AZ-900
AZ-900
Microsoft Azure
Fundamentals
The Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) course teaches core cloud concepts, Azure architecture, services, and management fundamentals, enabling learners to understand and articulate Azure’s value for business solutions.
85
Minutes
50
Questions
700/1000
Passing Score
$99
Exam Cost
11
Languages
Who Should Take This
It is ideal for IT professionals, recent graduates, or business analysts who have basic technical knowledge and want to validate their understanding of cloud fundamentals. Learners aim to gain a recognized credential that supports career advancement and prepares them for deeper Azure specializations.
What's Covered
1
Core cloud computing principles including benefits of cloud services, service types (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), cloud models (public, private, hybrid), shared responsibility model, and consumption-based pricing.
2
Azure core architectural components including regions, availability zones, resource groups, subscriptions, compute services, networking, and storage services.
3
Azure cost management tools, governance features (Azure Policy, resource locks, tags), deployment tools (Portal, CLI, ARM templates, Bicep), and monitoring tools (Azure Advisor, Service Health, Azure Monitor).
Exam Structure
Question Types
- Multiple Choice
- Multiple Response
- Drag-And-Drop
Scoring Method
Scaled score 100-1000, passing score 700
Delivery Method
Proctored exam, 40-60 questions, 45 minutes (65 minutes with additional time for non-native speakers)
Recertification
Fundamentals certifications do not expire
What's Included in AccelaStudy® AI
Adaptive Knowledge Graph
Practice Questions
Lesson Modules
Console Simulator Labs
Exam Tips & Strategy
20 Activity Formats
Course Outline
71 learning goals
1
Describe Cloud Concepts
3 topics
Describe cloud computing
- Define cloud computing and identify its defining characteristics including on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service.
- Describe the shared responsibility model and explain how responsibility shifts between cloud provider and customer across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS service types.
- Differentiate between public, private, and hybrid cloud deployment models and identify appropriate use cases for each based on security, compliance, and flexibility requirements.
- Compare the consumption-based model with traditional capital expenditure and explain how pay-as-you-go pricing converts fixed costs to variable costs and reduces upfront financial risk.
Describe the benefits of using cloud services
- Describe the benefits of high availability and scalability in cloud computing including the role of SLAs in defining uptime guarantees for Azure services.
- Evaluate how geographic distribution, redundancy, and predictable performance contribute to reliability and disaster recovery in cloud environments and determine their impact on business continuity planning.
- Describe the benefits of security and governance in the cloud and explain how cloud features support regulatory compliance, audit controls, and standardized security baselines.
- Describe the benefits of manageability in the cloud and differentiate between management of the cloud through autoscaling and monitoring and management in the cloud through portal, CLI, and API interfaces.
Describe cloud service types
- Describe Infrastructure as a Service and identify its characteristics including customer control over operating systems, networking, and storage configuration with examples such as Azure Virtual Machines.
- Describe Platform as a Service and identify its characteristics including managed runtime, middleware, and development tools with examples such as Azure App Service and Azure SQL Database.
- Describe Software as a Service and identify its characteristics including fully managed applications accessed through a browser with examples such as Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365.
- Analyze a given workload scenario and determine the most appropriate cloud service type among IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS based on control requirements, management overhead, and operational complexity.
2
Describe Azure Architecture and Services
4 topics
Describe the core architectural components of Azure
- Describe Azure regions, region pairs, and sovereign regions and explain how geographic distribution supports data residency, compliance, and disaster recovery requirements.
- Describe Azure availability zones and explain how deploying resources across physically separate data centers within a region provides fault tolerance and high availability.
- Describe Azure datacenters and explain their role as the physical foundation of Azure infrastructure supporting compute, storage, and networking hardware.
- Describe Azure resource groups and explain how they serve as logical containers for organizing, managing, and applying access control to related Azure resources.
- Describe Azure subscriptions and explain how they provide billing boundaries and access control boundaries for managing Azure resources at scale.
- Describe Azure management groups and explain how they provide a hierarchy above subscriptions for applying governance policies across multiple subscriptions in an enterprise.
- Analyze a given organizational scenario and recommend an appropriate hierarchy of management groups, subscriptions, and resource groups to satisfy governance, billing, and access control requirements.
Describe Azure compute and networking services
- Describe Azure compute services
- Describe Azure networking services
Describe Azure storage services
- Describe Azure storage accounts and explain how they provide a unique namespace for Azure Storage data accessible via HTTP or HTTPS with configurable redundancy options.
- Compare Azure storage redundancy options including LRS, ZRS, GRS, and RA-GRS and evaluate which option best satisfies given durability, availability, and cost requirements.
- Describe Azure Blob Storage and explain block blobs, append blobs, and page blobs for storing unstructured data such as documents, images, and backups.
- Evaluate Azure Blob Storage access tiers including Hot, Cool, Cold, and Archive and determine the optimal tier for a given workload based on access frequency, retention period, and cost tradeoffs.
- Describe Azure Files and explain how it provides fully managed file shares accessible via SMB and NFS protocols for cloud and on-premises hybrid file sharing scenarios.
- Describe Azure Queue Storage and Azure Table Storage and explain their roles in asynchronous message processing and semi-structured NoSQL data storage respectively.
- Identify Azure data migration options including Azure Migrate, Azure Data Box, and AzCopy and explain when each is appropriate for moving data to the Azure cloud.
- Analyze a data storage scenario and select the most appropriate Azure storage service and redundancy option based on data type, access patterns, durability requirements, and cost constraints.
Describe Azure identity, access, and security
- Describe Azure identity services
- Describe Azure access control and security
3
Describe Azure Management and Governance
4 topics
Describe cost management in Azure
- Describe factors that can affect costs in Azure including resource type, consumption model, geography, network traffic, and subscription type and their impact on monthly billing.
