How to pass AZ-104 on first attempt starts with understanding the exam objectives, following a structured study plan, and gaining practical experience with Microsoft Azure services. By combining hands-on labs, practice tests, and focused revision, you can strengthen your Azure Administrator skills and improve your exam readiness.
How to Pass AZ-104 on First Attempt: Step-by-Step Study Guide
Whether you’re starting from the official exam guide or just want a clear AZ-104 study guide that ties everything together, this will be the resource you’ll need to open before you book your exam.
An Overview of the AZ-104 Exam and Syllabus
The AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate certification is the essential credential for professionals responsible for implementing, managing, and monitoring an organization’s Microsoft Azure environment. It sits at the intermediate level of the Azure certification path, one step up from the beginner-focused AZ-900, and it validates hands-on ability across compute, storage, networking(AZ-104 networking concepts), identity, and governance.
Passing the AZ-104 tells an employer you can deploy and manage virtual machines, configure and secure storage, set up virtual networks, manage identities through Microsoft Entra ID, and monitor Azure resources for cost and performance- not just describe what these services do, but actually operate them.
The AZ-104 syllabus is organised into five domains, and reviewing the official exam guide in detail is the first thing you should do before building any study plan. Microsoft periodically updates the exact weighting of each domain, so always cross-check the current AZ-104 exam guide on Microsoft Learn before finalising your prep, but as a general structure, expect the syllabus to break down roughly like this:
- Manage Azure identities and governance (~20-25%)
Microsoft Entra ID users and groups, role-based access control (RBAC), Azure subscriptions, and governance policies.
- Implement and manage storage (~15-20%)
Azure Storage accounts, Blob Storage, Azure Files, Azure Disk Storage, and configuring secure access to storage services.
- Deploy and manage Azure compute resources (~20-25%)
Azure Virtual Machines, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Azure App Service, Azure Functions, and deploying resources via ARM templates or Bicep files.
- Implement and manage virtual networking (~15-20%)
Virtual networks, subnets, network security groups (NSGs), Azure DNS, load balancing, and secure connectivity.
- Monitor and maintain Azure resources (~10-15%)
Azure Monitor, backup and disaster recovery through Azure Backup and Site Recovery, and resource optimisation.
The certification has no formal, enforced prerequisites, but Microsoft recommends at least six months of hands-on experience administering Azure, along with a working understanding of core cloud computing concepts. If you’re completely new to Azure, it’s worth building foundational knowledge through the AZ-900 first rather than jumping straight into AZ-104 cold.
Is AZ-104 Worth It?
Short answer: Yes, for the right person. AZ-104 remains one of the most requested Azure certifications in job postings for cloud administrator, cloud support, and infrastructure engineer roles, and it’s often treated as a baseline credential organisations look for when hiring anyone who’ll touch their Azure environment day-to-day.
AZ-104 Career opportunities are totally intact and highly promising. It’s worth it if you’re already working with Azure in some capacity, whether as an IT administrator moving into cloud, a support engineer wanting to formalise your skills, or someone actively planning a cloud career path. The certification validates practical, job-relevant skills rather than abstract theory, which is part of why it holds real weight with hiring managers.
Where it’s less clearly “worth it” on its own: if you’re brand new to IT entirely, or if your target role is deeply development-focused rather than administration-focused, in which case something like AZ-204 might be the better first stop. AZ-104 alone also won’t guarantee a job, it’s most valuable when paired with real hands-on experience and, eventually, additional certifications like AZ-305 or AZ-500 as your career progresses.
AZ-104 Difficulty: How Hard Is It, Really?
To pass AZ-104 on first attempt, it is not an easy task. Azure Administrator exam has a reputation for being tougher than its associate-level label suggests, and that reputation is fair. The difficulty doesn’t come from obscure trivia; it comes from the exam’s scenario-based and performance-based question style, which tests whether you actually understand how Azure services interact, not just what each one is called.
