Study guide for Exam AZ-204: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure - A guide made through notes and self-study guide

Last updated Jul 9, 2023 Published Jan 6, 2022

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Before we start, this is a collection of 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 with 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 on 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 started to poke around and 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.

As I started to feel more familiar with the exam topics and how much they weigh in the exam I went for a more structured way. In a structured way, I focused on some resources from that first around exploring. The result was the resources in the next section.

Last but not least, make sure to create your account at Microsoft Learning the material there helps with theory and practice.

The certification goal

Build end-to-end solutions in Microsoft Azure to create Azure Functions, implement and manage webapps, build and manage containers, and develop solutions utilizing Azure storage and CosmosDB.

Takeaways

The courses are starters, and most of the questions are not related to the courses
Mock exams are the best way to understand what the exam asks
Fill in the gap between mock exams and support material

Resources

General concepts

Service plan

Skills measured

What to watch out for

The exam covers different topics and there are specific subjects that are worth double-checking before taking the exam. In this section, there are four: Azure CLI, Azure Graph API and Templates ARM and Powershell.

Azure CLI

Commands that are executed to create virtual machines, webapps, and service plans, you can do the same steps that you would’ve done in the web interface.
The CLI has an az find an AI service that offers advice based on the official documentation

Azure Graph API

query user data

Templates ARM

ARM (Azure Resource Manager) templates are declarative files that allow the automation of resources management in Azure (it can be creation, deletion, update or whatever). According to Azure docs, any feature available in the portal is also available through ARM templates (missing reference).

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 Powershell 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 [1] also helped me to get a basic understanding (it is also recommended under the official Microsoft documentation).

Full reference on Azure PowerShell commands

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 knowing how to handle that is also useful.

Other sources

Renewing process

The AZ-204 certification is under the renewal program that Microsoft has for its certifications. Each year a set of 25 questions is asked for the certification holder to reevaluate their certification.

The certified developer receives an automated email alerting that the renewal process has started and a link to get through the questions.

The questions vary across the subjects presented in the certification.

A total of 45 minutes is given to answer the questions and it is allowed one attempt every 24 hours.

A minimum of 52% of correct questions is required for candidates to keep their certification.

Contoso?

According to Quora assistant contoso is a made-up company name used by Microsoft to keep the content focused in their training and certifications. It was a made-up name.