Prepare for AZ-104 by practising the administration tasks in Microsoft’s April 17, 2026 English objectives. Cover all five skill areas, explain the results of your changes, and use the official practice assessment to find gaps. The study map, role-assignment exercise and checklist below give you a starting point.
Who is AZ-104 for, and do you need AZ-900?
AZ-104 is the exam for Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate. AZ-900 is not listed as a prerequisite.
The role implements, manages and monitors Azure environments, including networking, storage, compute, identity, security and governance. Microsoft expects familiarity with operating systems, networking, servers and virtualization.
The audience profile also names experience with PowerShell, Azure CLI, the portal, Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates or Bicep, and Microsoft Entra ID. Compare those expectations with your background. If you already administer systems, identify the Azure-specific gaps; if the concepts are unfamiliar, foundational learning can help before you practise the associated tasks.
Based on Microsoft Learn's certification page, the AZ-104 study guide, and official policy pages, retrieved September 14, 2026.: Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate - Certifications | Microsoft Learn — Certification overview, exam details, and assessed skills; Study guide for Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator | Microsoft Learn — Skills measured as of April 17, 2026, scoring, updates, and study resources
What should you study for the current exam?
The English objectives dated April 17, 2026 cover five skill areas. Use the full official outline as your coverage checklist.
The table is a condensed topic map. Weight ranges describe exam emphasis, not exact question counts or prescribed study hours. Microsoft updates English first; localized versions normally follow approximately eight weeks later, and the schedule can vary.
| Skill area | Weight | Focus your preparation on |
|---|---|---|
| Manage Azure identities and governance | 20–25% | Microsoft Entra users, groups, licenses, external users, and self-service password reset; built-in Azure roles and role assignments at different scopes; Azure Policy, resource locks, tags, subscriptions, cost alerts and budgets, management groups |
| Implement and manage storage | 15–20% | Storage firewalls, shared access signatures (SAS), access keys and identity-based Azure Files access; accounts, redundancy, replication and encryption; Storage Explorer and AzCopy; file shares, Blob containers, tiers, soft delete, snapshots, versioning and lifecycle management. |
| Deploy and manage Azure compute resources | 20–25% | Interpret, modify and deploy ARM templates or Bicep; virtual machines, host encryption, moves, sizes, disks, availability and scale sets; Container Registry, Container Instances and Container Apps; App Service plans, scaling, TLS, custom DNS, backups, networking and deployment slots. |
| Implement and manage virtual networking | 15–20% | Virtual networks, subnets, peering, public IPs, user-defined routes; network security groups, application security groups, Azure Bastion, service and private endpoints; Azure DNS, internal and public load balancers, connectivity troubleshooting |
| Monitor and maintain Azure resources | 10–15% | Azure Monitor metrics, logs, queries, alert rules, action groups and alert processing; Insights for compute, storage and networks; Network Watcher and Connection Monitor; Recovery Services and Backup vaults, policies, restores, Site Recovery failover, backup reports and alerts. |
Based on Microsoft Learn's certification page, the AZ-104 study guide, and official policy pages, retrieved September 14, 2026.: Study guide for Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator | Microsoft Learn — Skills measured as of April 17, 2026, scoring, updates, and study resources
Practice reading overlapping role assignments
Identify the principal, role and scope for each assignment before deciding what access applies.
Azure role-based access control (RBAC) assigns permissions to a security principal, such as a user or group, at a scope. The scope hierarchy runs from management group to subscription, resource group and individual resource. Lower scopes inherit role permissions from higher scopes.
Microsoft describes RBAC permissions as additive across applicable assignments, with deny assignments and conditions considered during access evaluation. The fictional scenario below explicitly excludes those complications. It concerns resource management; data operations use the separately defined DataActions permissions.
The RBAC exercise is fictional and self-contained; its rules come from Microsoft's Azure RBAC documentation.
Mina has Contributor on subscription S. Resource group RG1 is inside S. For this resource-management exercise, Contributor permits creating and managing resources, while Reader permits viewing them. Mina has no other assignments, and no deny assignment, condition or lock affects the scenario. A teammate adds Reader on RG1. (1) Does Mina become read-only in RG1? (2) Which assignment explains her effective management access there? (3) If read-only access in RG1 is required, is adding another Reader assignment enough?
The full answer and explanation follow the exercise prompt.
(1) No. (2) Contributor on subscription S continues to apply to RG1 through inheritance, so Mina retains Contributor management access there. (3) No. The team must review and narrow the broader grant so the intended access policy can take effect; adding another Reader assignment does not subtract Contributor permissions.
RG1 is within the subscription scope, and the Reader assignment is added alongside the inherited Contributor assignment. Work through the scope relationship before interpreting the narrower role name. A real access review must also inspect other applicable assignments and controls. This paper exercise does not change anyone’s permissions or establish every possible route to data access.
