Which one to go for AZ-103 or AZ-104?
When I decided to give my Associate level exam in Azure, I too had a confusion on to go with AZ-103 or AZ-104. As you all know, that AZ-103 is the older version and you will not have this confusion post Aug 31, 2020 as AZ-103 is officially going to be retired on or around August 31, 2020. AZ-104 was in beta version until June 30 and later was Generally Available. Microsoft follows a 90-day phased schedule for launching the new Azure Administrator certification exam. This means that both the AZ-104 and the AZ-103 exams will be available simultaneously for 90-days before the latter retires. As per my view its better to go with the AZ-104 as that is latest version of the azure administrator certification.
"As you all know, that AZ-103 is the older version and you will not have this confusion post Aug 31, 2020 as AZ-103 is officially going to be retired on or around August 31, 2020."
Difference between AZ-103 and AZ-104:
The differences between the AZ-103 and AZ-104 certification exam are also visible in the domains covered in each exam. The AZ-103 certification exam covers the following domains.
Management of Azure subscriptions and resources.
Implementation and management of storage.
Deployment and management of virtual machines (VMs).
Configuration and management of virtual networks.
Identity management.
On the other hand, the exam AZ-104 deals with the following domains.
Management of Azure identities and governance.
Implementation and management of storage.
Deployment and management of computing resources.
Configuration and management of virtual networks.
Monitoring and backup of Azure resources.
Reflecting on the domains covered in each of the two Azure Administrator certification exams shows some vital insights into the AZ-103 vs AZ-104 debate. First of all, you could clearly note the similarities in the domains covered by both exams. For example, the implementation and management of storage and the configuration and management of virtual networks are two similar domains.
On the other hand, the new Azure Administrator certification exam focuses on the deployment and management of computing resources rather than the deployment and management of virtual networks.
Exam Pattern:
First of all, either the number of questions nor the pattern of the exam is not going to be the same for all.
The passing score is 700 out of 1000.
You should be known if you have appeared for AZ-900 fundamentals exam that the number of questions is based on the few questions asked about your experience in each domain of Azure cloud before starting the exam.
The same works for AZ-104 as well, they will be asking your level on each domain, I selected the last (Level-0) option for 4 domains and the before last (level-1) for 1 domain and I got 65 questions and 3 Hours time. One of my friend got 44 questions with 2 hours time.
The next question that you have is about lab type Questions? I did not have any labs questions in my exam, if you get lab questions then it will be 4 Questions and don't worry those are going to be very easy if you have did some practicals in creating VM, storage account and so on.
There was 3 set of sections for these 65 questions.
When I say 65 questions its not going to be straight 65 questions, you will have lot of sub questions in it.
Section 1 - Case study Questions, I got 4 questions. Overview,Existing Environment, Requirements, Planned Azure Networking Infrastructure these are the details that will be provided in the case study. Take time and go through each one clearly and you will have 4 to 5 sub questions based on the requirement and existing setup in each case study.
Section 2 -Scenario based Questions. You will get 10 to 15 questions in this section. This is kind of tricky area where the question based on a scenario is going to be the same for next 5 questions and the solution will also be given, and you need to find out whether the given solution is correct or not(Yes or No type). One particular scenario may have one or more solutions so you will not be able to go back to previous question once if you have answered that, so be sure before clicking the next button.
Section 3 -These will also be kind of scenario based questions where you will be given bunch of data in tables and will be asked based on the data given.
Before appearing for the exam make sure you are very clear on things like which resources should be created in same region and which need not be created in same region.
Ex: Virtual Machine, Virtual Network and Network interface should be created in same region and Resource group can be created in diff region.
I did not get much questions on Powershell/CLI/Cloud shell commands so I don't think you will need to memorize all these lengthy commands.
It is not guaranteed that all these 3 sections will be of the same flow which i have mentioned it may change so make sure to keep an eye on the total number of questions and timer on the right top corner.
Important Topics:
- More weight age is given to topics like Virtual machine, Virtual network, Network security group, Vnet-Vnet peering, point to site peering , Virtual network gateway, Azure AD and RBAC. Make sure you are well prepared on these topics.
Preparation Methodologies:
- I did not get any official guide for this exam as like GCP so I thought of going with any video based training and found the below one.
- This 16 hours course by Alan is just more than enough to crack the exam and all you need is little practice in the azure portal (https://www.udemy.com/course/microsoft-certified-azure-administrator)
- Also you can check the Microsoft official website for some learning materials.
All the very best for your exam reach out to me if you have any queries.
Thank You.
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