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AZ-900 · Study guide · Checked October 2026

How to pass AZ-900, step by step

The exam is full of look-alikes: two Azure ideas or services that sound almost the same, like hybrid and multicloud, or Azure Policy and RBAC. Each question asks which one fits, and you get 45 minutes for the whole exam. This guide shows how the exam thinks, what you will never be asked to do, and how to split your days. Three interactive parts, zero walls of text, and no one asks you to memorize a datacenter address.

9 minute read3 interactive partsFacts checked against Microsoft
01

The AZ-900 exam, on one ticket

Before any strategy, the facts, exactly as Microsoft publishes them. The exam is beginner level: Microsoft writes it for a technology professional who wants to show foundational knowledge of the cloud in general and Azure in particular. Some IT experience helps, but you do not need to have run Azure in production.

Exam
AZ-900
Microsoft Azure Fundamentals, beginner level
Questions
40-60
Typical for Microsoft exams; no exact count published
Time
45 min
Plan 65 minutes in the seat, with instructions
Exam fee
By country
Microsoft sets it per country or region
Valid for
No expiry
Fundamentals certifications do not expire
Where
Anywhere
Pearson VUE test center or online; Certiport for students
700 / 1000
Scaled pass mark

Never leave a blank

A wrong answer simply earns nothing: no points are deducted. A guess can only help you.

Multi-part questions pay per part

On most multi-part questions you earn one point per correct part. Three statements right out of four still counts, so never skip a whole set.

Some questions do not count

Microsoft tests new questions on real candidates and does not tell you which ones. Treat every question as real, and do not panic at a strange one.

Two details people miss. The score runs from 1 to 1,000 and is scaled, so 700 is not the same as “70% correct”. And five minutes of break time are built into the exam, but the clock keeps running, and after a break you cannot go back to the questions you already saw.

02

Where the points live, and your plan

Microsoft publishes the weight of each skill area as a share of the scored content. Here is how the points split:

SKILL AREA 1Describe cloud concepts
25-30%
SKILL AREA 2Describe Azure architecture and services
35-40%
SKILL AREA 3Describe Azure management and governance
30-35%

Read it like this. Skill areas 2 and 3 together are 65 to 75% of the exam: the services themselves, and how you pay for, govern and watch them. Skill area 1 is the smallest, but every other question quietly builds on it, so it is the right place to start.

How many days do you have?

Pick a number: the days are split in proportion to the points, and each one comes with its three tools, in this order. It assumes about an hour a day.

1. Understand20 min with the Concept Map of the day’s skill area: see how its terms connect and which ones look alike.
2. Remember15 min with the Flashcards of the same skill area, so the terms stick.
3. Prove it25 min of practice questions, to check you can use what you learned.
    03

    Spot the impostor

    This is the real skill the exam tests: telling two look-alikes apart under time pressure. Six pairs below. Each clue describes one of the two. Pick the right one before you see the rule, because on exam day nobody hands you the rule.

    1. A hospital keeps patient records in its own datacenter and runs its website in Azure.

      Answer: Hybrid cloud. Your own datacenter plus a public cloud, hybrid. Two or more public cloud providers, multicloud.

    2. A startup wants no upfront hardware purchase, only a monthly bill for what it uses.

      Answer: OpEx. Buying servers or building a datacenter, CapEx. A monthly bill for cloud services, OpEx.

    3. Developers want to deploy their web app code and never patch an operating system.

      Answer: PaaS. Full control of the VM and the OS, IaaS. Deploy code with no OS to manage, PaaS.

    4. One VM is slow. You give it more CPU and memory, and it stays a single VM.

      Answer: Vertical scaling. More CPU or memory on one VM, vertical (scale up). More VMs, horizontal (scale out).

    5. The order system must keep running when a server fails.

      Answer: High availability. Keep running despite failures, high availability. Cope with more or less traffic, scalability.

    6. Compute usage keeps moving between VM sizes and regions, but the hourly spend is steady.

      Answer: Savings plan. Same VM size and region for years, reservation. Usage that moves around, savings plan.

    All 10 pairs on the free Concept Map (opens in a new tab) Drill them as Flashcards (opens in a new tab)
    04

    Zoom out: the cloud models

    Some look-alikes are a whole family. The free Skill area 1 Concept Map puts the cloud models side by side: who owns the hardware, who shares it, and the Azure service that stretches across all of them. Tap a model to open its card, exactly as on a Concept Map.

    Public cloud
    Built, controlled and maintained by a cloud provider, shared by many customers. No upfront hardware cost, fast to provision, pay as you go. Public = provider's hardware, anyone can buy. Private = hardware used by one organization only. “No upfront cost”, “quick to provision”, “any organization can use”.
    Private cloud
    A cloud used by a single organization, hosted on-site or in a dedicated offsite datacenter. Full control, but the organization pays for the hardware and its upkeep. Private = full control and dedicated hardware, but higher cost. Public = shared, cheaper, less control over hardware. “Complete control”, “single organization”, “dedicated hardware”.
    Hybrid cloud
    A private cloud (or on-premises IT) and a public cloud working together, so workloads can run where they fit best. Hybrid = private + public. Multicloud = two or more public cloud providers. “Keep some data on-premises”, “burst to the cloud”, “both environments”.
    Multicloud
    Using two or more public cloud providers at the same time, for example to use the best features of each or during a migration. Multicloud is about several providers. Hybrid is about mixing private and public. “More than one cloud provider”, “several providers”.
    Azure Arc
    Manages servers, Kubernetes clusters and databases outside Azure (on-premises or in other clouds) from Azure, with the same tools and policies. Azure Arc = manage resources outside Azure from Azure. Azure VMware Solution = run your VMware workloads inside Azure. “Manage hybrid and multicloud from one place”, “on-premises servers in Azure”.
    05

    Four answers that feel right and are not

    The best wrong answers are not random. They are the reflex answer, the one your brain reaches for first. Each card below is one of the free practice questions: the reflex, what the question actually asked, and the rule to keep.

