Azure 204 developer notes
Before we start, this is a collection on what I went through to get the 204 certification from azure. The process was similar to the one I did for AWS. The idea is to get some structure on how to get started with the subjects needed to pass the exam.
Before anything else a bit of context is always welcome, before taking the exam I started to work with azure services for about one year. Also I feel comfortable on how to navigate the integration between terraform and azure (terraform is not related by any means to azure exam).
Then I started collecting resources and also got some help from different people on the journey, this is also an attempt to document and share how the process was for me and which areas of the exam are covered. I know that most of the content here is already shared in the internet, but the approach I am taking is more personal, instead of a course or an overview.
Before starting
While I was starting with the content and what is covered in the exam, I basically started to poke around and to get everything I could (the result is the next section), so from blog posts, to official microsoft material and so on, it was more an exploratory thing.
Next up, as I started to feel more familiar with the exam topics and how much they weight in the exam I went for a more structured way. In the structured way, I focused on some resources from that first around exploring. The result was the resources in the next section.
Resources
- AZ-204 Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure
- Azure official learning path
- Pluralsight Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure (AZ-204)
General concepts
- Service plan: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/overview-hosting-plans
Exam topics
- Compute solutions
- Storage solutions
- Implementing security
- Monitor, Troubleshoot and Monitor
- Connect and consume services
What to watch out for
Azure cli
- Commands that are executed to create virtual machines, webapps, service plans
Azure Graph API
Templates ARM
ARM (Azure Resource Manager) templates are declarative files that allows the automation of resources management in azure (it can be creation, deletion, update or what ever). According to azure docs, any feature available in the portal is also available through ARM templates [1].
There are questions related to the ARM itself, so knowing what it is and how to use it is helpful to score a few questions.
Powershell
Some of the questions are based on PowserShell commands, as I am a linux based developer I wasn’t familiar with powershell the book “PowerShell 101 The No-Nonsense Beginner’s Guide to PowerShell” by Mike F Robbins [2] also helped me to get a basic understanding (it is also recommended under the official Microsoft documentation).
Are you on linux? Microsoft has powershell for linux as well, the installation instructions are split by distro
Powershell is always required in the exam, so understanding and know how to handle that is also useful.
References
- [1]Microsoft, “What is Azure Resource Manager?,” 2022 [Online]. Available at: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/management/overview. [Accessed: 06-Jun-2022]
- [2]M. F. Robbins, PowerShell 101 - The No-Nonsense Beginner’s Guide to PowerShell. Leanpub, 2018.
Another sources
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/az-204?tab=tab-learning-paths
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9evs8g9pano
Table of contents
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