How I Passed AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate Certification with 40hrs of Study
Background
I previously worked as a Cloud Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS) for two years, so I’m pretty familiar with all the cloud computing concepts. Additionally, I also passed the AZ-900 Microsoft Azure Fundamentals exam earlier in March, but my theoretical knowledge has since faded and I had little to zero practical experience with the Azure platform.
Preparation Time
- Exam date: Nov 2022
- Total preparation time: 40 hours of study in 3 weeks (I worked full time so I only used afterwork hours and weekends to prepare for the exam)
- In Week 1 & 2: I spent most of my time watching an online course from A Cloud Guru (ACG). I usually watch their videos at 1.2 to 1.5x speed to save time. I also did all the Azure labs provided by ACG because I found it as a very useful resource to get myself familiar with the Azure portal. Usually I wouldn’t watch solution videos right away. Instead, I tried to work on the labs on my own first. If I ever got stuck, then I’d watch the solution videos. I spent approximately 30 hours during this period.
- In Week 3: I focused on reinforcing my knowledge through practice questions. The time spent on practice eaxms was around 10 hours.
Learning Resources
- A Cloud Guru- AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification Prep (free — as an employee atAWS, I had free access to all the ACG courses)
There are many free learning resources available for AZ-104 online, like free videos on YouTube and FreeCodeCamp. The only reason why I chose to use ACG was simply because I could access it for free as an AWS employee.
On a side note, later I joined Microsoft as a Solution Architect and to my surprise, Microsoft doesn’t partner with any well-known cloud certification learning platforms like A Cloud Guru, Udemy, PluralSight and WhizLabs, which is a shame. I had provided this feedback to my manager, as I believe this could be a significant obstacle for Microsoft employees’ long-term learning and development XD.
Saying that, Microsoft employees do have some other perks — As a Microsoft employee, you have one learning day every month, where you can clear your schedule of meetings and focus solely on learning. I find this quite beneficial. I used the learnings day to take all the certification exams during working hours.
I quite liked the teaching style of the ACG instructor, Chase. He explained things in a very organised and easy-to-follow way. He usually started with slides to cover the fundamental concepts, then jumped into the Azure portal to show the audience the actual interface, and finally returned to the slides for key summaries.
The biggest drawback of this course is that it’s quite shallow. If you only rely on this course for preparation and then take the exam, I doubt you’ll pass XD
EC’s Rating: It’s good to use this resource because it’s free for me. But if later I need to prepare for a more advanced Azure certification like AZ-305 Azure Solutions Architect Expert Certification, I’ll probably look for other more effective learning resources.
2. Tutorial Dojo’s Practice Exams for AZ-104 Microsoft Azure Administrator (USD$11.99, with discount code “TutorialDojo” it’s only USD$8.99)
After completing the ACG course, I purchased the practice exams from Tutorial Dojo. It’s quite affordable at just $11.99 USD, and surprisingly, I randomly entered “TutorialDojo” as a coupon code during checkout, and it turned out to be a valid discount code (OMG, I’m so lucky XD). I’m not affiliated with Tutorial Dojo in any format (I just happened to stumble upon the correct code)., but feel free to give this discount code a try as you might be able to save some money with it.
While this practice exam set didn’t have a large number of questions, it consisted of 3 practice tests with 60 questions each. Tutorial Dojo had well-structured explanations for all the questions, and all the answers came with links to Microsoft Azure’s official documentation. Additionally, I really liked their review mode, which allowed me to see the answers immediately after answering each question. I found this to be the most effective way to practice. After answering every question, I could immediately check the answer and reinforce my knowledge
EC’s Rating: I really like the review mode. If USD$8.99 won’t break the bank for you, I highly recommend that you purchase this!
3. Udemy’s Practice Exams for AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator Practice Tests 2022 (AUD $26.99)
After finishing the practice exams with Tutorial Dojo, I felt that I needed more exam questions to practice with, so I also purchased these practice exams on Udemy.
I only completed one set of these practice exams. While the answer explanations were decent, I found some of them to be excessively long and filled with information that wasn’t necessary. It seemed like an attempt to demonstrate that the author had done extensive research by providing all the information, which, in my opinion, was a waste of my time XD (I only required the info to help me pass the certification 😜)
Additionally, it was only offered in a traditional exam mode, meaning that I had to complete all 60 questions before reviewing answers. If you’re someone who wants to simulate the actual exam environment, this mode might be suitable for you. However, the purpose for me to take practice exames was to reinforce knowledge in areas where I was not confident or need deeper understanding, so this mode wasn’t ideal for me.
EC’s Rating: Given the price and format, I wouldn’t personally purchase this, as it doesn’t align with my preferred learning style.
My exam was scheduled at 11:45 AM Friday. In the morning, I thought of checking if there were any other useful and free resources, and I stumbled upon this video and I highly recommend this resource to anyone who’s preparing for AZ-104!
In the video, the presenter went through each practice question, explained why a particular answer was chosen, and he did an excellent job at this. What’s remarkable is that two of the questions in this video actually appeared in my exam (This video isn’t the most up-to-date learning material as the English version of the AZ-104 exam was updated in October 2022. However, I believe some of the questions are still there). I watched this video for about an hour and then went to take the exam. If I had watched the entire video, I might have scored even higher 😆
EC’s Rating: Highly recommended!!!! It’s not only free, but it also includes real exam questions and correct answers. Please make sure to use it!
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