Candidates who’ve only watched videos(AZ-104 Course)without touching the Azure portal consistently report the exam feels much harder than expected. Candidates who’ve spent real time in AZ-104 hands-on labs, configuring virtual networks, deploying VMs, setting up storage accounts, tend to find it demanding but fair. If you’re familiar with basic IT concepts, cloud computing fundamentals, and general security principles going in, the AZ-104 exam objectives will make sense faster, and the difficulty curve flattens considerably.
The honest takeaway: AZ-104 isn’t hard because the concepts are advanced; it’s hard because it demands applied knowledge under time pressure, which is exactly why hands-on lab practice matters more here than for most associate-level exams.
AZ-104 Exam Pattern: What to Expect on Exam Day
Understanding the AZ-104 exam pattern in detail can reduce unnecessary anxiety if you aim to pass it on first attempt. Here’s what the exam actually looks like:
- Duration: 120 minutes
- Number of questions: typically 40-60 questions
- Passing score: 700 out of 1000 (individual question marks aren’t disclosed, and there’s no negative marking)
- Question format: Microsoft doesn’t publish the exact format mix in advance, but expect a combination of the following types
1. Multiple-choice and multiple-select questions. You’ll either pick one correct answer from a list, or select several correct answers from a set. For example: “Which of the following Azure services can be used to create virtual networks?” with options like Azure Storage, Azure Virtual Network, Azure SQL Database, and Azure App Service. Preparing for these means genuinely knowing what each core Azure service does and doesn’t do.
2. Scenario-based questions. You’ll be given a real-world situation and asked to choose the best configuration or solution. For example: “You are an administrator for an organisation that needs to deploy a high-availability web application. Which Azure services should you use to ensure availability and scalability?” These tests apply knowledge, not memorisation, so hands-on experience deploying and configuring services is essential prep.
3. Drag-and-drop questions. These typically ask you to match terms with definitions or arrange steps of a process in the correct order, for instance, arranging the steps to create an Azure Virtual Machine. Practising common Azure workflows in a lab environment builds the muscle memory these questions test.
4. Azure CLI and PowerShell questions. You may need to select the correct command or spot an error in a script, for example, identifying the right Azure CLI command to create a resource group. Comfort with command-line tools, not just the Azure Portal, is genuinely necessary here.
5. Case study questions. These present a detailed scenario followed by several related questions(AZ-104 sample questions) (usually 4-6), often around a real-world task like migrating an on-premises database to Azure SQL Database. These take longer to work through than standalone questions, so time management matters.
6. Performance-based (lab) questions. These test your ability to perform actual administrative tasks directly in Azure, configuring, managing, or troubleshooting a live service, rather than answering a question about it.
Topic areas that show up repeatedly across these formats include ARM templates and Bicep files, virtual networking (VNet peering, subnets, NSGs, VPNs), Recovery Services Vault configuration, Azure Monitor and alerting, load balancing (Load Balancers, Application Gateways, Traffic Manager), user and permissions management, Azure Kubernetes Service basics, and the different Azure Storage account models.
With 120 minutes for up to 60 questions, most well-prepared candidates have enough time, but case studies and performance-based tasks eat more time than a straightforward multiple-choice question, so pace yourself and don’t get stuck. If a question is taking too long, select your best answer, flag it for review, and move on.
The AZ-104 Study Guide: A Step-by-Step Preparation Plan
Here’s where preparation actually happens. This plan breaks the process into manageable stages, each with a clear goal, so you’re never left wondering what to study next.
Stage 1: Review the Exam Guide
Before opening a single video course, read Microsoft’s official AZ-104 exam guide in full. Note the exam overview and target audience, the skills measured and the percentage weighting for each domain, any prerequisites, the study resources Microsoft itself recommends, and any policy or format notes. This single step prevents the most common AZ-104 exam mistakes in preparation: studying broadly instead of studying to the actual exam scope.
Stage 2: Build a Study Plan
Once you know the syllabus and its weighting, set your exam date first, this creates a deadline that keeps momentum going and prevents indefinite procrastination. Preparation time varies by background, but as a rough guide, a three-month plan with daily two-hour study sessions works well for most candidates balancing this alongside a full-time job. Here’s what that might look like in the early weeks:
- Days 1-4: Manage Azure identities and governance, Microsoft Entra ID users and groups, managing access to Azure resources, subscription and governance management.