Based on Microsoft Learn's certification page, the AZ-104 study guide, and official policy pages, retrieved September 14, 2026.: What is Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC)? | Microsoft Learn — Role assignments, additive permission model, data actions, evaluation; Understand scope for Azure RBAC | Microsoft Learn — Scope levels and inheritance
Use a practical preparation checklist
Pair each objective with a task you can explain and, where you have suitable access, practise in an authorized learning environment.
The free official practice assessment supplies rationales and documentation links. Its questions do not reproduce the real exam’s length or complexity and do not replace product experience. Use the results to find gaps; a score alone does not prove readiness.
- Mark each detailed objective as something you can explain, have practised, or still need to learn.
- For identity and governance, trace an assignment’s scope and compare roles, policies and locks against their documented purposes.
- For storage and compute, work through the listed configuration tasks and explain the intended effect before making a change. Include the portal and the deployment or command-line tools named in the profile.
- For networking and monitoring, trace connectivity and inspect the relevant rules, metrics, logs and alerts. Review the backup and recovery objectives as part of the same environment.
- Record what you could not test because access or resources were unavailable. Use documented examples for study, then return to hands-on practice when suitable access is available.
- Use the exam sandbox to learn navigation, and check the appointment instructions, accommodations process and regional fee before exam day.
Based on Microsoft Learn's certification page, the AZ-104 study guide, and official policy pages, retrieved September 14, 2026.: Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate - Certifications | Microsoft Learn — Certification overview, exam details, and assessed skills; Study guide for Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator | Microsoft Learn — Skills measured as of April 17, 2026, scoring, updates, and study resources; Practice Assessments for Microsoft Certifications | Microsoft Learn — AZ-104 practice assessment availability, purpose, and limitations
What should you expect on exam day?
Microsoft’s AZ-104 credential page lists 100 minutes for this proctored exam. A passing score is at least 700 on a scaled 1–1,000 range, not a raw 70%.
Appointment time also includes instructions and other administrative steps. Confirm the full appointment length and exam overview rather than assuming a fixed question count or lab format. Follow each item’s scoring instructions; Microsoft says there is no penalty for guessing and does not identify unscored items.
- Restricted Microsoft Learn access covers learn.microsoft.com, excluding Q&A, practice assessments and your profile. Other domains are blocked, and browsing provides no extra time.
- Five minutes for breaks are already included in exam time. The timer continues during a break, and you cannot return to previously viewed questions, including unanswered or flagged ones.
- Use a personal Microsoft account when registering, as Microsoft recommends, so an employer or school account change does not strand your exam records.
Based on Microsoft Learn's certification page, the AZ-104 study guide, and official policy pages, retrieved September 14, 2026.: Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate - Certifications | Microsoft Learn — Certification overview, exam details, and assessed skills; Study guide for Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator | Microsoft Learn — Skills measured as of April 17, 2026, scoring, updates, and study resources; Exam duration and exam experience | Microsoft Learn — Question count policy, seat time, breaks, Microsoft Learn access during exams; Exam scoring and score reports | Microsoft Learn — Scaled passing score and scoring mechanics
How do renewal and retakes work?
The credential is initially valid for one year. Renewal is a separate free, open-book, unproctored assessment on Microsoft Learn.
The renewal window opens six months before expiration. Passing before expiry extends the credential one year from its existing expiration date. Check the actual date in your profile; once expired, the credential must be re-earned through the required exam requirements.
For a failed AZ-104 exam, wait at least 24 hours after the first attempt, then 14 days between subsequent attempts. You may take the exam at most five times in a 12-month period from the first attempt. The renewal assessment follows its own retry policy and must be passed before expiry.
Based on Microsoft Learn's certification page, the AZ-104 study guide, and official policy pages, retrieved September 14, 2026.: Credential expiration policies | Microsoft Learn — Role-based certification one-year validity; Microsoft Certification Renewal | Microsoft Learn — Free renewal assessment and six-month window; Exam and Applied Skills assessment lab retake policies | Microsoft Learn — Waiting periods and annual attempt limit
Based on Microsoft Learn's certification page, the AZ-104 study guide, and official policy pages, retrieved September 14, 2026.
Exam duration, passing score, and general question-count policy verified against retrieved Microsoft Learn pages on September 14, 2026.:
- Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate - Certifications | Microsoft Learn
- Study guide for Exam AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator | Microsoft Learn
- What is Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC)? | Microsoft Learn
- Understand scope for Azure RBAC | Microsoft Learn
- Exam duration and exam experience | Microsoft Learn
- Exam scoring and score reports | Microsoft Learn
- Credential expiration policies | Microsoft Learn
- Microsoft Certification Renewal | Microsoft Learn
- Exam and Applied Skills assessment lab retake policies | Microsoft Learn
- Practice Assessments for Microsoft Certifications | Microsoft Learn