Find your way into data related Microsoft Azure certifications

Microsoft Azure has certification paths for many technical job roles such as developer, Data Engineer, Data Scientist and solution architect among others. Each of these certifications consists of passing an exam or a serie of exams to earn a certification. In this document we provide guidance on how to dig deeper in the subject and become a Microsoft Azure certified professional. Whether you have no skills in cloud or a previous experience with AWS, GCP or any other cloud plateform, we invite your get inspiration from this guide and recommendations to reach your objectives.

For all certification paths, Microsoft provides a rich and free comprehensive documentation enriched with tutorials to get your hands dirty. At the end of each section we redirect you to the official practice tests to help you prepare the exams.

You can also find many paid courses and practice tests on udemy, whizlabs and acloudguru.

Whatever your profile, if you do not have previous experience in public cloud plateform or if you just want to have an overview at the Microsoft Azure plateform, this is the recommended start. It is ideal for individuals starting in technology or thinking about a career change.

Disclaimer

When passing Microsoft certification, you will go through with Pearson VUE, an online testing company. Pearson VUE allows you to take Microsoft certification examinations in person at an Authorized Test Center or online at home or workplace while being watched by an offsite proctor.

As of june 2021, if you’re planning on using OnVUE (online) to pass the exam, note that it only supports:

• Windows 10 (64-bit) (excluding ‘S Mode’)
• Windows 8.1 (64-bit) (all editions except ‘RT’)
• macOS 10.13 and above (excluding beta versions)

Mobile devices are not supported.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals

This certification is relevant for all job titles. It proves your ability to describe the following concepts:

• cloud concepts
• core Azure services
• core solutions and management tools on Azure
• general security and network security features
• identity, governance, privacy, and compliance features
• Azure cost management and Service Level Agreements.

To earn this certification you will have to pass the AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals exam.

Price: €99 excl. taxes.

Learning Path:

Microsoft also recommend this Official practice test from €83.16.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Fundamentals

If you are a Data Engineer with no prior experience in any cloud plateform or you want to have an overview on how you can build and run data projects on Azure, this path is relevant for you. It proves that you are confortable with:

• core data concepts
• how to work with relational data on Azure
• how to work with non-relational data on Azure
• analytics workload on Azure.

To earn this certification, take the DP-900: Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals exam.

Price: €99 excl. taxes.

Learning Path:

To help you prepare your exam, you can use this Official practice test recommended by Microsoft from €83.16.

Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals

Common Machine Learning and AI workload can be implemented in Azure. If you are a Data Scientist or AI Engineer, you may be interested to validate your skills with the Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals certification.

To earn the certification take the AI-900: Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals exam. The exam assesses your skills on:

• AI workloads and considerations
• fundamental principles of machine learning on Azure
• features of computer vision workloads on Azure
• features of Natural Language Processing (NLP) workloads on Azure
• features of conversational AI workloads on Azure

Price: €99 excl. taxes.

Learning Path:

Prepare your exam with this Official practice test from €83.16.

If you have some experience in Azure, AWS or GCP you can choose one of the following intermediate role-based certification.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Engineer Associate

Microsoft Azure provides to data professionals various tools to design, develop and implement reliable and scalable data solutions. The Azure Data Engineer certification is one of the most sought after. The DP-203: Data Engineering on Microsoft Azure (beta) exam certifies that as Data Engineers you are able to:

• design and implement data storage
• design and develop data processing
• design and implement data security
• monitor and optimize data storage and data processing

Note from Microsoft relative to beta exams:

Beta exams are not scored immediately because we are gathering data on the quality of the questions and the exam.

Additional note:

You can still earn this certification by taking DP-200 and DP-201 until June 30, 2021.

Price: €165 excl. taxes

Pre-requisites: SQL, Python, or Scala, and understanding parallel processing and data architecture patterns.

Learning path:

Note:

No official practice test is available yet. You may find some in the Unofficial Practice test section.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate

As a Data Scientist you can develop machine learning workloads on Azure using Azure Machine Learning Service. The Azure Data Scientist certification will prove your ability to:

• set up an Azure Machine Learning workspace
• run experiments and train models
• optimize and manage models
• and deploy and consume models.

To earn the certification pass the DP-100: Designing and Implementing a Data Science Solution on Azure exam.

Price: €165 excl. taxes

Learning path:

Official practice test from €83.16.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate

As a developer you can design, build, test, and maintain cloud applications and services on Azure. The Azure Developer certification prove your ability to:

• develop Azure compute solutions
• develop for Azure storage
• implement Azure security
• monitor, troubleshoot, and optimize Azure solutions
• connect to and consume Azure services and third-party services.

Pass the AZ-204: Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure exam to earn the certification.

Price: €165 hors taxes

Learning path:

No official practice test is available yet. You may find some in the Unofficial Practice test section.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert

If you are experienced in designing and implementing solutions on Microsoft Azure and have intermediate-level skills for administering Azure, you can go for Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification. To become certified you will be assessed in various aspects like compute, network, storage, and security. In addition, cadidates should understand Azure development and DevOps processes. There are two exams to pass: AZ-303: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies focusing on implementation and AZ-304: Microsoft Azure Architect Design focusing on design.

Implementation versus design

• The designer (AZ-304) will be focusing on capturing business needs using real-world examples, constraints, and business objectives, and selecting solution implementations based on the requests of an organization.
• The implementer (AZ-303) takes those solutions and ensures that they are properly built, implemented, or migrated.

AZ-303: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies

Price: €165 excl. taxes

Official practice test from €83.16

AZ-304: Microsoft Azure Architect Design

Price: €165 excl. taxes

Official practice test from €83.16.

Learning path (AZ-303 and AZ-304):

Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert

If you have the Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate, you can pursue the Microsoft Certified: DevOps Engineer Expert.

AZ-400: Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions

Price: €165 excl. taxes

Learning path:

Official practice test from €83.16.

Unofficial Practice test

You will find online a wide range of offers to help you to get ready for any kind of certification. We selected a few for you. Unfortunatly there is no much free material.

We hope this comprehensive guide will serve you well to navigate in the forest of Microsoft Azure certifications. You probably noticed that we focused on role based certification such as Data Engineer, Data Scientist, Developer or Solution Architect. But Microsoft provides many other certifications that may interest you. Do not hesitate to browse certifications and exams to learn new skills and upgrade your productivity on Azure.