How to prepare for Azure exams – AZ 900 and AZ 204?

First thing first get a free subscription:

If you are not having privilege of Azure subscription in office, don’t worry, we can still get a  free subscription from Microsoft with 200 $ credit for a month.

It is very important that we should have a Azure subscription for the preparation of exam. The more hands on you do the more learning you will have. Believe me there is no better learning then self-learning and you need Azure subscription for that.

Syllabus:

Well now once we got the free subscription, second thing to look at is the exam syllabus. Strictly follow syllabus, specially when you follow Microsoft documents, you need to draw some boundary.  Only go through with the content which is relevant or around the topic of concern.

AZ-900 Syllabus

AZ-204 Syllabus

Timeline:

If you are completely new to the MS Stack as well as Cloud concept then at least put aside 3 weeks for AZ-900, but if you have some idea of MS Stack and if you can answer what is IaaS, PaaS, SaaS then you can target exam in a week. With my experience of could technologies like O365, GSuit, GCP etc I found AZ-900 very easy

For AZ-204, prerequisite is that you know C# and PowerShell, some developer background is required. Preparation time varies person to person, I was new to Azure and I was also not very active on C# and PowerShell that time, but luckily I got some office assignment on few Azure services which helped me to keep my pace and to maintain continuity, so I took 12 weeks for AZ-204.  

Practice:

The best way is to follow the training videos from Channel 9 or from Udemy. I strongly recommend course by  Alan Rodrigues on Udemy. Alan has done fantastic job, he has designed his course very nicely, if you are following his course no other material/course you need to follow that detailed his courses are. 

Microsoft documents are also very useful but as I said don't get lost into it. 

Group study:

There is nothing better than a group study, if there is a chance to attend a seminar or training then don’t miss it, pay attention to the lecture delivered but give double attention to the questions asked. Community create belief, if someone else can do it then you can also do it. 

Exam Booking:

As soon as you feel warmed up then plan your exam date, book a slot. It will make you fully committed to the journey.

Sample Questions:

With Udemy course you will get sample questions, you can also follow sites like examtopics where you will lots of questions.

Revision:

It is not necessary to go through with each video or the training material again, just go through with the topics which you are out of practice and try to practice things again on your Azure subscription.

Continuity:

No matter how busy you are, at least give a 30-minute thought to your preparation at morning. I strongly believe if you keep things in mind then unconsciously also you start picking things around it.

Bonus:

If you really want to shine in your work, take the preparation process seriously. Definitely question bank will help you to pass example, but its your practice which will sail you through your work challenges comfortably. 

Also Interviewer  will always check your authenticity. Only if you have done genuine preparation or if you have enough experience on the topic, then only mention your certificate in resume, else it will be a reason for rejection. Remember companies always put their best employees forward for recruitment, don't try to fool them.