- Days 5-8: Implement and manage storage, configuring access to Azure Storage, managing storage accounts, working with Azure Files and Blob Storage.
- Days 9-12: Deploy and manage Azure compute resources, ARM templates and Bicep files, creating and configuring virtual machines, provisioning containers, configuring Azure App Service.
- Days 12-14: Implement and manage virtual networking, configuring virtual networks, secure network access, Azure DNS, and load balancing.
- Days 15-16: Monitor and maintain Azure resources, Azure Monitor, Azure Backup, and Recovery Services Vault.
- Days 17-18: Azure Administrator Hands-on labs and sandbox practice.
- Days 19-20: Practice tests focused on the actual AZ-104 exam pattern.
Adjust the pace to your own schedule and prior experience; the structure matters more than the exact day count.
Stage 3: Learn the Core Azure Services
The AZ-104 syllabus requires depth across several service categories, not just familiarity. Focus your study time on:
Compute: Azure Virtual Machines, Virtual Machine Scale Sets, Azure App Service, and Azure Functions.
Storage: Azure Blob Storage, Azure Disk Storage, Azure Files, and Azure Table Storage.
Identity and access management: Microsoft Entra ID (Microsoft’s cloud-based identity service providing single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, and conditional access) and Azure Role-Based Access Control, which lets you assign granular permissions to users, groups, and services based on job function.
Beyond service knowledge, build comfort with the tools you’ll actually use day-to-day: the Azure Portal as your primary management interface, and Azure CLI and PowerShell for automating tasks and running operations the portal doesn’t expose easily. Round this out with practical skill in high availability and disaster recovery design, Azure Backup and Site Recovery configuration, troubleshooting common connectivity and configuration issues, applying security best practices like firewall setup and access control, and optimising resource usage to control cost.
Stage 4: Complete Hands-On Lab Exercises
This is the stage where most candidates either build real readiness or fall short. Azure documentation gives you the theory, but the AZ-104 exam’s scenario-based and performance-based questions require knowing how services interact in practice, something reading alone can’t teach. That’s where Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate practice tests help you. I gives you clarity with explanations and hands-on labs for practical experimentation that add up to your theoretical understanding.
Work through labs covering tasks like deploying an ASP.NET app to Azure with Azure SQL Database, subscribing to Azure Kubernetes Service events through Azure Event Grid, implementing DNS name resolution in Azure, creating a C# function using Visual Studio Code, navigating the Azure Portal, creating an Azure DNS zone using Terraform, and setting up a secure site-to-site VPN connection between two virtual networks. Alongside labs, use a cloud AZ-104 Sandbox environment, an Azure playground with unlimited access, so you can experiment, break things, and fix them without worrying about racking up a surprise Azure bill.
Document what you do as you go. Keeping notes on each lab, what worked, what didn’t, and why, turns hands-on practice into a resource you can revisit during revision instead of information you half-remember later.
Stage 5: Revise and Take Practice Tests
Revision is where preparation gets consolidated into exam-day readiness. Before you start revising, assess where you stand: review the exam topics and goals again, compare your study plan’s coverage against them, check your past practice test performance for recurring mistake patterns, and revisit your lab notes and bookmarks.
From there, build a focused revision plan and start working through AZ-104 practice tests seriously, timed, under conditions that mimic the real exam. If you want to gauge your starting point before committing to a full study plan, try a free practice test first, it’s a quick way to see which domains need the most attention before you invest weeks of study time. As you progress, keep taking practice tests regularly and treat each one as diagnostic: the goal isn’t just a score, it’s identifying exactly which topics still need work.
Stage 6: Book Your Exam
Once you’re consistently scoring well on practice tests, book your exam. Booking early secures your preferred date and time. When booking, decide whether you’ll test at a physical centre or online, review the reschedule and cancellation policy, and confirm identification requirements ahead of time.