- Describe the Azure Pricing Calculator and explain how it estimates costs for Azure services by configuring resource parameters, regions, and pricing tiers before deployment.
- Describe the Total Cost of Ownership Calculator and explain how it compares the cost of running on-premises infrastructure versus migrating workloads to Azure over a defined period.
- Evaluate Azure Cost Management and Billing capabilities and determine how to use cost analysis, budgets, alerts, and spending recommendations to identify waste and optimize resource allocation across subscriptions.
- Describe the purpose of tags and explain how resource tagging enables cost tracking, resource organization, and chargeback across departments and projects in Azure.
- Analyze a cost optimization scenario and recommend appropriate strategies including reserved instances, spot VMs, rightsizing, auto-shutdown, and storage tier selection to reduce Azure spending.
Describe features and tools in Azure for governance and compliance
- Describe Azure Policy and explain how it creates, assigns, and manages policy definitions to enforce organizational standards and assess compliance across Azure resources.
- Describe Azure resource locks and explain how CanNotDelete and ReadOnly lock levels prevent accidental modification or deletion of critical Azure resources.
- Evaluate Azure Blueprints and determine how packaging ARM templates, policy assignments, role assignments, and resource groups into repeatable configurations satisfies governance and rapid environment provisioning requirements.
- Describe Microsoft Purview and explain how it provides unified data governance including data catalog, data lineage, and classification capabilities for managing data across on-premises and cloud environments.
- Describe the Service Trust Portal and explain how it provides access to compliance documentation, audit reports, and data protection resources for validating Azure regulatory compliance.
- Analyze a governance scenario and determine the appropriate combination of Azure Policy, resource locks, Blueprints, and management groups to enforce compliance and prevent configuration drift.
Describe features and tools for managing and deploying Azure resources
- Describe the Azure Portal and explain how it provides a web-based graphical interface for managing Azure resources, creating dashboards, and configuring services through a browser.
- Describe Azure Cloud Shell, Azure CLI, and Azure PowerShell and explain how each provides command-line access for scripting and automating Azure resource management tasks.
- Evaluate Azure Arc and determine how it extends Azure management, governance, and security capabilities to on-premises, multi-cloud, and edge environments for unified hybrid infrastructure control.
- Describe Azure Resource Manager and ARM templates and explain how declarative JSON templates enable consistent, repeatable infrastructure deployment using infrastructure as code principles.
- Describe Bicep and explain how it simplifies ARM template authoring with a domain-specific language that compiles to ARM JSON for more readable infrastructure as code definitions.
- Analyze a deployment scenario and recommend the most appropriate Azure management and deployment tool based on requirements for automation, repeatability, multi-cloud support, and team expertise.
Describe monitoring tools in Azure
- Describe Azure Advisor and explain how it provides personalized recommendations for improving reliability, security, performance, operational excellence, and cost optimization of Azure resources.
- Describe Azure Service Health and explain how it provides personalized alerts and guidance for Azure service issues, planned maintenance, and health advisories affecting deployed resources.
- Describe Azure Monitor and explain how it collects, analyzes, and acts on telemetry data from Azure resources using metrics, logs, alerts, and Application Insights for comprehensive observability.
- Analyze a monitoring scenario and determine the appropriate combination of Azure Advisor, Azure Service Health, and Azure Monitor to address proactive optimization, incident awareness, and resource-level observability needs.
Hands-On Labs
15 labs
~179 min total
Console Simulator
Practice in a simulated cloud console or Python code sandbox — no account needed. Each lab runs entirely in your browser.
Certification Benefits
Salary Impact
$88,000
Average Salary
Related Job Roles
Cloud Administrator
IT Support
Business Analyst
IT Manager
Industry Recognition
Microsoft Azure certifications are among the most valued in enterprise IT, with Microsoft holding the second-largest cloud market share globally and serving as the dominant platform in enterprise and hybrid cloud environments.
Scope
Included Topics
- All domains in the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) exam guide: Domain 1 Describe Cloud Concepts (25-30%), Domain 2 Describe Azure Architecture and Services (35-40%), and Domain 3 Describe Azure Management and Governance (30-35%).
- Foundational knowledge of cloud computing concepts including benefits of cloud services, service types (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), cloud models (public, private, hybrid), shared responsibility model, and consumption-based pricing.
- Azure core architectural components including regions, availability zones, resource groups, subscriptions, management groups, compute services (VMs, containers, Azure Functions), networking (VNet, VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute, Azure DNS), and storage (Blob, Files, Tables, Queues, access tiers).
- Azure identity, access, and security services including Microsoft Entra ID, role-based access control, multi-factor authentication, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Azure Key Vault, Azure Policy, resource locks, and the Service Trust Portal.
- Azure management and governance tools including cost management (pricing factors, Pricing Calculator, TCO Calculator, Azure Cost Management), governance features (Azure Policy, resource locks, tags, Azure Blueprints, Microsoft Purview), deployment tools (Azure Portal, Cloud Shell, CLI, PowerShell, Azure Arc, ARM templates, Bicep), and monitoring tools (Azure Advisor, Azure Service Health, Azure Monitor).
Not Covered
- Deep implementation details for role-based or specialty-level Azure certifications not required by AZ-900.
- Hands-on command-level administration with Azure CLI, PowerShell scripting, SDK code implementation, and advanced automation.
- Current Azure service price points, promotional discounts, and region-by-region pricing values that change over time.
- Advanced networking topics such as Azure Firewall rule configuration, Application Gateway WAF policies, and Traffic Manager advanced routing.
- Developer-focused services such as Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions integration, and CI/CD pipeline construction.
- Data and AI platform services beyond basic identification (Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Databricks, Azure Machine Learning deep configuration).
Official Exam Page
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