Microsoft
AZ-104
100 Minutes
429
Microsoft Azure Administrator Exam
Last updated on: Jun 4, 2026
Author: Sylvie Ryser (Senior Certification Curriculum Developer, Microsoft Learning)
The AZ-104 exam validates your ability to implement, manage, and monitor Microsoft Azure environments. Designed for Azure administrators, this certification demonstrates your expertise in managing cloud services across compute, networking, storage, identity, governance, and monitoring. Candidates are expected to understand how Azure resources work together to support secure, scalable, and highly available cloud solutions.
Achieving the Microsoft Azure Administrator certification confirms your readiness to administer Azure infrastructure in real-world environments and supports career growth in cloud administration, operations, and infrastructure management roles.
The AZ-104 exam measures the skills required to administer Azure resources and services based on Microsoft’s official skills outline.
This domain focuses on managing Microsoft Entra ID identities, users, groups, and administrative units. Candidates should understand role-based access control (RBAC), Azure subscriptions, resource governance, resource locks, tags, Azure Policy, and cost management. You must be able to implement governance strategies that help organizations maintain compliance, security, and operational consistency across Azure environments.
Candidates are expected to configure and manage Azure Storage accounts, blob storage, Azure Files, storage security, access controls, data protection features, and storage replication options. This section also covers managing storage access, shared access signatures, lifecycle management, and backup solutions to ensure data availability and protection.
This objective evaluates your ability to deploy and manage virtual machines, Azure App Services, containers, and other compute resources. You should understand availability options, scaling configurations, automation tasks, VM management, backup solutions, and resource optimization techniques that support reliable application and infrastructure operations.
Networking skills remain a critical component of the AZ-104 exam. Candidates must understand virtual networks, subnets, network security groups, DNS services, Azure Load Balancer, Azure Application Gateway, VPN Gateway, ExpressRoute, and network monitoring capabilities. The objective focuses on building secure and efficient communication between Azure resources and external environments.
This section covers Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, alerts, diagnostic settings, metrics, backup monitoring, resource health, and troubleshooting techniques. Candidates should be able to identify performance issues, analyze operational data, and maintain healthy Azure environments through proactive monitoring and maintenance practices.
The AZ-104 exam includes multiple question formats designed to evaluate both technical knowledge and practical decision-making abilities.
Multiple-Choice Questions assess your understanding of Azure services, features, terminology, and administrative concepts.
Scenario-Based Questions present real-world situations that require selecting the most suitable Azure solution based on business and technical requirements.
Case Study Questions evaluate your ability to analyze organizational needs and recommend appropriate configurations across multiple Azure services.
Interactive and Simulation Questions may require you to perform administrative tasks, review configurations, or identify appropriate actions within Azure management environments.
Many questions combine multiple technologies, requiring candidates to understand how Azure services interact within complete cloud solutions rather than in isolation.
A successful AZ-104 preparation plan combines theoretical study with practical experience.
Begin by studying each objective area individually and building a strong foundation in Azure administration concepts. Understanding how identity management, networking, compute resources, storage services, and monitoring solutions work together is essential for exam success.
Hands-on experience should play a major role in your preparation. Working directly with Azure resources helps reinforce concepts and improves your ability to solve scenario-based questions. Practical experience with virtual networks, virtual machines, storage accounts, RBAC assignments, monitoring tools, and governance features can significantly improve exam performance.
Regular practice testing is equally important. Reviewing explanations for both correct and incorrect answers helps identify weak areas and reinforces Microsoft-recommended administrative approaches.
As exam day approaches, focus on full-length practice exams to improve pacing, strengthen confidence, and familiarize yourself with the overall testing experience.
Preparing with updated and exam-focused materials can help accelerate your learning process and improve readiness.
PDF Questions and Answers
Comprehensive study materials organized according to official exam objectives, featuring detailed explanations that help clarify Azure administration concepts and best practices.
Online Practice Tests
Realistic exam simulations that include timed and untimed modes, performance tracking, detailed answer reviews, and scenario-based questions designed to mirror the actual AZ-104 exam experience.