Choose your exam time strategically. Cognitive performance, memory, attention, focus varies by time of day for most people, so pick a slot that matches when you’re naturally sharpest. If testing at a center, account for travel time so you arrive settled rather than rushed. If testing from home, confirm the technical requirements and make sure your space meets the exam’s environment rules well before the day itself.
Stage 7: Take the Exam
AZ-104 vs AZ-204: Which Certification Should You Take?
This comes up constantly, and the answer depends entirely on the role you’re aiming for, not which exam is “better.”
AZ-104 (Azure Administrator Associate) is built for people who manage and operate Azure infrastructure: provisioning virtual machines, configuring storage and networking, managing identities and governance, and monitoring resources. It’s the right choice if you’re heading toward cloud administrator, cloud support engineer, or infrastructure-focused roles.
AZ-204 (Azure Developer Associate) is built for people who design and build applications on Azure: writing code that integrates with Azure services, implementing Azure Functions, working with APIs, and handling application-level security and performance. It’s the right choice if your role centers on development rather than infrastructure operations.
Also Read About AZ-700 Vs AZ-104 Exam
Many cloud engineers eventually hold both, since the two certifications complement each other well: AZ-104 covers the infrastructure a Cloud Engineer manages, while AZ-204 covers the application layer that runs on top of it. If you’re deciding which to take first, let your current job function be the deciding factor: administrators and IT operations professionals should start with AZ-104, while developers building on Azure should start with AZ-204.
AZ-104 Salary: What to Expect After Certification
AZ-104 Salary and Career Opportunities
AZ-104 certification can support career opportunities in Azure administration, cloud engineering, and infrastructure operations, with salaries varying by role, experience, and location.
Explore our AZ-104 career opportunities and salary guide for detailed job roles, salary insights, and career progression options.
AZ-104 Interview Questions to Expect
Once you’re certified and interviewing for Azure Administrator or related roles, expect questions that test whether your certification reflects real, applied understanding. Common areas interviewers probe include:
“Walk me through how you’d set up role-based access control for a new team in Azure.” This tests your practical grasp of Microsoft Entra ID and RBAC, not just the definition of the terms.
“How would you troubleshoot a virtual machine that’s unreachable over the network?” Expect to talk through NSG rules, subnet configuration, and diagnostic tools like Network Watcher.
“Describe how you’d design a backup and disaster recovery strategy for a critical application.” This checks your understanding of Azure Backup and Site Recovery beyond just knowing the services exist.
“What’s the difference between an Azure Resource Manager template and a Bicep file, and when would you use each?” A direct, practical question testing your infrastructure-as-code knowledge.
“How do you monitor and control cloud costs across a subscription?” Interviewers want to see you understand Azure Cost Management and resource optimisation, not just performance monitoring.
“Tell me about a time you had to troubleshoot an Azure issue under pressure.” A behavioural question pairing your technical knowledge with real problem-solving experience, worth preparing a genuine example from your labs or work history ahead of time.
Preparing for these means going beyond exam content and actually being able to narrate your hands-on lab experience out loud; interviewers can tell the difference between memorised answers and applied understanding fairly quickly.
How to Renew Your AZ-104 Certification
The Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate certification is valid for one year and can be renewed through a free online assessment during the six months before expiration.
For renewal eligibility, assessment details, and instructions, visit the official Microsoft certification renewal guide.
Conclusion
To pass AZ-104 on first attempt isn’t about cramming every Azure service into memory; it’s about understanding the syllabus, following a structured study plan, and getting genuine hands-on practice before you sit the exam. Between the exam guide, a realistic study plan, real lab work, and consistent practice testing, you have everything you need to walk in prepared rather than hopeful.
And the certification is just the starting point. Whether you’re weighing AZ-104 vs AZ-204, wondering what salary to expect, or already thinking ahead to AZ-305 or AZ-500, AZ-104 remains one of the most practical, in-demand credentials in cloud administration today. Start with a free practice test to see where you stand, build your study plan around the gaps it reveals, and take the exam knowing exactly what to expect on the other side. Good luck, and reach out if you have questions along the way.
Get started today, and we are here to guide and direct you in your certification success.
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