    Skill area 1 · Cloud models

    The two-place setup

    A hospital must keep patient records in its own datacenter, but wants its public website and seasonal analytics in Azure.

    Your reflexMulticloud. Records here, website there: that is more than one place.
    What it askedHybrid cloud. One side is the hospital's own datacenter, not a second cloud provider.

    Carry this: your own datacenter plus a public cloud is hybrid. Two or more public cloud providers is multicloud.

    Skill area 2 · Identity

    The location check

    The security team wants multifactor authentication only when someone signs in from outside the corporate network.

    Your reflexRBAC. It is the access-control name everyone knows.
    What it askedMicrosoft Entra Conditional Access. RBAC acts after sign-in and never looks at location.

    Carry this: “if this signal, then that requirement” at sign-in is Conditional Access. What a user may do after sign-in is RBAC.

    Skill area 3 · Cost

    The bill that does not exist yet

    Before building anything, an architect wants the monthly cost of two VMs, a SQL database and 1 TB of storage.

    Your reflexCost Management. It has “cost” in its name.
    What it askedThe Azure pricing calculator. Cost Management works on money already spent, not on a design.

    Carry this: estimate before you build with the pricing calculator. Track and control what you spend with Cost Management.

    Skill area 3 · Governance

    The forbidden region

    Company rules allow only two European regions. Any deployment anywhere else must be blocked.

    Your reflexA custom RBAC role. Blocking people sounds like an access-control job.
    What it askedAzure Policy with an allowed-locations definition. RBAC cannot see which region a resource lands in.

    Carry this: RBAC controls who can act. Azure Policy controls what resources may look like, such as region, size or tags, and denies the rest.

    Now try one for real

    On the real exam you only learn whether you passed. Here, every option is explained, the wrong ones too, because that is where the learning is. Pick an answer.

    Skill area 3 · Free practice question

    Admins must keep changing the settings of a production storage account, such as its network rules, but nobody should be able to delete it by mistake. What should they apply?

    Rule to carry forward: prevent deletion but allow changes = Delete (CanNotDelete) lock. Prevent changes as well = ReadOnly lock.

    Try the 10 free questions (opens in a new tab) The full question bank
    06

    A guide is a map. You still need reps.

    Reading about look-alikes is not the same as spotting them. These three are free, with no sign-up, and they cover Skill area 1 and the first ten practice questions.

    Understand
    Free Concept Map Every Skill area 1 term on one page, with the 10 look-alike pairs the exam swaps and the clue words that give the answer away.
    Open the map →
    Remember
    Free Flashcards Each Skill area 1 term as a card that comes back just before you would forget it.
    Flip a card →
    Prove it
    10 free questions Scenario questions with an explanation for every option, including why the tempting one is wrong.
    Start practicing →
    See the full Study Kit → Back to the overview

    Practice improves your chances. Nobody can promise a pass. Skill area 1 is free; Skill areas 2 to 3 come with the full Study Kit.

    07

    What the AZ-900 outline never asks you to do

    Unlike AWS, Microsoft publishes no out-of-scope list. The official skills outline gives it away anyway: every one of its bullets starts with Describe, Define, Compare, Identify or Explore. Not one says deploy, configure or write.

    Not asked by the outline's verbs

    • Deploying or configuring Azure resources step by step
    • Writing code, scripts or templates
    • Designing a complete architecture
    • Troubleshooting a broken deployment

    Our reading of the official skills outline. Microsoft does not publish this list.

    What you need instead

    Recognize each idea and service, match it to a business scenario, pick the one that fits.

    Describe is not a soft word. You will never configure Azure Policy, but you must know exactly what it blocks, and what RBAC blocks instead.

    08

    Five small rules for 45 minutes

    1. Do the clock math.45 minutes for 40 to 60 questions is under a minute each. Answer what you know on the first pass, mark the rest for review, and come back with the time you saved.
    2. Never leave a blank.No points are deducted for a wrong answer. In the last minute, fill every gap.
    3. Review before any break.The clock keeps running during a break, and once it starts you cannot return to the questions you already saw, even the ones marked for review.
    4. Judge each statement on its own.Multi-part questions usually pay one point per part. A set of statements is not all or nothing, so do not let one hard line make you rush the others.
    5. Rehearse in the sandbox.Microsoft’s free exam sandbox shows the real screens and question types. Ten minutes there means no surprises on the day.
    Start with the free questions →
    Sources. Exam facts checked on October 26, 2026. Microsoft can change them, so confirm before you book.