The AZ-900 exam map: three skill groups, 11 skill areas and the services behind them
AZ-900 gives you 45 minutes of exam time (allow 65 in the seat) and a pass mark of 700 on a scale of 1 to 1,000. Cloud concepts carry 25 to 30 per cent, Azure architecture and services 35 to 40 per cent and management and governance 30 to 35 per cent. There is no penalty for guessing and no access to Microsoft Learn during the exam.
Candidates memorise definitions of IaaS, PaaS and SaaS, then run out of study time. Azure architecture and services is the largest group and where most questions come from, and it is the part they skimmed.
What is the format?
You have 45 minutes of exam time. Microsoft advises allowing 65 minutes in the seat for instructions and the candidate agreement. Microsoft states that most of its exams have 40 to 60 questions, and some questions may be unscored trial items that you cannot identify. Answer every question as if it counts.
Scores run from 1 to 1,000, and you need 700 to pass. The score is scaled, so it does not mean 70 per cent of the points. There is no penalty for guessing, and multi-part questions usually give a point for each correct part. Never leave a question blank. Unlike Microsoft's Associate and Expert exams, Fundamentals exams give no access to Microsoft Learn during the exam.
| Question type | What you do |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice | Choose one or more correct answers, as the question states |
| Active screen | Change settings on a simulated screen, such as choosing from a drop-down list |
| Drag and drop | Match services or terms to descriptions |
| Hot area | Select the correct option in a diagram or table |
| Build list | Put steps or items in the correct order |
Microsoft names these types and demonstrates them in its sandbox, but does not say in advance which types each exam uses. Try the free exam sandbox before exam day, so the screens are familiar. Most questions describe a short need and ask for the best fit. Read the last line first, so you know whether you are choosing a service, a tool or a model.
Group 1: Describe cloud concepts (25–30 per cent)
| Skill area | Skills Microsoft lists | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Describe cloud computing | Shared responsibility, public, private and hybrid models, consumption-based model, pricing models, serverless | What the cloud is, who secures what, and how you pay only for what you use |
| Describe the benefits of cloud services | High availability and scalability, reliability and predictability, security and governance, manageability | Why organisations move, in business terms |
| Describe cloud service types | IaaS, PaaS, SaaS and use cases | How much you manage yourself in each |
The shared responsibility model and the service types go together. The more managed the service, the less you are responsible for: you carry the most with IaaS and the least with SaaS.
Group 2: Describe Azure architecture and services (35–40 per cent)
| Skill area | Skills Microsoft lists | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Core architectural components | Regions, region pairs, sovereign regions, availability zones, datacentres, resources, resource groups, subscriptions, management groups | Where Azure runs and how resources are organised |
| Compute and networking services | Containers, virtual machines and functions; scale sets, availability sets, Azure Virtual Desktop; virtual networks, peering, Azure DNS, VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute; endpoints | Which way to run a workload and how it connects |
| Storage services | Tiers, redundancy options, account types; AzCopy, Storage Explorer, Azure File Sync; Azure Migrate, Azure Data Box | Where data lives and how many copies are kept |
| Identity, access, and security | Microsoft Entra ID and Domain Services; SSO, MFA, passwordless; Conditional Access; Azure RBAC; Zero Trust; defence in depth; Defender for Cloud | Who can sign in, what they may do and how Azure is protected |
The hierarchy in the first skill area appears in many questions, so learn it as a picture. Management groups contain subscriptions, subscriptions contain resource groups, and resource groups contain resources. Policies and access set at a higher level flow down to everything beneath.
Group 3: Describe Azure management and governance (30–35 per cent)
| Skill area | Skills Microsoft lists | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Cost management | Factors that affect cost, the pricing calculator, cost management capabilities, tags | Estimate before you build, track after, and label resources |
| Governance and compliance | Microsoft Purview, Azure Policy, resource locks | Keep data and resources within the rules, and stop accidental changes |
| Managing and deploying resources | Azure portal, Cloud Shell, CLI, PowerShell, Azure Arc, infrastructure as code, Azure Resource Manager, ARM templates | The ways people and scripts manage Azure |
| Monitoring tools | Azure Advisor, Service Health, Azure Monitor with Log Analytics, alerts, Application Insights | How Azure recommends improvements and tells you about problems |
Which services do candidates confuse?
Many wrong answers come from mixing up services with similar purposes. Learn these as contrasts.
| Easily confused | The difference that answers the question |
|---|---|
| Azure Policy, Azure RBAC, resource locks | Rules for what resources may be like; who may do what; protection against deletion or change |
| Azure Advisor, Service Health, Azure Monitor | Recommendations to improve; Azure's own outages and maintenance; your resources' metrics, logs and alerts |
| Availability sets, availability zones, region pairs | Protect against rack failure in one datacentre; against datacentre failure in a region; against a regional disaster |
| VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute, peering | Encrypted link over the internet; private dedicated connection; links two Azure virtual networks |
| Pricing calculator, Cost Management | Estimates cost before you build; tracks and analyses what you have spent |
| Microsoft Entra ID, Entra Domain Services | Cloud identity and sign-in; managed domain features for older applications |
| Microsoft Purview, Defender for Cloud | Governs and protects data; assesses and protects resources against threats |
| Azure Arc, Azure Resource Manager | Manages servers and resources outside Azure; the layer that deploys and manages resources inside Azure |
Adel, in the book, rated himself on all 11 skill areas. He scored 2 out of 5 on governance and monitoring, so he gave both extra time and practised the contrasts as a quiz. Most of his errors on the free practice assessment had come from those two areas. See the changes guide for the renamed products, then test yourself with ten original questions.
- Download the AZ-900 study guide from Microsoft Learn and note the skills-measured date.
- Rate yourself from 1 to 5 on each of the 11 skill areas.
- Learn the eight service contrasts aloud, without notes.
- Try Microsoft's free exam sandbox so the question screens are familiar.
Questions readers ask
How long is the AZ-900 exam?
How many questions are on AZ-900?
Is there a penalty for wrong answers?
Can I use Microsoft Learn during the exam?
- Microsoft Learn, Azure Fundamentals certification
- Microsoft AZ-900 study guide
- Microsoft Learn, exam question types and sandbox
This guide is independent and is not endorsed by Microsoft. Facts change: confirm them on the official page before you act.