Objective-Focused Learning
Coverage aligned with all official AZ-104 skills domains, ensuring preparation remains focused on the areas Microsoft measures during certification testing.
Updated Content
Study materials that reflect Azure platform updates, certification changes, and evolving Microsoft technologies to help maintain exam relevance.
All domains are important because Azure administrators work across multiple services daily. However, networking, compute resources, identities, and governance frequently appear throughout the exam and often intersect within scenario-based questions. A balanced study approach across all objectives is strongly recommended.
Azure services rarely operate independently. For example, a virtual machine requires networking for connectivity, storage for data persistence, identity services for authentication, governance controls for compliance, and monitoring solutions for operational visibility. Understanding these relationships is critical for both the exam and real-world administration.
Practical experience is highly beneficial because many questions evaluate real administrative decision-making. Candidates who have deployed resources, configured networking, managed identities, and monitored Azure workloads often find scenario-based questions easier to interpret and answer correctly.
Common mistakes include misunderstanding RBAC permissions, confusing storage redundancy options, incorrectly configuring network security controls, and overlooking governance requirements in business scenarios. Carefully analyzing requirements and understanding service capabilities can help avoid these issues.
Use the final week to review weak areas identified through practice tests, revisit important Azure administration concepts, and complete at least one full-length timed exam. Focus on reinforcing existing knowledge rather than attempting to learn large amounts of new material immediately before test day.
The Microsoft Azure Administrator certification is widely recognized as one of the most valuable credentials for cloud infrastructure professionals. Organizations across industries rely on Azure to host critical applications, manage business operations, and support digital transformation initiatives.
Certified Azure administrators are trusted to manage cloud resources, maintain security controls, optimize performance, and ensure operational reliability. As Azure adoption continues to expand globally, professionals with proven administration skills remain highly sought after by employers.
The certification also serves as a strong foundation for advanced Azure certifications and broader cloud architecture, security, and DevOps career paths.
Cloud computing continues to evolve rapidly, and Azure remains one of the leading enterprise cloud platforms worldwide. Organizations increasingly require professionals who can manage complex cloud environments while balancing security, governance, performance, and operational efficiency.
Modern Azure environments are incorporating automation, intelligent monitoring, predictive analytics, and advanced management capabilities that help administrators operate at greater scale. Professionals who develop strong Azure administration skills today position themselves to support future cloud initiatives and emerging technologies throughout their careers.
The AZ-104 certification provides a solid foundation for long-term growth within the Microsoft ecosystem and remains a valuable credential for professionals pursuing careers in cloud administration and infrastructure management.
Select an option, then click Show Answer.
You have an Azure subscription. You need to receive an email alert when a resource lock is removed from any resource in the subscription What should you use to create an activity log alert in Azure Monitor?
Correct Answer: A
You have an Azure subscription that contains 10 virtual machines, a key vault named Vault 1, and a network security group (NSG) named NSG1. All the resources are deployed to the East US Azure region. The virtual machines are protected by using NSG1. NSG1 is configured to block all outbound traffic to the internet. You need to ensure that the virtual machines can access Vault1. The solution must use the principle of least privilege and minimize administrative effort. What should you configure as the destination of the outbound security rule for NSG1?
Correct Answer: A
You have an Azure subscription that contains a storage account named storage 1. You need to ensure that the access keys for storage! rotate automatically. What should you configure?
Correct Answer: D
You plan to deploy several Azure virtual machines that will run Windows Server 2022 in a virtual machine scale set by using an Azure Resource Manager template. You need to ensure that NGINX is available on all the virtual machines after they are deployed. What should you use?
Correct Answer: C
You have an Azure subscription that contains 10 virtual networks. The virtual networks are hosted in separate resource groups. Another administrator plans to create several network security groups (NSGs) in the subscription. You need to ensure that when an NSG is created, it automatically blocks TCP port 8080 between the virtual networks. Solution: You configure a custom policy definition, and then you assign the Azure policy to the subscription. Does this meet the goal?
Correct Answer: A
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