Exam overview
Even as an “infrastructure guy”, I found this exam to be incredibly useful. There’s a decent amount of overlap with some of the other exams, such as AZ-104, but with a developer’s perspective on how services such as Azure Functions, Application Insights, API Management, etc., are used.
The content of this exam was recently updated on January 20, 2023. This study guide reflects the latest objectives
The AZ-204 exam is the only exam needed to obtain the Azure Developer Associate certification. According to Microsoft -
“Candidates for the Azure Developer Associate certification are cloud developers who participate in all phases of development from requirements definition and design to development, deployment, and maintenance. They partner with cloud DBAs, cloud administrators, and clients to implement solutions.
Candidates should be proficient in Azure SDKs, data storage options, data connections, APIs, app authentication and authorization, compute and container deployment, debugging, performance tuning, and monitoring.
Candidates should have 1–2 years professional development experience and experience with Microsoft Azure. They should be able to program in an Azure-supported language, and should be proficient using Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, and other tools”
The high-level view of the skills measured in the exam are:
Develop Azure compute solutions (25–30%)
Develop for Azure storage (15–20%)
Implement Azure security (20–25%)
Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Azure solutions (15–20%)
Connect to and consume Azure services and third-party services (15–20%)
More information can be found on the exam’s website. The exam has a passing score of 700.
Free Microsoft Learn resources
Microsoft Learn is an ever-expanding catalogue of free training courses provided by Microsoft. After you’ve reviewed the exam objectives, I’d highly recommend working through these next. They’re in nice bite-sized sections, and you can easily track your progress.
Microsoft Learn contains dedicated learning paths for the AZ-204 exam. Across 12 learning paths, there are a total of 31 modules:
AZ-204: Create Azure App Service web apps (4 modules)
AZ-204: Implement Azure Functions (3 modules)
AZ-204: Develop solutions that use Blob storage (3 modules)
AZ-204: Develop solutions that use Azure Cosmos DB (3 modules)
AZ-204: Implement infrastructure as a service solutions (4 modules)
AZ-204: Implement user authentication and authorization (4 modules)
AZ-204: Implement secure cloud solutions (3 modules)
AZ-204: Implement API Management (1 module)
AZ-204: Develop event-based solutions (2 modules)
AZ-204: Develop message-based solutions (1 module)
AZ-204: Instrument solutions to support monitoring and logging (1 module)
AZ-204: Integrate caching and content delivery within solutions (2 modules)
Online Paid Training Courses
In addition to Microsoft’s free resources, there are several paid options for online training courses. These are often more interactive and provide a useful way to fill in any gaps in your knowledge.
Below, I’ve linked to what I think are the best options for the AZ-204 exam -
Udemy AZ-204 Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure Exam Prep (10hrs, 1 practice test)
Whizlabs Exam AZ-204: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure (9hrs, 8 practice tests)
AZ-204 Books
Some people prefer to use books to study, which is why Microsoft still publishes the Exam Ref series. As exam objectives get updated fairly regularly, make sure that you get the latest edition of any study guides.
A quick note of caution — the book for AZ-204 (below) was last updated in December 2020, so there are likely to be some topics not fully covered -
Practice Exams
So you’ve studied for the exam and want to assess your readiness? Practice tests are a great way to assess your readiness for the real exam.
Here are some links to the most popular ones -
Microsoft Official Practice Test via Mindhub (140 questions)
Udemy AZ-204: Developing Solutions for Azure practice tests (6 tests, 371 questions)
If you’re new to certification exams, Microsoft has also recently announced an “exam sandbox”. The aim is to allow you to experience the look and feel of a certification exam before you sit one for real.
Microsoft Docs for AZ-204
This section steps through each of the exam topics with links to the relevant Microsoft documentation.
Develop Azure compute solutions (25–30%)
Implement IaaS solutions
Create Azure App Service Web Apps
Implement Azure functions
Develop for Azure storage (15–20%)
Develop solutions that use Cosmos DB storage
Develop solutions that use blob storage
Implement Azure security (20–25%)
Implement user authentication and authorization
Implement secure cloud solutions
Monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Azure solutions (15–20%)
Implement caching for solutions
Troubleshoot solutions by using metrics and log data
Connect to and consume Azure services and third-party services (15–20%)
Implement API Management
Develop event-based solutions
Develop message-based solutions
Additional tips
For any of the Azure certifications, I find deploying the relevant Azure resources and configuring their features to be hugely beneficial to my learning. You can grab a free Azure trial to receive 12 months of free popular services, $200 free credit, and 25+ always free services.
If you’re working with Azure on a daily basis, then there are likely areas you’re already familiar with. Focus on those areas that are new to you, read and practice!
Alternatively, if you’re an experienced developer but new to Azure, the AZ-900 certification can be a good place to start. It’ll help you to become quickly familiar with Azure’s main concepts.
In general, I found the AZ-204 exam to be focused heavily on case studies. As with many Microsoft certifications, the emphasis is on selecting the right Azure technology and how to configure them.
I hope you found this study guide useful, and good luck! Please let me know of any other resources that you found helpful for the exam.
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