ-104 preparation mistakes

Studying an outdated outline

Use the objectives effective April 17, 2026. Older courses may miss changes to blob and file recovery, VM tasks, Container Apps sizing and scaling, and current monitoring objectives.

Reading without using Azure

AZ-104 is an administrator exam. Portal, CLI, PowerShell, ARM or Bicep, and troubleshooting experience make scenario questions much easier.

Memorizing service names

Learn the requirement each service satisfies. Questions often include several genuine Azure products, but only one meets the stated scope, recovery, availability, security, or cost condition.

Ignoring inherited scope

RBAC, Policy, and locks can affect child resources through hierarchy. Always identify where the setting is assigned and which resources inherit it.

Confusing control-plane and data access

The ability to manage an Azure resource does not always provide access to its stored data. Review management actions and data actions separately.

Skipping networking troubleshooting

A connection can fail because of DNS, routes, NSGs, load-balancer probes, guest firewalls, service settings, or application ports. Practise checking them in a logical order.

Taking repeated tests without analysis

More attempts do not guarantee improvement. Review the explanation, reproduce the concept in a lab, and try a fresh question later.

Using unauthorized exam dumps

Exam dumps may be outdated, inaccurate, or against certification rules. Use official documentation and original questions that teach the public objectives.

AZ-104 exam-day guidance

• Confirm your appointment time, time zone, identification, and delivery method.
• Use a personal Microsoft account for certification registration where possible so your records are not dependent on a work or school account.
• Test your computer and room against the current online-proctoring requirements if taking the exam remotely.
• Use Microsoft’s official exam sandbox to learn the interface before exam day.
• Read every scenario for scope, region, cost, downtime, availability, and security requirements.
• Eliminate options that are real Azure services but solve a different problem.
• Watch for words such as “least privilege,” “minimum administration,” “private,” “automatic,” and “without downtime.”
• Do not assume a lab will or will not appear. Microsoft says labs can be present or removed, and the launch information tells you what to expect for that exam session.
• Manage time carefully. The exam provides 100 minutes, while the overall appointment includes additional activities.
• For associate and expert role-based exams, Microsoft currently allows access to eligible Microsoft Learn content within the exam interface. The timer continues, some Learn areas are unavailable, and browsing outside the Microsoft Learn domain is blocked. Use it only for a targeted lookup.

Microsoft AZ-104 frequently asked questions

What certification do I earn by passing AZ-104?

Passing AZ-104 satisfies the exam requirement for Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate, subject to Microsoft’s current credential requirements and policies.

Is AZ-104 difficult?

AZ-104 is an intermediate exam with a wide technical scope. It is difficult for students who rely only on definitions because questions can combine identity, storage, compute, networking, monitoring, security, cost, and recovery requirements. Hands-on practice reduces that difficulty.

Is AZ-104 suitable for beginners?

It is not a fundamentals exam. A motivated beginner can prepare for it, but should first learn Azure basics and gain practical experience with the portal, identity, storage, VMs, networks, monitoring, CLI or PowerShell, and infrastructure templates.

Does AZ-104 require AZ-900?

No. AZ-900 is not a formal prerequisite. Its learning content is a useful foundation for students who are new to Azure.

Do I need coding experience for AZ-104?

You do not need to be a professional application developer. You should be able to read and modify administrative PowerShell, Azure CLI, ARM, Bicep, JSON, and basic KQL examples.

How long is the AZ-104 exam?

The official certification page currently gives candidates 100 minutes to complete the assessment. Allow additional appointment time for check-in, instructions, agreements, and feedback.

How many questions are on AZ-104?

Microsoft does not promise a fixed AZ-104 question count. Its general guidance says most certification exams typically contain 40–60 questions, but the number can vary as exams are updated.

What score is required to pass AZ-104?

The official study guide states that a scaled score of 700 or higher is required. This does not necessarily mean exactly 70% of questions must be correct because Microsoft uses scaled scoring.

Does AZ-104 contain labs?

It may contain interactive components or labs, but Microsoft does not publish a permanent list of exams with labs. Availability can change because of operational conditions. Review the exam information shown when you launch your appointment.

Is AZ-104 open book?

AZ-104 is not a traditional open-book exam. Microsoft currently provides access to eligible Microsoft Learn content inside associate and expert role-based exams. Access is restricted, the exam timer continues, and outside websites are blocked. You cannot use personal notes, search the general web, or treat the feature as a substitute for preparation.

Can I take AZ-104 online from home?

Microsoft role-based exams are generally offered through Pearson VUE with delivery choices shown during scheduling. Online testing requires a suitable computer, webcam, microphone, identification, and compliant room. Check the current provider rules for your location.

How much does the AZ-104 exam cost?

The price depends on the country or region where the exam is proctored. Select your location on the official certification page for the current amount. Do not rely on an old universal price from a blog.

Which languages are available for AZ-104?

The current official page lists English, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Japanese, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Traditional), and Italian. Confirm the list when scheduling because it can change.

How long should I study for AZ-104?

An experienced Azure administrator may need a few weeks of focused review. A learner with limited Azure experience may need six to twelve weeks of study and labs. Use a diagnostic test and domain results rather than copying another student’s timetable.

How many practice tests should I take?

Begin with one diagnostic quiz, use domain tests during study, and take at least two fresh timed mock tests near exam day. Review quality matters more than the total number of attempts.

What are the most important AZ-104 topics?

Identity and governance and compute each represent 20–25%, making them the largest domains. Storage and networking each represent 15–20%, and monitoring and maintenance represent 10–15%. Every domain should be studied because scenario questions can combine them.

Is PowerShell or Azure CLI required?

The official audience profile recommends experience with both PowerShell and Azure CLI. You should recognize common administrative operations and interpret short commands, even if you normally prefer the Azure portal.

Are ARM templates and Bicep included?

Yes. You should be able to interpret, modify, deploy, export, and convert infrastructure definitions at the level described in the current outline.

Does AZ-104 expire?

The Azure Administrator Associate certification currently has a 12-month renewal frequency. Microsoft allows eligible role-based certifications to be renewed at no cost through an online assessment on Microsoft Learn during the renewal window.

What happens if I fail AZ-104?

Microsoft’s current policy allows a first retake after 24 hours. Waiting periods for later attempts vary, and annual attempt limits apply. Review the current official retake policy before booking again.

Is the free Microsoft practice assessment enough?

It is useful for seeing representative wording and identifying study gaps, but Microsoft states that a practice assessment does not replace training or hands-on experience. Combine it with labs, documentation, domain quizzes, and timed mixed practice.