Last week I took the AZ-900 exam and when I wrote about it, I received a few repetitive questions so I decided to write a blog post instead of answering the same questions again and again ;). I’m sorry, I’m lazy.
As an introduction, let me mention that the exam is a test consisting of 42 questions. It covers mostly the basics of Azure.
Question 1: Are there a ‘negative points’ for wrong answers?
No! So, if you don’t know the answer, just mark anything.
What is more, there are questions with multiple answers but you always get the information about the number of answers that is expected. And of course, if the question has 2 answers, you will not be able to mark 3 answers.
Question 2: How long have you been preparing for the exam?
It’s hard to say because during the time I was learning for the exam I also had the worst ever period of my private life. So, you know, my mind was occupied by other subjects and I had huge problems with concentration. I think it took me about 3 months with a few long breaks. But I think if you can spend 2-3 hours a day on learning, you will make it in one month or less (assuming you have none or little experience in Azure).
Question 3: How did you prepare for the exam?
First of all, I had a one-day instructor-led session. It gave me some foggy sense of Azure but I lacked the basics so I was easily getting lost and frustrated during this session. That’s why I think it wasn’t absolutely necessary.
Then I spend some time on reading this learning path. I am sorry to write it, but it was very boring. Really! No practical tasks and lots of definitions to remember. Definitely, not a stuff you can easily learn when your kid(s) is around. Trust me, you will need a quiet room with a lock in doors :P.
From the perspective, I think this learning path is an absolute must and you really need most of this knowledge. But there are also things that you just have to learn by heart although you can google them in 2 seconds (like the support plans or the differences between Capex and Opex 😉). Come on, will I ever need it? I doubt it!
After reading the above learning path I had everything mixed in my head and felt like I need to read it once again. And probably again after that. I started becoming very anxious, really :P.
So, I started google’ing stuff, reading available materials, blog posts, mind maps etc and slowly it all started to make sense 😉. I also tried to do some really easy tasks in Azure myself… Like publishing a WordPress website, creating a queue and writing to it from some dumb console app or creating 3 VMs and trying to connect them… In fact, some of these ‘exercises’ where my ideas, some I find in other Microsoft Azure learning paths.
Doing some basic operation in Azure may help you pass the AZ-900 because the exam can contain questions where you have to mark which icon/button/menu option etc would you choose to achieve something. So, it’s good to know what Azure portal looks like 😉.
Question 4: Was it hard?
Right now, I think it’s very (or at least – quite) easy. But I wouldn’t agree with this 2 months ago 😉. So, if you find it difficult at the beginning, don’t give up! We all have been there :D!
Question 5: Was it worth it?
You know, it’s always better to have a certificate confirming your skills rather than not have it 😉. And it’s the starting point in many (all?) Azure certification paths so you have to take it to go further :P. But from my perspective, it also makes me feel far more confident with Azure and probably somehow influences my everyday work performance. So, the answer is – yeah, it was worth it!
